Harvard University is hiring a Harvard University Senior Machine Learning Engineer, Generative ...

Harvard University is hiring a Senior Machine Learning Engineer, Generative AI to spearhead the development of complex, large-scale applications. You will lead comprehensive web development and deliver strategic coding expertise as part of a small, collaborative team within the HBS Foundry, driving forward our mission through innovation.

What You'll Do

• Architect, build, maintain, and improve a new and existing suite of GenAI applications and their underlying systems.
• Automate machine learning pipelines, monitor performance and costs, and optimize models using techniques like LoRA/QLoRA.
• Establish reusable frameworks to streamline model building, deployment, and monitoring, incorporating comprehensive logging, tracing, and alerting.
• Build guardrails, compliance rules, and oversight workflows into the platform, including approval chains for model updates and staged production rollouts.
• Develop templates, guides, and sandbox environments to onboard new contributors and facilitate experimentation.
• Ensure user-facing applications are developed safely by enforcing rigorous validation testing and implementing a clear peer review process.
• Identify new opportunities to optimize business processes and improve consumer experiences, prototyping solutions to demonstrate value.
• Work closely with data scientists and analysts to create and deploy new product features.
• Contribute to and promote good software engineering practices across the team.
• Mentor team members in writing and maintaining production machine learning code.
• Actively contribute to and re-use community best practices.
• Monitor, debug, track, and resolve production issues.
• Work with project managers to ensure projects proceed on time and on budget.
• Collaborate with Technical Product Managers to track algorithmic KPIs and prioritize performance improvements.

What We're Looking For

• A minimum of seven years’ post-secondary education or relevant work experience.
• Minimum of five years’ software development experience with Python and SQL.
• Minimum of three years’ experience building pipelines to deploy NLP and deep learning models into production in a cloud environment.
• Minimum three years’ experience using PyTorch, Tensorflow, or MXNet, along with optimizing code for GPU clusters.
• Experience building advanced workflows such as retrieval augmented generation, model chaining, dynamic prompting, and PEFT/SFT using Langchain and similar tools.
• Experience establishing model guardrails and developing bias detection and mitigation techniques for AI applications using tools like NeMo.
• Experience with various embedding models and setting up and tuning vector databases to improve semantic search and retrieval systems.
• Understanding of underlying fundamentals such as Transformers and Self-Attention mechanisms that form the theoretical foundation of LLMs.
• Experience working with relational SQL and NoSQL databases, big data tools like Hadoop, Spark, Kafka, a Linux environment, and at least one cloud provider (AWS, GCP, Azure).
• Knowledge of data pipeline and workflow management tools.
• Expertise in standard software engineering methodology, including unit testing, test automation, continuous integration, code reviews, and design documentation.

Nice to Have

• A Bachelor's degree in mathematics, physics, computer science, engineering, statistics, or an equivalent technical discipline.

Technical Stack

• Languages & Frameworks: Python, SQL, PyTorch, Tensorflow, MXNet, Langchain, NeMo
• Big Data & Infrastructure: Hadoop, Spark, Kafka, Linux, AWS, GCP, Azure

Team & Environment

You will join a small, collaborative team within the HBS Foundry, operating in a vibrant community dedicated to Harvard's mission. We combine the energy of a startup with the mission and reach of Harvard, fostering a fast-moving environment where new ideas matter and every team member can shape the future.

Benefits & Compensation

• Generous paid time off including parental leave.
• Medical, dental, and vision health insurance coverage starting on day one.
• Retirement plans with university contributions.
• Wellbeing and mental health resources.
• Support for families and caregivers.
• Professional development opportunities including tuition assistance and reimbursement.
• Commuter benefits, discounts, and campus perks.

Work Mode

This is a hybrid position based in Boston, MA.

Harvard University is committed to equal opportunity and non-discrimination. We seek talent from all parts of society and the world, and strive to ensure everyone at Harvard thrives. Our differences help our community advance Harvard's academic purposes.