AI Software Engineer

OVERVIEW

The University of St. Thomas invites qualified candidates to apply for an AI Software Engineer position within the Innovation Technology Services (ITS) department.

The University of St. Thomas embraces belonging and equal opportunity for all. Our convictions of dignity, diversity and personal attention call us to embody and champion an inclusive environment.  The University is an Equal Employment Opportunity Employer (EEO).  All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, age, status as a protected veteran, or other protected characteristic.  This commitment to inclusion and equal opportunity is consistent with our mission: Inspired by Catholic intellectual tradition, the University of St. Thomas educates students to be morally responsible leaders who think critically, act wisely, and work skillfully to advance the common good.  A successful candidate will possess a commitment to the ideals of this mission.

JOIN OUR COMMUNITY

The University of St. Thomas offers a competitive and comprehensive benefits program, which includes:

• Up to 100% tuition remission for employees and dependents upon eligibility
• Up to 50% tuition remission for spouses upon eligibility
• A generous Employer retirement contribution of 9.4% of annual salary upon eligibility
• Medical, dental, and vision options
• Employer-paid disability, life, and AD&D benefits

Salary Range: $69,180 to $78,460

The University of St. Thomas has provided a salary range that represents its good faith estimate of what the University may pay for the position at the time of posting. The specific salary offered will be determined based on factors such as the qualifications of the selected candidate, departmental budget, internal salary equity considerations, and available market information.

JOB SUMMARY

The AI Software Engineer is a vital role within the Enterprise Application Development and Cloud team at the University of St. Thomas. The Enterprise Application Development & Cloud team designs, builds, integrates and maintains critical campus systems, custom applications, websites and apps using modern cloud platforms, best practices, methodologies and tools. These applications provide functionality for instructional and institutional business requirements that are used by students, faculty, staff, prospective students, alumni, donors and the public.

The AI Software Engineer is responsible for designing, building, and maintaining AI-driven applications and services that improve user experiences for all constituents. A significant focus will be on creating personalized experiences to support student success and the goals of our ITS strategic plan. The engineer will leverage cutting-edge AI technologies, with a focus on AWS cloud-native tools, to develop scalable, secure, and impactful solutions.

The Engineer will also follow approved life cycle methodologies; create design documents and prototypes; perform coding and testing; and resolve technical issues through debugging and investigation.  The position will also research, test and make recommendations for solutions to technical challenges.

ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS

1) AI Application Development, Deployment, & Maintenance

• Design and develop software solutions that integrate AI/ML models into applications, APIs, and platforms to enhance constituent experience and automation. Implement and maintain agentic AI-powered features for front-end users such as chatbots, recommendation engines, and automation tools. Utilize cloud computing platforms (AWS, Azure, GCP) to host and manage AI applications, ensuring scalability through tools like AWS Lambda, Step Functions or containers.  Develop tools and methods for personalized user experiences, ensuring alignment with enterprise policies, data privacy principles, and AI principles. Explore and leverage enterprise tools that have agentic AI or AI features to incorporate into the user experience. Ensure AI applications meet data security and compliance standards (FERPA, GDPR, NIST, etc.).  Monitor application performance and troubleshoot issues related to AI service deployment. Integrate AI applications with enterprise systems to enhance organizational workflows and content discovery. Establish and follow AI application lifecycle management standards to ensure optimal efficiency, cost, and security.

2) Collaboration & Documentation

• Work closely with business partners to understand AI use cases and translate business needs into technical solutions. Collaborate with Data Engineers and Data Architects to ensure seamless access to AI-ready datasets. Stay curious and explore new data pipelines managed by the Data Engineers and Architects to utilize in applications and enhance constituent experience. Work closely with AI Scientists and Data Scientists to operationalize AI/ML models into production environments. Support the internal AI Research and Development process as well as the enterprise AI operational processes to ensure scalability and standardizations. Stay updated on the latest AI research, tools, and methodologies to enhance institutional capabilities. Collaborate on content governance and tagging methodologies to optimize AI search capabilities across public and private content repositories. Maintain thorough documentation for AI applications, APIs, and development processes. Partner with cross-functional project teams to identify AI opportunities and deliver impactful solutions.

3) Software Engineering & System Optimization

• Write efficient, maintainable, and scalable code using enterprise software development practices (DevOps). Optimize AI-driven applications for performance, reliability, and cost-effectiveness. Continuously strive to automate deployment and monitoring processes whenever possible.

4) Application Support

• Provide Tier II support of applications.  Assist Tier I support and other ITS teams with incident resolution.  Provide support documentation to Tier I, Tier III and Service Desk to assist with application support.

5) ITS policy and procedure compliance

• Is proficient with and follows ITS procedures for communication updates, change management, call/incident tracking, installation & inventory, knowledge base, and communication guidelines. Remains current on trending customer issues and concerns. Performs other duties as assigned to ensure ITS policies and standards meet customer needs.

QUALIFICATIONS

Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Artificial Intelligence, or a related field, or equivalent experience
• 0-3 years of experience in software development, AI integration, or cloud computing
• Strong understanding of agentic AI, embeddings, tokenization, and workflows
• Experience with object oriented programming languages (Java, Typescript, Python or node preferred)
• Exposure to cloud services (AWS Lambda, Lake Formation, API Gateway, Step Functions)

Preferred Qualifications

• Master’s degree in a related field

• Hands-on experience with AI/ML model deployment and utilization in production environments

• Familiarity with containerization (Fargate, ECS, Docker) and Continuous Integration/Continuous Deployment (CI/CD) pipelines (CodeBuild, CodePipeline, Code Commit, GitHub Actions, etc)

• Familiarity with infrastructure as code (Terraform, CloudFormation, AWS CLI)

HOW TO APPLY

All interested candidates must apply online at https://www.stthomas.edu/jobs/. Follow the instructions to complete an online application which includes creating or updating an applicant profile, uploading a resume, and completing a job specific application.

In light of its commitment to create and maintain a safe learning and working environment, employment with the University of St. Thomas requires consent and successful completion of a background screening.

Official job posting is available at www.stthomas.edu/jobs.