Co-Lab Developer & Educator, AI Spec

Co-Lab Developer & Educator, AI Specialist

Be You.

The Innovation Co-Lab is looking for a Co-Lab Developer & Educator, AI Specialist to join our team in the Office of Information Technology (OIT). This is an exciting opportunity to shape the future of AI in higher education by combining your passion for teaching, technical development, and ethical innovation.

In this hybrid role, you’ll lead workshops on prompt engineering, build AI-powered tools, and collaborate with students, faculty, and staff to bring their ideas to life. You’ll help design Duke’s AI ecosystem by developing infrastructure, delivering instruction, and mentoring the next generation of developers.

Minimum Requirements

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Data Science, Machine Learning, Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, or equivalent combination of education and experience.
• Experience building and deploying AI applications (e.g., GPTs, embeddings, agentic workflows)
• Strong interest in teaching AI/ML concepts to diverse audiences
• Proficiency in an object-oriented programming language
• Proficiency with Git version control
• Experience with full stack web development frameworks (Rails, Django, MERN, etc.)
• Experience with containerized environments (Docker, Podman)
• Experience building and maintaining APIs and microservices
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills

Preferred Qualifications

• Understanding of AI ethics and responsible AI practices
• Familiarity with AI security, data privacy, and adversarial robustness
• Experience with generative AI and prompt engineering
• Knowledge of NLP and computer vision applications
• Experience with AI model optimization and edge deployment
• Familiarity with AI hardware acceleration (GPUs, TPUs)
• Experience with data engineering and AI pipelines

This position is hybrid, with a mix of in-office and wfh schedule. Candidates MUST be local. 

Be Bold.

Technical Education & Training:

•     Develop and deliver comprehensive training sessions on various technical topics such as AI (LLMs, Duke-specific tooling, Image Generation, prompt engineering, etc), full stack web development, unix based tools and infrastructure, software design principles and more.

•     Provide guest lectures to groups or academic courses on relevant technical topics

•     Develop both in-person workshops and self-paced learning experiences from beginner to advanced levels

•     Create documentation and best practices guides for AI development workflows

•     Assist with promotion of the Co-Lab's capabilities through demonstrations, events, social media, and technical presentations

AI Tooling Development and Implementation:

•     Build and maintain AI-powered web applications, infrastructure, APIs, and microservices that serve the Duke community.

•     Prototype and deploy working solutions, including knowledge bases, MCP infrastructure, or custom GPTs, for students, faculty, researchers, or staff exploring AI in service of their missions.

•     Develop new and expand existing tooling to implement and support these solutions.

Community Building & Mentorship:

•     Develop and lead a group of student developers providing them both technical leadership and ensuring project completion

•     Serve as a technical consultant to faculty and other members of the Duke community on technical hurdles outside their field of expertise

•     Meet and engage with members of the Duke community in an office hours environment to help them better grasp and implement their own technical solutions

Collaboration:

•     Work closely with other groups within the Office of Information Technology on joint AI infrastructure initiatives, including the AI Suite project and future AI modernization efforts.

•     Collaborate with partners to not only brainstorm ideas but build and deliver proofs-of-concept that demonstrate feasibility and integrate Duke systems and practices (ie. LMS plug-ins, web interfaces, internal data sources/tools, etc.)

•     Other duties as assigned

Choose Duke.

The Innovation Co-Lab is a creativity incubator embedded within Duke’s Office of Information Technology. We empower students, faculty, and staff to explore emerging technologies and bring their ideas to life. Our team is passionate about responsible innovation, inclusive education, and building tools that make a difference.

Join us and help shape a responsible, ethical, and accessible AI ecosystem in higher education.
Learn more about Duke University’s competitive benefits package.

Duke is an Equal Opportunity Employer committed to providing employment opportunity without regard to an individual's age, color, disability, gender, gender expression, gender identity, genetic information, national origin, race, religion, sex (including pregnancy and pregnancy related conditions), sexual orientation or military status.

Duke aspires to create a community built on collaboration, innovation, creativity, and belonging. Our collective success depends onthe robust exchange of ideas—an exchange that is best when the rich diversity of our perspectives, backgrounds, and experiences flourishes. To achieve this exchange, it is essential that all members of the community feel secure and welcome, that the contributions of all individuals are respected, and that all voices are heard. All members of our community have a responsibility to uphold these values.

Essential Physical Job Functions: Certain jobs at Duke University and Duke University Health System may include essential job functions that require specific physical and/or mental abilities. Additional information and provision for requests for reasonable accommodation will be provided by each hiring department.