Staff AI Engineer
Job Location:
Raleigh, WV - USA
Monthly Salary:
Posted:
Application Deadline:
Vacancies:
Job Summary
If youre passionate about building a better future for individuals communities and our countryand youre committed to working hard to play your part in building that futureconsider WGU as the next step in your career.
Driven by a mission to expand access to higher education through online competency-based degree programs WGU is also committed to being a great place to work for a diverse workforce of student-focused professionals. The university has pioneered a new way to learn in the 21st century one that has received praise from academic industry government and media leaders. Whatever your role working for WGU gives you a part to play in helping students graduate creating a better tomorrow for themselves and their families.
The salary range for this position takes into account the wide range of factors that are considered in making compensation decisions including but not limited to skill sets; experience and training; licensure and certifications; and other business and organizational needs.
At WGU it is not typical for an individual to be hired at or near the top of the range for their position and compensation decisions are dependent on the facts and circumstances of each case. A reasonable estimate of the current range is:
Job Description
As a Staff AI Engineer you will serve as a technical leader and force multiplier within the AI Engineering Enablement team. You will define how AI systems are architected deployed and scaled across the organization. Operating at the intersection of deep technical expertise and organizational leadership you will shape platform strategy influence roadmaps and elevate engineering capabilities across multiple teams.- Define and own AI engineering architecture standards design patterns and platform conventions for LLM-based systems
- Lead complex cross-functional AI initiatives from inception through delivery aligning engineering product data science and research stakeholders
- Drive build-vs-buy and vendor evaluation decisions for AI frameworks models and infrastructure
- Design and scale internal AI platforms including shared tooling reusable components prompt libraries and evaluation infrastructure
- Establish and mature LLMOps practices including governance cost management observability and safe deployment standards
- Lead AI safety initiatives including red-teaming adversarial testing and responsible AI policy development
- Mentor and develop Senior and II-level engineers through coaching design reviews and technical leadership
- Expert-level production-proven experience across the AI engineering stack including LLM APIs agentic systems RAG pipelines evaluation frameworks and LLMOps
- Demonstrated ability to define and drive architectural patterns and engineering standards at team or organizational scale
- Deep expertise in agentic system design including multi-agent architectures state management and reliability engineering for non-deterministic systems
- Strong platform engineering experience designing shared infrastructure reusable tooling and developer-facing systems
- Advanced knowledge of LLM fine-tuning alignment techniques and evaluation methodologies including safety and bias assessment
- Experience leading vendor evaluations and technical due diligence for AI frameworks and infrastructure
- Strong proficiency in Python and software engineering fundamentals with a focus on quality testing and reliability standards
- Bachelors Degree in Computer Science Software Engineering Data Science Machine Learning Math or a related field. Masters Degree strongly preferred.
- 7 years of experience in software engineering data science or machine learning
- 5 years of hands-on experience building and deploying LLM-based or AI systems in production at scale
- Demonstrated experience setting architectural direction across teams or organizations
- Experience leading complex AI projects across multiple teams or functional areas
- Proven mentorship of Senior and/or II-level engineers
- Experience designing and operating shared AI platforms or internal AI infrastructure
- Experience owning LLMOps or MLOps practices including governance rollout strategy and production monitoring
- Experience with AWS cloud architectures including scalable inference data pipelines and cost optimization
- Hands-on experience with fine-tuning PEFT and model evaluation in production environments
- Masters Degree or PhD in Computer Science AI/ML or a related field
- Experience with Databricks and related certifications
- AWS certifications such as AWS Certified Machine Learning Specialty
- Experience with open-source model ecosystems and self-hosted inference infrastructure
- Experience in EdTech personalized learning or student-facing AI platforms
- Published research conference presentations or open-source contributions in AI/ML
- Experience with enterprise AI governance compliance frameworks or regulatory requirements
We thoughtfully review every application and invite forward the candidates whose experience and potential best align with the role and our mission.
- Introductory call
- Hiring manager interview
- Technical interview
- Final panel interview
#LI-AW2
Position & Application Details
Full-Time Regular Positions (classified as regular and working 40 standard weekly hours): This is a full-time regular position (classified for 40 standard weekly hours) that is eligible for bonuses; medical dental vision telehealth and mental healthcare; health savings account and flexible spending account; basic and voluntary life insurance; disability coverage; accident critical illness and hospital indemnity supplemental coverages; legal and identity theft coverage; retirement savings plan; wellbeing program; discounted WGU tuition; and flexible paid time off for rest and relaxation with no need for accrual flexible paid sick time with no need for accrual 11 paid holidays and other paid leaves including up to 12 weeks of parental leave.How to Apply: If interested an application will need to be submitted online. Internal WGU employees will need to apply through the internal job board in Workday.
Additional Information
Disclaimer: The job posting highlights the most critical responsibilities and requirements of the job. Its not all-inclusive.
Accommodations: Applicants with disabilities who require assistance or accommodation during the application or interview process should contact our Talent Acquisition team at
Equal Employment Opportunity: All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to any protected characteristic as required by law.
Required Experience:
Staff IC
About Company
Western Governors University is an online university where you can earn an affordable, accredited, career-focused college degree at an accelerated pace.
