About the job
- Preferred location is NYC, but we welcome candidates from the East Coast
Role Overview
The Associate Distinguished Engineer, functioning as the technical lead for our AI Adoption initiative, is responsible for architecting and governing the AI Landing Zone. This pivotal role involves overseeing integrations, ensuring adherence to security and compliance standards, and providing technical guidance on all AI use cases and platform components. The individual will ensure the scalability, security, and interoperability of the AI platform while ensuring alignment with IT standards to support both pilot implementation and long-term institutionalization.
Key Responsibilities
AI Platform & Landing Zone Architecture
- Design and architect the AI Landing Zone, encompassing Azure OpenAI, Azure AI Foundry, Power Platform, Microsoft Fabric, and Microsoft Copilot services.
- Guarantee the platform's security and compliance while ensuring it is scalable across various environments including academic, administrative, research, and healthcare.
- Establish governance protocols, identity/SSO integration, and infrastructure requirements.
Security, Compliance & Responsible AI Controls
- Implement architectural controls that support FERPA, accessibility (WCAG/508), privacy, and institutional policy needs.
- Ensure solutions incorporate responsible AI evaluations, fairness checks, and observability.
Integration & Data Architecture
- Design integration methodologies with core client systems (SIS, LMS, SSO, APIs, data sources).
- Collaborate with the Data/Technology Lead to outline secure data pipelines, connectors, and access patterns.
- Ensure interoperability and reliability across departments and technical landscapes.
Use Case Technical Design & Feasibility
- Assess technology options (Azure OpenAI, Copilot, Power Platform, Fabric) for each use case.
- Define technical requirements, constraints, and architectural components for varying complexity use cases.
- Provide technical support to developers and ML engineers throughout the design, build, and deployment phases.
Platform Maturity, Monitoring & MLOps
- Establish CI/CD pipelines, monitoring dashboards, cost transparency measures, and lifecycle management processes.
- Set performance, security, reliability, and operational readiness standards.
- Facilitate the evolution of the platform from initial pilots to scalable enterprise services.
Technical Leadership & Quality Assurance
- Review prototypes, solution designs, integrations, and deployments for technical completeness and architectural alignment.
- Ensure consistency in implementation across teams and phases.
- Provide mentorship and guidance to development and engineering teams.

