Tech Lead - AI & Discovery Platform Architect

Harvard University; Cambridge (MA); Hybrid; USD 120,000 - 190,000; Full time

Job summary

Harvard University IT leads the Reimagining Discovery initiative, driving architectural decisions for Collections Explorer and related AI-enabled discovery features. This role guides technical standards, collaborates across teams, and ensures secure, scalable implementations in a rapidly evolving AI landscape.

The IT Project Technical Lead combines hands-on engineering with strategic direction, overseeing metadata pipelines, API services, and modern web applications within a hybrid work

Qualifications

• Minimum of seven years' post-secondary education or relevant work experience.
• Two years of experience working with ML/AI technologies and data preprocessing.
• Two years' experience testing or launching software products; experience with software design/architecture.
• Experience with API-oriented development and Jira/GitHub.
• Knowledge of Python and FastAPI; experience with search technologies (Elasticsearch/OpenSearch).
• Familiar with CI/CD and security practices; capable of communicating to technical and non-technical stakeholders.
• Experience with Docker and Kubernetes.

Responsibilities

• Architect and design technical solutions while ensuring quality and standards.
• Lead AI/ML-enabled features with attention to evaluation, privacy, security, and bias.
• Plan and estimate work; break down requirements into tasks.
• Review and develop code to meet design/architecture goals.
• Troubleshoot and resolve technical issues during development.
• Set coding standards and best practices across the codebase.
• Support production readiness including reliability, performance, monitoring and logging.
• Collaborate with project manager to communicate status to non-technical stakeholders.
• Track and manage technical debt and maintain documentation.

Skills

Communication skills

Agile / Scrum

Technical leadership

Problem solving

AI/ML awareness

Tools

Docker

Kubernetes

Elasticsearch/OpenSearch

API tooling

FastAPI

React/NextJS

Job description

Harvard University IT leads the Reimagining Discovery initiative, driving architectural decisions for Collections Explorer and related AI-enabled discovery features. This role guides technical standards, collaborates across teams, and ensures secure, scalable implementations in a rapidly evolving AI landscape.

The IT Project Technical Lead combines hands-on engineering with strategic direction, overseeing metadata pipelines, API services, and modern web applications within a hybrid work