IAE Engineer III

The University of South Florida (USF) Institute for Applied Engineering (IAE) is a Florida not-for-profit corporation and direct support organization within the USF ecosystem. The IAE mission is to provide agile, high value engineering products and services to enhance the performance, effectiveness, and capabilities of its customers to include the Department of Defense and other federal and industry partners. 

The Engineer III is a direct engineering contributor that also leads engineering staff and interns in the design, development, fabrication, testing, documentation, and delivery of products and services related to applied research and technology development consistent with the IAE mission. This position assists in coordinating stakeholder communications and assists in new business development with staff leadership to support project work and represent the IAE. This position leads and mentors full-time engineering staff, interns, and coordinates with project managers on assigned project tasks and reports technical progress and status to senior leadership. The Engineer III coordinates administrative tasks related to monitoring project performance, deliverables, and assists engineering leadership in interviewing and hiring staff, and evaluates the performance of junior engineers.

The IAE is seeking a Full Stack Software Engineer with a strong background in Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning (AI/ML) to be part of a multidisciplinary engineering team designing, developing, and testing intelligent systems. The Full Stack Software Engineer must have hands on experience developing software and experience in selecting, modifying, and developing AI/ML technologies integrating them into various software applications. Applicants for this position must possess a solid foundation in AI/ML principles, a firm foundation in computer science, and software engineering.

The Full Stack Software Engineer is generally responsible for the design and development of intelligent systems according to specific project requirements. They will work across interdisciplinary engineering teams as an individual contributor and potentially provide technical leadership developing software, tools, frameworks, and systems. Specific responsibilities include:

• Engaging key stakeholders to understand the system’s functional and quality attribute requirements, functional use cases, and workflows for autonomous systems and collaborative autonomy.
• Designing, documenting, and evaluating complex software systems architectures and detailed designs.
• Developing software applications utilizing AI/ML technologies and working with multidisciplinary teams, integrate them into larger systems (e g. hardware, sensors, operating system, other software applications).
• Evaluating, selecting, modifying, training, and tuning AI/ML platforms, libraries, algorithms and software for use in intelligent applications. 
• Conducting test and verification of AI/ML components to ensure their correct operation in the larger system context.
• Planning and coordinating system test strategies to assess and verify the systems’ fitness for purpose (functional operation, performance, operational effectiveness).
• Coordinating build-and-deployment processes, frameworks, and tools for systems software (DevOps) and the systems AI/ML operational components (MLOps).
• Performing on-going research and stay abreast of the state-of-the-practice and new developments in the field of ML and AI. 

This position requires a bachelor’s degree in computer science, software engineering, computer engineering, AI/ML, or a related field and seven years of software systems development experience. Specific qualifications include:

• Hands-on full-stack software engineering experience designing, developing, testing, deploying, and maintaining a broad range of software applications.
• Experience with the full software development lifecycle (SDLC) utilizing agile software development processes and agile frameworks.
• Experience leading small technical teams and mentoring junior engineers.
• Experience reviewing and refactoring code for quality, performance, and technical debt reduction.
• Experience with data structures, object-oriented design, and modern programming languages (e g. C/C++, Java, Python).
• Experience with systemic architectural design, detailed design patterns, documenting, and evaluating designs to ensure fitness for purpose.
• Experience evaluating, selecting, and applying AI/ML technologies for integration into intelligent systems (e.g., WhisperAI, AssemblyAI, ChatGPT, Llama, Grok, Nova, PyTorch, TensorFlow, Keras, Scikit-learn, NLTK).
• General understanding of data curation processes to include collecting, structuring, indexing, and labeling datasets to support AI/ML model development.
• Experience designing and developing distributed systems and applications utilizing microservices, ReSTful, and service-oriented systems utilizing on-prem and serverless technologies (e.g., Azure/AWS).
• Experience with both SQL and no-SQL database technologies to support the development and operation of distributed collaborative autonomy.
• Self-starter with outstanding analytic and problem-solving skills; Excellent written and oral communication skills.
• Must be eligible for a TS/SCI security clearance.

PREFERRED:
An advanced degree in computer science, software engineering, computer engineering, AI/ML, or a related field and over seven years of software systems development experience. 

Other preferred skills and experience include:

• Knowledge and experience working within the Department of Defense ecosystem.
• Broad understanding of software application and enterprise level security mechanisms and best practices. 
• A current TS/SCI security clearance. 

The University of South Florida is a high-impact global research university dedicated to student success. Over the past 10 years, no other public university in the country has risen faster in U.S. News and World Report's national university rankings than USF. Serving more than 50,000 students on campuses in Tampa, St. Petersburg and Sarasota-Manatee, USF is designated as a Preeminent State Research University by the Florida Board of Governors, placing it in the most elite category among the state's 12 public universities. USF is a member of the American Athletic Conference.

Working at USF 

With more than 16,000 employees at USF, the University of South Florida is one of the largest employers in the Tampa Bay region.  At USF you will find opportunities to excel in a rich academic environment that fosters the development and advancement of our employees.  We believe in creating a talented, engaged and driven workforce through on-going development and career opportunities. We also offer a first class benefit package that includes medical, dental and life insurance plans, retirement plan options, tuition program and generous leave programs and more.

To learn more about working at USF please visit: Work Here. Learn Here. Grow Here.