Software Engineer - Tech AI

TEAM

Tech AI (the AI Hub at Georgia tech) in collaboration with the Center for Scientific Software Engineering (SSE) Center at Georgia Tech (one of the four inaugural Virtual Institute for Scientific Software centers) supports the development of high-quality and sustainable AI solutions. To achieve this goal, Tech AI will:

• Create custom AI solutions in partnership with its 500+ researchers.
• Provide guidance on state-of-the-art tools, technology, and techniques.
• Encourage best practices in open science and the open-source software that supports it.
• Create and support long-term AI platforms, systems, and pipelines.
• Encourage technology-to-market for AI research

OPPORTUNITY

The SSE Center is building a team of professional software engineers (with varying degrees of industry experience) who are excited about working in a highly dynamic and research-oriented development environment. This team will be well-aligned with Georgia Tech's core values:

1. Students (and in our case, partners) are our top priority.
2. We strive for excellence.
3. We thrive on diversity.
4. We celebrate collaboration.
5. We champion innovation.
6. We safeguard freedom of inquiry and expression.
7. We nurture the well-being of our community.
8. We act ethically.
9. We are responsible stewards.

You are a good fit for this team if you have the:

• Desire to learn and grow.
• Ability to learn new concepts across different academic domains.
• Desire to participate on an exceptional team that pushes the boundaries of science and software.
• Humility to operate in your own strengths and weaknesses.

RESPONSIBILITIES

Individuals on the team will work on a variety of different ground-breaking research projects. Some projects may require deep engagement (potentially leading to co-authorship on scientific publications) while others may resemble a more casual consulting engagement. Some projects will require solutions developed from the ground up and others may involve refactoring existing solutions to conform to industry standards. Individuals who are adaptable, curious, and invested in continuous growth will do well on this team and in this environment.

The key responsibilities of this position are listed below:

• Work with the other scientists and engineers to develop and deploy high-quality, innovative, and complete AI (Artificial Intelligence) software products.
• Lead and manage several crucial proof-of-concept software applications from start to finish.
• This scope of the software products shall include, but not be limited to, the software design (visualizations, dashboards, and animations), engineering (including AI data pipelines, digital twins, organization, process analysis, software optimization, data manipulation, and executing, evaluating, or retraining the models as needed), deployment, documentation, maintenance, and testing of these applications.
• Manage, review, maintain, and contribute to the code repositories. This will also involve reorganizing or refactoring the code into intuitive structures, keeping it user-friendly, and improving the code’s efficiency.
• Be the subject matter expert, provide guidance to the team, and implement the best practices for the team’s AI engineering software and infrastructure.
• Develop adaptable and reusable software designs (object-oriented code), in part or whole, for an array of different research projects.
• Regularly meet with the team to discuss their ideas, application, and vision for the software, incorporating them into the software design and implementation.
• Collaborate, support, and assist the team in developing the software and develop solutions to remove any barriers impeding progress.
• Mentor Georgia Tech’s students, staff, faculty, and approved non-Georgia Tech personnel, improving everyone’s skill set.
• Help the team members troubleshoot code errors, bugs, bottlenecks, performance, optimization, deployment, and operational issues. Assist the team in resolving any other technical, design, or code issues.
• Actively protect GT’s and GT’s partners confidential information.
• Continually improve and build-up the AI research community, inside and outside of Georgia Tech. This could involve writing or being a part of journal publications or white papers, creating publicly or privately available codes, apps, and documentation, attending or hosting training seminars, and attending or representing the GT team or GT’s partners at national conferences.
• Support any other assigned tasks that help accomplish the team’s goals and mission.

BENEFITS

In addition to receiving a competitive salary, generous benefits & work/life programs, you will join the team as an employee of Georgia Tech, participate in Georgia Tech’s world-renowned ecosystem, be involved in exciting and highly visible research projects at the forefront of technology. You will also have the option to teach classes, serve as a guest lecturer, and mentor students in projects related to innovative software engineering topics.

REQUIREMENTS (for all team members)

Candidates for this role must have:

• Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, or a related field
  
• Ability and desire to work well within a team.
• Desire to mentor and be mentored by others.
• Experience in Linux (Red Hat, Fedora, Debian, Ubuntu, etc.), Mac, and Windows Operating Systems utilizing the command line environment.
• Experience utilizing version control software (GitHub, GitLab, etc.) and some of their modern software engineering practices and tools (e.g., CI/CD, automated testing, bug and issue tracking, feature requests, pull requests, code reviews, automated cloud platform interactions, etc.).
• Experience with at least one (1) from each part below:
  • Statically typed programming language: C++, C#, Go, Java, Rust, FORTRAN, Scala, etc.
  • Dynamically typed programming language: Python, JavaScript, MATLAB, Julia, R, SAS, etc.
  • Code editing software: Visual Studios Code (VS Code), PyCharm, etc.
  • Containers and Virtual Machines (VMs): Apptainer (previously Singularity), Docker, Podman, etc.
  • Database technologies: SQL, NoSQL, etc.
  • Analytics software: Tableau, Power BI, Looker, Qlik, Google Analytics, SAP Analytics Cloud, etc.

Ideal candidates for this role will also possess (or develop over time):

• An understanding of scientific software.
• Appreciation for the differences between industry and academia and how to leverage the strengths of both.
• Ability to communicate effectively with individuals and audiences of varying technical ability.
• A broad understanding of the software development lifecycle and how tools and best practices accelerate processes.
• Experience with open-source software.
• Experience with Lean development concepts
• Experience with at least one (1) item from each part below:
  • Mobile operating systems: Android and iOS with the command line environment
  • Other programming languages: VBA, Latex, JSP, CSS, HTML, etc.
  • Machine Learning software: TensorFlow, TensorBoard, Optuna, Ray Tune, MLflow, Pytorch, Scikit-learn, etc.
  • Cloud computing platforms, concepts, and software: Kubernetes, Azure, Google Cloud Platform, and Amazon Web Services (AWS), Redis, RabbitMQ, …
  • High-Performance Computing (HPC) clusters, concepts, and software: Slurm or Torque schedulers
• Two (2) or more successful deployments for each of following deliverable products, generated from complex, large, and continuously expanding data sets (Note: A project that contained multiple deliverables can be counted multiple times, one for each applicable deliverable):
  
  • Continuous data pipelines for AI applications
  • Digital twins
  • Executed, evaluated, or retrained Artificial Intelligence / Mathematical Optimization (AI/MO) models
  • Automated dashboards
  • Detailed visualizations and animations
  • Graphical User Interfaces (GUIs)

REQUIREMENTS (for early-in-career Positions)

In addition to the previous requirements, ideal candidates for this role will also possess (or develop over time):

• A broad understanding of the software development lifecycle and how tools and best practices accelerate processes.
• A commitment to Quality and experience with automated testing.
• Experience supporting software solutions in a customer-facing environment.
• Experience cultivating a team culture that is transparent, safe, and committed to excellence.
• Ability to successfully navigate large organizations and outside partnerships.