AI Engineer; AI Accelerator Program

This position requires 1 day onsite per week, based on business needs, this may increase.

UCSF Health is seeking a highly skilled AI Engineer to design, build, and deploy scalable AI-driven applications that improve clinical operations, patient care, and health system efficiency. This role spans the full AI lifecycle, including data pipeline development, model training and evaluation, and deployment of machine learning and generative AI solutions on modern cloud platforms. The AI Engineer will translate emerging technologies, including large language models (LLMs), into production‑ready tools that integrate with healthcare systems.

Responsibilities include building robust data pipelines, deploying machine learning and generative AI models, and developing APIs or web‑based applications that enable seamless use in clinical and operational workflows. The role works closely with clinicians, data scientists, and IT teams to deliver solutions that are reliable, secure, and scalable.

The Health AI team is part of the larger UCSF Health IT team and supports the development, implementation, and monitoring of artificial intelligence, machine learning, and other analytical tools, improving patient care, clinician experience, and health system operations. The team’s expertise spans data science, machine learning, software/data engineering, business, nursing informatics, and medical informatics.

• Build and maintain data integration and data processing pipelines using SQL databases or APIs to support the development of AI/ML tools.
• Identify and build systems for implementation, monitoring, and maintenance of AI/ML tools using modern MLOps practices, including CI/CD, model versioning, and cloud‑native deployment.
• Collaborate with data scientists and researchers to design and implement metrics and processes that automatically monitor AI/ML tools for safety, bias or drift, performance, and validity.
• Design and develop APIs, services, or lightweight web applications to enable integration of AI/ML and generative AI capabilities into clinical and operational workflows.
• Develop and deploy generative AI solutions (e.g., LLM‑based systems), including prompt engineering, retrieval‑augmented generation, and evaluation frameworks for unstructured data.
• Design and implement real‑time or near real‑time data processing and inference systems to support AI/ML and generative AI applications, building scalable, event‑driven architectures and ensuring reliable, low‑latency integration into production clinical and operational workflows.

• Bachelor's degree in related area and / or equivalent experience / training.
• 5 years of experience in positions of increasing responsibility designing, implementing, and maintaining complex AI/ML applications.
• Experience with data analysis and machine learning tools such as Jupyter, Pandas, scikit‑learn, Numpy/Scipy, PyTorch, etc.
• Demonstrated advanced knowledge of full software development lifecycle.
• Advanced experience with Python; ability to write clean, efficient, and production‑level Python code.
• Advanced experience with SQL (e.g., SQLServer, PostgreSQL).
• Demonstrated experience deploying, monitoring, and maintaining AI/ML models and pipelines.
• Experience designing and developing APIs or microservices to support AI/ML applications.
• Familiarity with web application development frameworks (e.g., React, JavaScript/Type Script) or integrating backend systems with user‑facing applications.
• Experience with large language models (LLMs), including prompt engineering, evaluation, and production deployment.
• Experience with real‑time or streaming data processing systems and low‑latency inference architectures.
• Demonstrated effective communication and interpersonal skills.
• Demonstrated ability to communicate technical information to technical and non‑technical personnel at various levels in the organization.
• Self‑motivated and works independently and as part of a team. Able to learn effectively and meet deadlines.
• Demonstrated broad problem‑solving skills.
• Demonstrated ability to interface with management on a regular basis.
• Excellent…