Head of AI Strategy & Platform for Scientific Discovery

Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy; 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, enabling researchers, software engineers, and operations teams to harness AI for astronomical discovery.

You will build enterprise-scale AI platforms, establish governance, and deliver production-ready AI solutions, collaborating across scientific and IT stakeholders to accelerate innovation and improve operational efficiency.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's or Master's degree in CS/AI/ML or related field.
• 15+ years in software engineering/AI with senior leadership roles.
• Experience designing and deploying production-scale AI solutions.

Responsibilities

• Define and execute enterprise AI strategy and roadmap.
• Design secure, scalable AI platforms and applications.
• Lead development of LLM-powered applications and AI agents.
• Establish governance, monitoring, and lifecycle management for AI deployments.
• Mentor engineers and collaborate with researchers and operations.

Skills

Leadership

Strategic thinking

Communication

Collaboration

Education

Bachelor's or Master's degree in Computer Science, AI, ML, Data Science, Software Engineering

Tools

Cloud-native architecture

LLMs/RAG systems

AI governance frameworks

Production AI systems

Job description

NOIRLab seeks a Principal AI Engineer to define and lead the organization’s AI strategy, architecture, and engineering capabilities, enabling researchers, software engineers, and operations teams to harness AI for astronomical discovery.

You will build enterprise-scale AI platforms, establish governance, and deliver production-ready AI solutions, collaborating across scientific and IT stakeholders to accelerate innovation and improve operational efficiency.