Astronomy AI Platform Architect & Strategy Lead

Rubin Obs; Tucson (AZ); On-site; USD 179,000 - 226,000; Full time

Job summary

NOIRLab seeks a Principal AI Engineer to define and lead the organization's AI strategy, architecture, and engineering capabilities. You will establish foundational AI platforms, governance, and best practices to empower scientists, software engineers, and operations teams in astronomical research.

You will partner with researchers and operations to design, prototype, deploy production-grade AI systems, including LLM-powered apps and AI agents, while ensuring security, scalability, and

Qualifications

• Bachelor's or Master's degree in Computer Science, AI, ML, Data Science, Software Engineering, or related field, or equivalent experience.
• 15+ years in software/AI leadership roles, e.g., Principal Engineer or AI Tech Lead.
• Proven success designing and deploying production-scale AI/ML solutions.
• Deep expertise in machine learning, generative AI, LLMs, and modern AI architectures.
• Experience deploying LLM apps, RAG systems, AI agents, and foundation-model based solutions.
• Strong background in cloud-native architecture, distributed systems, data platforms, and AI infra.
• Experience implementing AI ops, including deployment, monitoring, governance.
• Expertise in secure, responsible AI development and model governance.
• Advanced software engineering skills with modern languages/frameworks.
• Excellent communication and cross-functional collaboration.

Responsibilities

• Define and execute enterprise AI strategy, vision, and multi-year roadmap.
• Identify high-value AI use cases delivering scientific and operational impact.
• Establish AI engineering standards, reusable frameworks, and best practices.
• Assess emerging tech: generative AI, foundation models, LLMs, AI agents.
• Develop governance, evaluation, and lifecycle management for AI deployments.
• Design scalable AI platforms integrated with research systems and workflows.
• Lead development of LLM-powered apps, RAG, copilots, and AI solutions.
• Establish platform capabilities for experimentation, deployment, monitoring, observability.
• Collaborate with IT and enterprise teams to ensure reliability, security, and compliance.
• Mentor engineers, scientists, and teams in AI technologies and responsible AI.

Skills

AI strategy

Technical leadership

AI engineering

LLMs

RAG systems

Responsible AI

Deployment & monitoring

Secure AI

Cloud-native

Cross-functional

Communication

Data platforms

Education

Bachelor's or Master's in CS/AI

Tools

HPC tooling

Job description

NOIRLab seeks a Principal AI Engineer to define and lead the organization's AI strategy, architecture, and engineering capabilities. You will establish foundational AI platforms, governance, and best practices to empower scientists, software engineers, and operations teams in astronomical research.

You will partner with researchers and operations to design, prototype, deploy production-grade AI systems, including LLM-powered apps and AI agents, while ensuring security, scalability, and