Lead AI Scientist: Generative AI & MLOps Leader

Pearson; Des Moines (IA); On-site; USD 150,000 - 190,000; Full time

Job summary

Pearson is seeking a senior AI/ML leader to drive production AI capabilities across learner intelligence, personalization, recommendations, and knowledge graphs. You will design Generative AI, LLM, and RAG solutions that deliver measurable product impact and build reusable platform components for rapid development and scaling across Pearson products.

You will mentor engineers and data scientists, work with cross-functional teams, and ensure responsible AI practices while balancing quality,

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree or equivalent practical experience in CS/Engineering/Data Science/AI/ML.
• 5+ years building and deploying production AI/ML systems, including cloud-native apps and MLOps.
• Hands-on experience with foundation models and modern AI frameworks.
• Proficiency in Python and APIs, testing, CI/CD, version control, and production operations.
• Experience designing scalable AI platforms and deployment architectures in AWS or similar cloud environments.

Responsibilities

• Lead design, development, deployment, and operation of production AI capabilities powering learner intelligence, personalization, recommendations, and graphs.
• Design and deliver Generative AI, LLM, RAG, and agentic AI solutions with measurable impact.
• Build reusable AI platform components, services, APIs, and workflows to accelerate AI adoption.
• Own end-to-end AI delivery lifecycle from experimentation to production, monitoring, and improvement.
• Establish scalable MLOps and AIOps practices for training, deployment, observability, governance and cost control.
• Collaborate with Product, Engineering, Design, Learning Science, and Data Science teams to identify opportunities and deliver AI-powered capabilities.
• Evaluate emerging AI tech and architectures while balancing quality, safety, scalability, latency, and cost.
• Establish best practices for responsible AI, evaluation, prompt engineering, and governance.
• Mentor engineers and data scientists to elevate AI engineering capabilities across the org.
• Communicate strategy, decisions, trade-offs, risks, and outcomes to stakeholders.

Skills

Python programming

Cloud computing

MLOps

Generative AI

LLMs

RAG architectures

Knowledge graphs

API design

CI/CD

Production operations

Education

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Data Science, AI/ML, or equivalent practical experience

Tools

AWS

Kubernetes

Containerization

IaC

Job description

Pearson is seeking a senior AI/ML leader to drive production AI capabilities across learner intelligence, personalization, recommendations, and knowledge graphs. You will design Generative AI, LLM, and RAG solutions that deliver measurable product impact and build reusable platform components for rapid development and scaling across Pearson products.

You will mentor engineers and data scientists, work with cross-functional teams, and ensure responsible AI practices while balancing quality,