AI Developer

The University of British Columbia; Vancouver; On-site; CAD 80,000 - 120,000; Full time

Job summary

An educational institution in Vancouver seeks an AI Developer to innovate service delivery through AI. Responsibilities include developing proof-of-concept AI applications, collaborating with various teams, and leveraging AI capabilities for operational efficiency. Ideal candidates should have at least five years of relevant experience, strong communication skills, and a commitment to diversity. This role offers the chance to explore cutting-edge AI technologies in a supportive environment.

Benefits

Mentorship opportunities

Professional development workshops

Qualifications

• Minimum five years of related experience or equivalent education.
• In-depth knowledge of AI applications and business requirements.
• Demonstrated commitment to equity, diversity, and inclusion.

Responsibilities

• Develop and test proof-of-concept AI applications.
• Design and implement machine learning models.
• Collaborate with stakeholders to refine AI applications.
• Conduct usability testing and refine AI interactions.

Skills

AI experimentation

Machine learning

Prototyping

NLP frameworks

Communication skills

Education

Undergraduate degree

Bachelor’s or Master’s in Computer Science or related field

Tools

AWS SageMaker

Azure AI

Hugging Face

LangChain

spaCy

Job description

Job Summary

The AI Developer is responsible for supporting innovation in service delivery for UBC's administrative units by rapidly prototyping, experimenting with, and validating AI tools and services to explore their potential value based on identified business challenges. This role involves assessing AI technologies, testing small-scale solutions, and iterating based on feedback to evaluate feasibility before broader adoption. The AI Developer will explore AI capabilities in a controlled environment and identify opportunities for innovation.

The successful candidate will work with various AI and machine learning frameworks, including open-source libraries (e.g., Hugging Face, LangChain, spaCy), cloud AI platforms (e.g., AWS SageMaker, Amazon Bedrock, OpenAI, Azure AI), and emerging tools. Responsibilities include designing proof-of-concept solutions, collaborating with stakeholders to refine AI applications, and experimenting with new models and methodologies to assess their suitability for UBC’s needs.

Organizational Status

The Digital Experience Lab (DxL), under the UBC Office of the CIO (OCIO), is established to safely experiment with AI by testing and validating concepts for potential scaling into future IT services. The goal is to explore AI capabilities through agile experimentation, shaping concepts before transforming them into enhanced services for the UBC community.

DxL focuses on incorporating AI and ML to address administrative challenges, improve operational efficiencies, and evaluate AI’s impact before scaling solutions for broader institutional adoption.

This position reports to the Sr. Manager, Digital Experience and Creative Media, and collaborates across various portfolios within the Office of the CIO and IT service teams. It involves interaction with business stakeholders and organizational units to ensure AI solutions are practical, usable, and aligned with UBC’s strategic goals.

Work Performed

• Develop and test proof-of-concept AI applications to explore emerging capabilities.
• Assess new AI tools, models, and platforms for viability in addressing documented business challenges.
• Iterate quickly on AI solutions based on stakeholder feedback to ensure alignment with real-world use cases.
• Design and implement machine learning models for specific challenges.
• Optimize AI models through lightweight experimentation and iterative development.
• Utilize low-code/no-code platforms where applicable to accelerate prototyping.
• Build and refine AI-driven assistants using techniques such as:
• Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG)
• Prompt Engineering
• Knowledge Graph Integration
• Semantic Search & Contextual Retrieval
• Leverage AI to extract and process unstructured data (PDFs, text, images).
• Implement AI techniques for data enrichment and pattern recognition, following privacy and security policies.
• Explore AI-driven feature engineering to enhance interpretability and usability.
• Work with governance teams to ensure ethical practices, transparency, and compliance.
• Participate in developing responsible AI guidelines for UBC.
• Address privacy, security, and ethical risks in AI applications.
• Collaborate with functional and IT teams to co-develop solutions.
• Engage end users, conduct usability testing, and refine AI interactions based on feedback.
• Document solutions and support transition to operations.
• Share lessons learned and insights within the UBC IT community.
• Monitor emerging AI trends and assess their relevance.
• Support workshops and knowledge-sharing to build AI literacy.
• Explore future AI applications like generative AI, autonomous agents, and multimodal AI for UBC’s needs.

Consequence of Error / Judgement

Errors in judgment or premature deployment of unproven solutions could lead to:

• Misalignment with business needs
• Unnecessary expenditure
• Ethical or governance issues
• Missed innovation opportunities
• Loss of trust in responsible AI deployment

Supervision Received

• Works under the direction of the Sr. Manager, Digital Experience and Creative Media, collaborating with management, project managers, and technical teams.
• Works independently to explore solutions, integrating insights from cross-functional teams.

Supervision Given

Provides mentorship and guidance to junior AI developers for prototype development.

Minimum Qualifications

Undergraduate degree in a relevant discipline with in-depth knowledge of applications and business requirements. Minimum of five years of related experience or equivalent education and experience. Demonstrates respect for diverse perspectives and a commitment to equity, diversity, and inclusion.

Preferred Qualifications

• Bachelor’s or Master’s in Computer Science, AI, Data Science, or related field.
• Experience in AI experimentation, machine learning, and prototyping.
• Strong understanding of ML models, generative AI, supervised learning.
• Hands-on experience with rapid prototyping, chatbots, NLP frameworks.
• Familiarity with vector databases, semantic search, agent-based AI.
• Experience with cloud AI platforms (AWS SageMaker, Azure OpenAI, etc.).
• Strong communication skills for explaining AI concepts to non-technical stakeholders.
• Experience in AI trend analysis and technology assessment.
• Background in responsible AI, fairness, bias mitigation.
• Prior experience with research-oriented or UX-focused AI projects.