AVP, AI Engineer, Innovation
Chicago, IL - USA
Job Summary
Harrison Street is seeking to hire an AI Engineer within the Innovation Department reporting to the Chief Innovation Officer. This individual will be instrumental in designing building and deploying AI/ML systems that further enhance the Firms AI strategy.
AI/ML Development & Deployment
- Design develop and deploy production-grade machine learning models to further enhance decision making
- Build and maintain Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) architectures agentic AI workflows and multi-model orchestration pipelines to surface insights from structured and unstructured data
- Develop AI tools that translate model outputs into human-readable insights
Data Engineering & Infrastructure
- Build and optimize data pipelines to ingest clean and structure proprietary datasets across the Firms investment portfolio
- Work within secure infrastructure to deploy scalable secure AI solutions
- Integrate AI models with existing Firm systems databases and reporting workflows
Cross-Functional Collaboration
- Partner with investment asset management portfolio management and Impact teams to identify AI use cases and translate business needs into technical solutions
- Facilitate innovation workshops design thinking sessions and prototype demonstrations for senior leadership
- Expand existing relationships with external partners startups and research institutions as appropriate to advance the Firms AI capabilities
Responsible AI & Governance
- Ensure all AI systems are designed with human-in-the-loop principles
- Adhere to the Firms AI Policy including data access controls bias mitigation explainability standards and regulatory compliance
- Build guardrails around AI scope data access and output reliability
- Bachelors degree in Computer Science Machine Learning Data Science Mathematics Physics or a related quantitative field
- 37 years of professional experience in AI/ML engineering or a closely related role
- Hands-on experience with LLMs and Generative AI including RAG prompt engineering embeddings fine-tuning and agentic frameworks
- Experience with cloud platforms
- Strong data engineering skills
- Excellent communication skills with the ability to translate complex technical concepts for non-technical stakeholders
Preferred
- Masters degree or PhD in a relevant field
- Prior experience in financial services investment management or real estate understanding of deal execution due diligence underwriting and portfolio analytics
- Experience building and deploying AI systems in regulated environments
Competencies
- Translational Thinking - Ability to bridge AI capabilities and investment decision-making making models actionable
- Human-Centered Design - Commitment to building AI systems that augment rather than replace human judgment
- Intellectual Curiosity - Passion for staying current with emerging AI technologies industry trends and competitive developments
- Ownership & Execution - Ability to lead projects from concept through production with minimal supervision
Required Experience:
IC
About Company
Focused exclusively on alternative real assets, Harrison Street is an investment management firm that combines innovation and process rigor to execute differentiated strategies.