AI Solutions Engineer

California State University, Northridge • Northridge, CA

3d • Hybrid

About The Position

Under the general supervision of the Assistant Vice President of IT and Technology Strategy Officer, the AI Solutions Engineer enables the design, development, and deployment of agentic solutions and AI-integrated workflows across the university. The role consults independently with campus stakeholders to identify opportunities and design cost-effective, scalable solutions, determining when to use agentic systems, AI-enabled tools, or workflow automation to streamline university activities. Examples include support agents, research accelerators, and complex administrative process automations.

The incumbent prepares technical design documents, architectural specifications, integration blueprints, and cost models to obtain stakeholder support and funding. The role engineers, configures, tests, and deploys context-grounded agentic and AI-integrated workflow solutions. It also establishes safeguards—including prompt-injection mitigations, abuse guardrails, evaluation frameworks, and human-in-the-loop escalation paths—to keep agent actions within institutional boundaries. The position supports student team members in stakeholder requirements gathering, proof-of-concept development, and pilot testing, and performs other duties as assigned.

This is a regular, full-time position scheduled for 40 hours per week, Monday through Friday, with possible evening and weekend work. The position is currently hybrid, with three days in the office and two days remote; this arrangement may change based on student or operational needs. A one-year probationary period applies.

Requirements

• Equivalent to a bachelor's degree in a related field and four years of relevant experience.
• Additional experience demonstrating the required knowledge and abilities may substitute for the required education on a year-for-year basis.
• An advanced degree in a related field may substitute for the required experience on a year-for-year basis.
• Ability to assess business requirements, evaluate AI-enabled technologies, and design cost-effective, scalable solutions.
• Ability to communicate technical recommendations, architectural trade-offs, and security considerations to technical and non-technical stakeholders.
• Hands-on experience designing, developing, testing, and deploying secure AI-powered solutions using enterprise platforms such as Azure AI Foundry and ServiceNow, including Python, REST APIs, and Model Context Protocol (MCP).
• Knowledge of AI security frameworks, risk mitigation, and enterprise integration standards.
• Ability to mentor student developers, coordinate agile sprint activities, turn project requirements into actionable tasks, and provide technical guidance, code reviews, and quality assurance.
• Ability to ensure solutions meet institutional security, accessibility, and governance standards.
• Knowledge of emerging AI frameworks, agentic technologies, vector databases, and developer platforms, and ability to research, evaluate, and recommend solutions.

Nice To Haves

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Information Technology, Information Systems, or a related technical discipline.
• Four years of relevant experience, including two to three years of progressive, hands-on professional experience with AI, software development, scripting, API engineering, or systems integration.
• Active industry certifications in AI or cloud engineering, such as Microsoft Certified: Azure AI Engineer Associate or Azure Fundamentals.
• Experience leading agile software sprint cycles within higher education IT or supervising student developer teams in an academic setting.
• Experience collaborating across technical working groups and contributing to IT planning and continuous technology improvement initiatives.

Responsibilities

• Consult independently with campus stakeholders to identify opportunities and architect cost-effective, scalable solutions.
• Determine when agentic, AI-enabled, or AI-integrated workflow automation is appropriate to streamline university activities.
• Prepare technical design documents, architectural specifications, integration blueprints, and cost models to obtain stakeholder buy-in and funding.
• Engineer, configure, test, and deploy context-grounded agentic solutions and AI-integrated workflow solutions.
• Configure safeguards such as prompt-injection mitigations, abuse guardrails, evaluation frameworks, and human-in-the-loop escalation paths.
• Enable student team members to participate in stakeholder requirements gathering, rapid proof-of-concept development, and pilot testing.
• Perform other duties as assigned.

Benefits

• Medical benefits
• Dental benefits
• Vision benefits
• Retirement and savings benefits
• Tuition waiver

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Mid Level