Senior AI Engineer

Senior AI Engineer [Onsite]

No Visa Sponsorship is available for this position.

This position is 100% on-site and located on the Cornell University Campus in Ithaca, New York.

About Information Technology at Cornell

Information Technology (IT) is a strategic enabler for many functions at Cornell University, with staff located across colleges, administrative units, and campuses throughout the institution. While comprised of many organizations, IT operates as one partnering closely with faculty, staff, and students to support teaching, research, and business operations. By being embedded where the Cornell community is, IT is well positioned to provide support ranging from day-to-day needs to large, complex initiatives that advance major academic, research, and operational objectives across the university. Check out this link to find out more about IT@Cornell

What will you do:

The Senior AI Engineer serves as the technical lead for the AI Engineering team, providing expert-level guidance, architectural leadership, and hands-on development in support of Cornell’s enterprise AI services. This role is responsible for designing, developing, and maintaining complex production-grade AI applications and systems, ensuring they meet the highest standards of security, scalability, and reliability. The Senior AI Engineer mentors developers and technical leads, establishes engineering best practices, and ensures AI projects remain on the correct technical trajectory throughout the development lifecycle.

This position directs and evaluates advanced AI solutions, leads the development and enhancement of enterprise AI systems, and formulates standards and methodologies that shape how AI applications are built across the university. The Senior AI Engineer collaborates closely with the Principal Solutions Architect for the AI Platform to define patterns and reference architectures that ensure all AI Innovation Lab applications are production-ready and aligned with Cornell’s secure AI infrastructure.

The role applies deep technical expertise across Generative AI technologies, API development, authentication and identity protocols, and cloud-native architectures. It also integrates AI Innovation Lab services with Cornell enterprise systems using standards such as OAuth 2.0, OIDC, SAML, JWT, LDAP, and Microsoft identity services. Additionally, the Senior AI Engineer develops or refines procedures to address the most complex challenges related to system capacity, operational constraints, and distributed AI system performance.

As a senior leader within the AI Innovation Lab, the Senior AI Engineer provides technical direction to project teams-including project managers, business analysts, subject-matter experts, developers, and quality-assurance specialists-ensuring that solutions are well-designed, well-implemented, and aligned with institutional strategy.

While position responsibilities vary, every member of our community is expected to foster a culture of belonging and a healthy work environment by communicating across differences; being cooperative, collaborative, open, and welcoming; showing respect, compassion, and empathy; engaging and supporting others regardless of background or perspective; speaking up when others are being excluded or treated inappropriately; and supporting work/life integration of oneself and others.

What We Need

• A resume is required for further consideration for this position. A cover letter outlining your interest and how your experience and goals align with the potential for mutual success in the role are strongly encouraged for consideration. When applying through our system, please remember to attach your application materials (Cover Letter and Resume) in PDF format.

Required Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree in computer science, software engineering, information technology, or a related field; or an equivalent combination of education and experience.
• 5-7 years of professional software engineering experience, demonstrating progressively advanced responsibility in designing and developing production-grade applications and services.
• Proven ability to design, build, test, deploy, and maintain complex AI or ML-driven applications in a production environment, ensuring high levels of security, reliability, and scalability.
• Strong experience developing cloud-native applications and services, preferably in AWS or a comparable cloud platform.
• Demonstrated expertise with Generative AI technologies, API development, and distributed systems engineering.
• Experience integrating applications with enterprise identity and authentication systems, using protocols such as OAuth 2.0, OIDC, SAML, JWT, LDAP, and Microsoft identity services.
• Demonstrated ability to provide technical leadership, mentor developers and technical leads, establish engineering best practices, and guide solutions throughout the development lifecycle.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills, with experience addressing complex system capacity, performance, and operational challenges.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to translate complex technical concepts for diverse audiences, including project managers, analysts, subject-matter experts, and senior leadership.
• Ability to cultivate and develop inclusive working relationships with students, faculty, staff, and community members.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Master’s degree in computer science, data science, software engineering, information systems, or a related technical field.
• Experience working in higher education, research computing, or similarly complex enterprise environments, especially supporting faculty or research-driven AI use cases.
• Hands-on experience delivering and operating Generative AI / LLM-backed applications in production environments, including model orchestration, vector databases, and AI agent frameworks.
• Experience with containerization and orchestration technologies (e.g., Docker, Kubernetes, ECS) and building scalable distributed systems.
• Familiarity with DevOps and MLOps practices, including CI/CD pipelines, observability, monitoring, logging, metrics, tracing, and reliability-focused engineering practices for customer-facing services.
• Experience participating in incident response and on-call operations for production systems.
• Experience designing or supporting secure, production-grade AI solutions hosted on cloud platforms such as AWS, Azure, or GCP.
• Knowledge of model governance, responsible AI frameworks, and AI risk management, including data privacy and compliance considerations.
• Experience with enterprise integration patterns, secure API gateways, and identity-driven architectures.
• Demonstrated ability to mentor engineers, lead design reviews, define technical standards, and influence architectural decisions across multiple teams.
• Experience contributing to or supporting grant-funded research initiatives, innovation projects, or cross-institution collaborations.

Application Information:

• No Visa Sponsorship of any kind is available for this position.

• No Relocation assistance will be provided for this position.

Rewards and Benefits

• This position is 100% on-premise and located on the Cornell University Campus in Ithaca, New York.
• Cornell receives national recognition as an award-winning workplace for our health, wellbeing, and sustainability. Our benefits programs include comprehensive health care options, generous retirement contributions, access to wellness programs, and employee discounts with local and national retail brands. We invite you to follow this link to get more information about our benefits: Understand Your Benefits | Working at Cornell
• Our leave provisions include health and personal leave, three weeks of vacation and 13 holidays: Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, Memorial Day, Juneteenth, Independence Day, Labor Day, Thanksgiving and the day after, and an end of the year winter break from December 25-January 1. To offer greater flexibility for observing faiths and traditions we also offer two additional floating holidays. Learn more about our generous leave provisions: Holiday and Accrued Time Off | Working at Cornell
• Cornell's impressive educational benefits include tuition-free Extramural Study and Employee Degree Program, tuition aid for external education, and Cornell Children's Tuition Assistance Program. Learn more about our extensive educational benefits: Education Benefits | Working at Cornell
• Follow this link to learn more about the Total Rewards of Working at Cornell: Total Rewards | Working at Cornell

University Job Title:

Job Family:

Level:

Pay Rate Type:

Pay Range:

Remote Option Availability:

Company:

Contact Name:

Contact Email:

Job Titles and Pay Ranges:

Non-Union Positions

Noted pay ranges reflect the potential pay opportunity for each job profile. The hiring rate of pay for the successful candidate will be determined considering the following criteria:

• Prior relevant work or industry experience

• Education level to the extent education is relevant to the position

• Unique applicable skills

• Academic Discipline

To learn more about Cornell’s non-union staff job titles and pay ranges, see Career Navigator.

Union Positions

The hiring rate of pay for the successful candidate will be determined in accordance with the rates in the respective collective bargaining agreement. To learn more about Cornell’s union wages, see Union Pay Rates.

Current Employees:

If you currently work at Cornell University, please exit this website and log in to Workday using your Net ID and password. Select the Career icon on your Home dashboard to view jobs at Cornell.

Online Submission Guidelines:

Most positions at Cornell will require you to apply online and submit both a resume/CV and cover letter. You can upload documents either by “dragging and dropping” them into the dropbox or by using the “upload” icon on the application page. For more detailed instructions on how to apply to a job at Cornell, visit How We Hire on the HR website.

Employment Assistance:

For general questions about the position or the application process, please contact the Recruiter listed in the job posting or email [email protected].

If you require an accommodation for a disability in order to complete an employment application or to participate in the recruiting process, you are encouraged to contact Cornell Office of Civil Rights at voice (607) 255-2242, or email at [email protected].

Applicants that do not have internet access are encouraged to visit your local library, or local Department of Labor. You may also request an appointment to use a dedicated workstation in the Office of Talent Attraction and Recruitment, at the Ithaca campus, by emailing [email protected].

Notice to Applicants:

Please read the required Notice to Applicants statement by clicking here. This notice contains important information about applying for a position at Cornell as well as some of your rights and responsibilities as an applicant.

EEO Statement:

Cornell welcomes students, faculty, and staff with diverse backgrounds from across the globe to pursue world-class education and career opportunities, to further the founding principle of “... any person ... any study.” No person shall be denied employment on the basis of any legally protected status or subjected to prohibited discrimination involving, but not limited to, such factors as race, ethnic or national origin, citizenship and immigration status, color, sex, pregnancy or pregnancy-related conditions, age, creed, religion, actual or perceived disability (including persons associated with such a person), arrest and/or conviction record, military or veteran status, sexual orientation, gender expression and/or identity, an individual’s genetic information, domestic violence victim status, familial status, marital status, or any other characteristic protected by applicable federal, state, or local law.

Cornell University embraces diversity in its workforce and seeks job candidates who will contribute to a climate that supports students, faculty, and staff of all identities and backgrounds. We hire based on merit, and encourage people from historically underrepresented and/or marginalized identities to apply. Consistent with federal law, Cornell engages in affirmative action in employment for qualified protected veterans as defined in the Vietnam Era Veterans’ Readjustment Assistance Act (VEVRAA) and qualified individuals with disabilities under Section 503 of the Rehabilitation Act. We also recognize a lawful preference in employment practices for Native Americans living on or near Indian reservations in accordance with applicable law.