Lead Research Engineer - NCSA

Overview

NCSA

Advance next-generation AI systems for agriculture, with a focus on large language model (LLM)–based applications. This position will play a key role in designing and evaluating public-facing benchmarking services, curating high-quality benchmark datasets, and building scalable software infrastructure, while collaborating across research and applied teams with diverse partners.

• AI System Design & Development:
  Design, develop, and deploy LLM-based applications and services for agricultural and natural resource use cases.
• AI System Design & Development:
  Implement end-to-end AI solutions, including model integration, APIs, and user-facing interfaces.
• AI System Design & Development:
  Apply modern software engineering practices to ensure scalability, reliability, and maintainability of AI systems.
• AI System Design & Development:
  Collaborate with researchers to translate experimental concepts into production-ready systems.
• Full Stack Software Engineering:
  Develop and maintain full stack software systems, including frontend interfaces and backend services.
• Full Stack Software Engineering:
  Build scalable, cloud-ready architectures to support public-facing platforms and internal tools.
• Full Stack Software Engineering:
  Integrate databases, data pipelines, and external services to support AI workflows.
• Full Stack Software Engineering:
  Ensure performance, security, and usability standards across applications.
• Evaluation, Benchmarking & Data Curation:
  Design and implement evaluation methodologies for interactive question-answering and decision-support systems.
• Evaluation, Benchmarking & Data Curation:
  Contribute to the creation, curation, and maintenance of benchmark datasets for LLM-based systems.
• Evaluation, Benchmarking & Data Curation:
  Develop automated benchmarking and evaluation pipelines to assess model performance and reliability.
• Evaluation, Benchmarking & Data Curation:
  Support public benchmarking services and contribute to transparent, reproducible evaluation practices.
• Project Coordination & Technical Leadership:
  Participate in the planning and execution of funded software and research projects.
• Project Coordination & Technical Leadership:
  Contribute to technical documentation, reporting, and knowledge sharing.
• Project Coordination & Technical Leadership:
  Work across research and applied environments to align software development with scientific goals.
• Project Coordination & Technical Leadership:
  Collaborate with faculty, students, industry partners, and external collaborators on interdisciplinary projects.
• Project Coordination & Technical Leadership:
  Contribute technical expertise to grant-funded research and development initiatives.
• Project Coordination & Technical Leadership:
  Technical management and oversight of funded projects around AI benchmarking for agriculture (note: day-to-day management of the Gates project).

• Master’s degree in Computer Science, Statistics or a closely related field
• A minimum of three (3) years of professional experience in full-stack software development, demonstrating proficiency with modern programming workflows and tools
• Demonstrated experience leading a multi-person research software development project, including technical oversight and coordination

• Strong experience in full stack software development, including both frontend and backend systems
• Strong experience designing and deploying LLM-based applications and services
• Demonstrated proficiency with modern programming workflows, including LLM-based development tools and agent frameworks
• Experience evaluating interactive question-answering and decision-making systems; formal benchmarking or systematic evaluation experience preferred

• Knowledge of agriculture, agronomy, and AI-based advisory systems for farming or natural resource management
• Experience working on technical projects involving multiple partners with diverse goals and constraints
• Experience managing or contributing to funded software development or research projects, including coordination, reporting, or technical leadership

• Excellent interpersonal…