Lead AI Developer

George Mason University; Fairfax (VA); On-site; USD 140,000 - 200,000; Full time

Job summary

George Mason University ITS is seeking a Lead AI Developer to ensure AI agents deployed for faculty research, staff workflows, and student guidance operate reliably and hallucination-free. The role mentors the student incubator, shaping enterprise AI engineers through rigorous code reviews and architectural guidance.

The position drives core agentic architecture, data engineering, and multi-cloud prototyping, aligning with the PatriotAI platform roadmap and lifecycle.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in related field.
• Significant experience in systems engineering, software development, and deploying ML or generative AI in live enterprise production systems.
• Experience with Product Operating Model.
• Advanced proficiency in Python, generative AI frameworks (LangChain, LlamaIndex), and complex RESTful API integrations.
• Demonstrated ability to architect retrieval-augmented generation pipelines connected to enterprise databases.
• Strong communication of complex ML concepts to student developers and mentoring.
• Strong background with Agile methodologies, SDLC, API development, and project/code management.
• Ability to communicate, collaborate and deliver high-value products.

Responsibilities

• Design, code, and deploy foundational AI infrastructure using the Microsoft enterprise stack (Azure AI Studio, Copilot Studio, AI Foundry).
• Build bidirectional intelligence loops to process IoT sensor data for the Campus Digital Twin and create AI copilots for data analysis and grant writing.
• Engineer API integrations connecting Azure AI with the university's SIEM to power AI-driven threat-hunting.

Skills

Mentorship

Leadership

Team collaboration

Education

Bachelor's degree

Tools

Python

LangChain

LlamaIndex

RESTful APIs

RAG pipelines

API development

Prompt engineering

Job description

Lead AI Developer

Department: Information Technology

Classification: Info Technology Spec 3

Job Category: Classified Staff

Job Type: Full-Time

Work Schedule: Full-time (1.0 FTE, 40 hrs/wk)

Location: Fairfax, VA

Workplace Type: On Site Required

Sponsorship Eligibility: Not eligible for visa sponsorship

Pay Band: 06

Salary: Salary commensurate with education and experience

Criminal Background Check: Yes

About the Department:

Information Technology Services (ITS) provides technology and collaborative solutions that contribute to and facilitate innovative teaching and learning opportunities for students and faculty of the George Mason University community. ITS works transparently to drive excellence in teaching, research, and administrative operations.

About the Position:

The Lead AI Developer ensures that every AI agent deployed to support faculty research, automate staff workflows, or proactively guide students operates flawlessly and free of hallucinations. Furthermore, this role serves as the elite technical lead for the student incubator, transforming student interns into highly recruited enterprise AI engineers through rigorous code review and architectural mentorship. The role has deep AI skills in building AI Agents, Agentic AI Platforms, LLM's and understand highly technical AI concepts required for building and managing an AI platform. Additionally, this role will serve as the PatriotAI product owner, shaping the technical roadmap for the platform's lifecycle.

Core Agentic Architecture & Intelligence Integration

• Design, code, and deploy the foundational AI infrastructure utilizing the Microsoft enterprise stack (Azure AI Studio, Copilot Studio, AI Foundry);
• Build the complex, bidirectional intelligence loops required to process IoT sensor data for the Campus Digital Twin, and engineer advanced AI copilots designed to accelerate massive data analysis and complex grant writing for university researchers; and
• Engineer the complex API integrations connecting the Azure AI stack with the university's Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) infrastructure to power the proactive, AI-driven threat-hunting capabilities of the Student SOC.

Technical Mentorship & Zero-Hallucination Quality Control

• Serve as the senior technical expert for the 10-20 student builders;
• Conduct rigorous code reviews, refine their prompt engineering strategies, and teach advanced context-window management; and
• Act as the final technical gatekeeper to ensure all student-built AI agents are secure, scalable, and devoid of hallucinations before production release.

SSOT Data Engineering & "Touch Once" Automation

• Build and maintain the highly secure data pipelines connecting the university's core legacy databases to the modern AI platform;
• Engineer the backend of the Digital Forms Backbone, strictly enforcing governance, security, and architectural protocols so that staff and faculty are liberated from organizational requirements that could cause rework;
• Organize work around industry best practices and educate/train students to adopt recognized gold standards, such as NIST, ITIL, Agile, etc.; and
• Architect and deploy the autonomous AI Help Desk agent, building a secure Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) pipeline that connects directly to the enterprise ITS Knowledge Base, ensuring Zero-Hallucination IT troubleshooting for the campus community.

Multi-Cloud Prototyping & Technical Scaling

• Research, prototype, and prepare the technical infrastructure for Patriot AI's expansion into multi-cloud ecosystems;
• Ensure the architecture remains flexible enough to enable researchers and students to match the best possible Large Language Model (LLM) to their specific university use case; and
• Emphasize best practices and use industry tools to ensure students are market- and industry-ready when they graduate.

Required Qualifications:

• Bachelor's degree in related field;
• Significant experience in systems engineering, software development, and explicitly deploying machine learning or generative AI solutions into a live enterprise production environment;
• Experience with Product Operating Model;
• Advanced proficiency in tools such as Python, generative AI frameworks (e.g., LangChain, LlamaIndex), and complex RESTful API integrations;
• Demonstrated ability to architect retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) pipelines connected securely to enterprise databases;
• Exceptional ability to communicate highly complex machine learning concepts to student developers, functioning as a patient but rigorous technical mentor;
• Strong background with Agile methodologies, SDLC, API development, and project and Code management; and
• Strong ability to communicate, collaborate and deliver high value products.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Master's degree in related field;
• Considerable experience serving in a technical lead capacity, specifically mentoring junior developers, interns, or students through complex architectural builds;
• Knowledge of IoT sensor data integration and digital twin technical concepts; and
• Skill in optimizing vector databases and fine-tuning large language models to understand higher education terminologies and research vernacular.