AI Engineer II - Chicago Hydrid

JOB SUMMARY:

NORC at the University of Chicago is a research institution that delivers reliable data and rigorous analysis to guide critical programmatic, business, and policy decisions. The IT Department at NORC seeks a Mid-Level AI Engineer who can help us build AI-powered tools (LLMs, chat interfaces, knowledge bases, AI assistants) to improve staff productivity and enable business workflows. This role involves working closely with data scientists, domain experts, and product / business teams to understand requirements, design solutions, and deliver production-ready AI components. As we scale, this person will help define best practices and mentor more junior staff.

This position is based in our Chicago Loop office with a hybrid arrangement (i.e., part remote, part in-office).

DEPARTMENT: Information Technology - Administrative Systems and Support

NORC's Information Technology program provides technology services to our staff and clients. Given the critical role technology plays in our day-to-day lives, we are committed to providing professional, high-quality solutions in order to further our collective goal of advancing social science research.​

RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Collaborate with domain experts and staff stakeholders to define, scope, and refine AI use-cases (chat assistants, knowledge bases, process bots, etc.).
• Build, fine-tune, or integrate with large language models / NLP pipelines; develop retrieval augmented systems, vector DBs, embeddings, etc.
• Develop the software interfaces / front-end / back-end integration required for chat interfaces, AI assistants, knowledge base search/QA systems.
• Ensure models are evaluated and monitored (accuracy, drift, fairness, performance), with feedback loops to improve.
• Maintain documentation, write tests, deploy and maintain AI systems; handle error/edge cases, logging, and reliability.
• Participate in design / architecture discussions: decisions about prompt engineering, LLM usage vs fine-tuning, guardrails, cost trade-offs.
• Mentor junior developers (Level 1) and help disseminate best practices in prompt / safety / deployment.
• Bachelor degree in Data Science, Machine Learning, Computer Science, or equivalent experience in related field. Masters Degree preferred
• 7+ years of technical related experience
• Experience building AI/ML/NLP/LLM systems, preferably with exposure to production deployment
• Proficiency in Python (and/or other relevant languages); experience with ML/AI frameworks (e.g. PyTorch, TensorFlow, HuggingFace)
• Experience with LLM integrations, prompt engineering, vector search / retrieval augmented generation
• Familiarity with cloud environments / deployment (AWS, Azure, GCP or equivalent), API design, software engineering best practices
• Good communication skills: able to translate domain / business requirements into technical solutions; work with other teams
• Awareness or experience with AI safety / bias / ethics / privacy etc.

REQUIRED SKILLS:

Preferred

• Technical or research publications relevant to LLM / NLP / AI assistants (if applicable).
• Experience with agent-based AI or multi-agent systems.
• Prior work in knowledge bases or building AI assistants / chatbots in business contexts.
• Previous NORC experience valued.

Qualified applicants must be eligible to work in the U.S. We regret that we are unable to offer visa sponsorship for this position. 

SALARY AND BENEFITS:

The pay range for this position is $131,000 to $203,000.

Hybrid work model in the heart of Chicago.

This position is classified as regular. Regular staff are eligible for NORC’s comprehensive benefits program. Benefits include, but are not limited to:  

• Generously subsidized health insurance, effective on the first day of employment 
• Dental and vision insurance  
• A defined contribution retirement program, along with a separate voluntary 403(b) retirement program  
• Group life insurance, long-term and short-term disability insurance 
• Benefits that promote work/life balance, including generous paid time off, holidays; paid parental leave, bereavement leave, tuition assistance, and an Employee Assistance Program (EAP). 

 NORC’s Approach to Equity and Transparency  

Pay and benefits transparency helps to reduce wage gaps. As part of our commitment to pay equity and salary transparency, NORC includes a salary range for each job opening along with information about eligible benefit offerings. At NORC, we take a comprehensive approach to setting salary ranges and reviewing raises and promotions, which is overseen by a formal Salary Review Committee (SRC). 

WHAT WE DO:

NORC at the University of Chicago is an objective, non-partisan research institution that delivers reliable data and rigorous analysis to guide critical programmatic, business, and policy decisions. Since 1941, our teams have conducted groundbreaking studies, created and applied innovative methods and tools, and advanced principles of scientific integrity and collaboration. Today, government, corporate, and nonprofit clients around the world partner with us to transform increasingly complex information into useful knowledge.

WHO WE ARE:

For over 80 years, NORC has evolved in many ways, moving the needle with research methods, technical applications and groundbreaking research findings. But our tradition of excellence, passion for innovation, and commitment to collegiality have remained constant components of who we are as a brand, and who each of us is as a member of the NORC team. With world-class benefits, a business casual environment, and an emphasis on continuous learning, NORC is a place where people join for the stellar research and analysis work for which we’re known, and stay for the relationships they form with their colleagues who take pride in the impact their work is making on a global scale.

EEO STATEMENT: 

NORC is an equal opportunity employer. NORC evaluates qualified applicants without regard to race, color, religion, sex, gender, national origin, disability, status as a protected veteran, sexual orientation, and other legally protected characteristics. #LI-DNI