Senior Developer

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Compensation Range

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Posting End Date

Note: Applications will be accepted until 11:59 PM on the Posting End Date.

Job End Date

This position is expected to be filled by promotion/reassignment and is included here to inform you of its vacancy at the University.

At UBC, we believe that attracting and sustaining a diverse workforce is key to the successful pursuit of excellence in research, innovation, and learning for all faculty, staff and students. Our commitment to employment equity helps achieve inclusion and fairness, brings rich diversity to UBC as a workplace, and creates the necessary conditions for a rewarding career.

Job Summary
The Senior Developer will be working in a the research & development and will provide expertise in product development for creating innovative AI-powered products and services. This position is instrumental hands-on development of AI tools and solutions using Generative AI and Large Language Models (LLMs) at UBC. This position requires advanced coding skills, knowledge of AI technologies, and experience in implementing complex systems. The Senior Developer will provide technical expertise in development projects, mentor less experienced developers, ensure code quality, and contribute to the establishment of best practices for AI development within the university. This role is also responsible for exploring AI development options within existing enterprise tools, developing policies, standards, governance and related guidance, and staying updated on vendor market trends related to AI and ML.

Organizational Status
The Digital Experience Lab provides an innovation incubation services to the University community including strategic enterprise-wide projects. This unit reports into the greater UBC IT and work closely with the Emerging Media Lab and other innovation initiatives at UBC.

This position reports to the Sr. Manager, Digital Experience and Creative Media. The Incumbent is a member of both the Digital Experience Lab and Emerging Media Lab teams and provides senior level software development to all clients including external clients and University community members (alumni, faculty, staff and students). This position helps in the development of emerging digital solutions for use across all client stakeholder environments (funded and cost recovery).

This position collaborates with management and staff from all sections of Information Technology. This position also interacts directly with other University technology professionals on relevant projects and tasks.

Work Performed

• Analyze business needs and develop overall strategies in creating AI tools and solutions;

• Provide leadership in a technical specialization in the management of multiple project teams; provide advice on options, risks and costs versus benefits.

• Research, design and develop AI tools and solutions from concept to implementation, managing the entire project cycles.

• Design, develop and implement complex emerging technology solution including AI tools and solutions leveraging Generative AI, LLMs and any emerging forms of artificial intelligence in future.

• Provide technical expertise in software development projects; Write, test, and maintain high-quality code.

• Lead software development teams,

• Mentor and train less experienced developers, provide senior, subject matter technical guidance, fostering a collaborative and productive development environment .

• Explore and integrate AI development options within existing enterprise tools, staying updated on vendor market trends related to AI and ML.

• Acting as a subject matter expert, collaborates with the Product Owner and Project Manager to align technical solutions with project goals and user needs.

• Applies subject matter expertise to contribute to the establishment of best practices and strategy for AI development and deployment at the university.

• Conduct regular code reviews and provide constructive feedback to ensure high-quality code. Recommend solutions on mitigation strategies to address any concerning issues.

• Analyze business needs utilizing a structured requirements process (gathering, analyzing, documenting, and managing changes). ·

• Develop technical documentation, specification, policies, standards, guidelines and training documents.

• Provide operational and technical staff and stakeholder training to ensure successful adoption and use of the developed AI tools.

• Stay updated on the latest advancements in Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, computer vision, and Human Computer Interface, incorporating relevant innovations into the development process.

• Performs other duties as required.

Consequence of Error/Judgement
Errors in code quality and implementation could lead to suboptimal design and functionality of the AI tools, potentially compromising their effectiveness and usability.

Supervision Received
Works under the administrative direction of the Senior Manager, Digital Experience and Creative Media.

Supervision Given
Provides mentorship and technical guidance to less experienced developers, ensuring that AI tools are developed and implemented effectively.

Minimum Qualifications
Undergraduate degree in a relevant discipline. Minimum of eight years of related experience including at least two years of senior level position, or the equivalent combination of education and experience.

• Willingness to respect diverse perspectives, including perspectives in conflict with one's own

• Demonstrates a commitment to enhancing one's own awareness, knowledge, and skills related to equity, diversity, and inclusion

Preferred Qualifications

• A degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field is preferred.

• Significant advanced level experience in software development, with a focus on AI and ML technologies.

• Strong coding skills in languages such as Python, Java, or C++.

• Experience with AI development frameworks and tools, such as TensorFlow, PyTorch, and Hugging Face.

• Knowledge of cloud platforms like AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud.

• Excellent problem-solving skills and attention to detail.

• Ability to work independently and as part of a team.

Core Competencies:

Collaboration (Advanced - A): Consistently fosters collaboration and respect among team members by addressing elements of the group process that impedes, or could impede, the group from reaching its goal. Engages the "right people," within and beyond organizational boundaries, by matching individual capabilities and skills to the team's goals. Works with a wide range of teams and readily shares lessons learned and credit for team accomplishments.

Communicating for Results (Advanced - A): Converses with, writes reports for, and creates/delivers presentations to all levels of colleagues and peer groups in ways that support problem solving and planning. Seeks a consensus with business partners. Debates opinions, tests understanding, and clarifies judgments. Brings conflict into the open empathetically. Explains the context of multiple interrelated situations, asks searching, probing questions, and solicits expert advice prior to taking action and making recommendations.

Problem Solving (Advanced - A): Diagnoses problems using formal problem-solving tools and techniques from multiple angles and probes underlying issues to generate multiple potential solutions. Proactively anticipates and prevents problems. Devises, facilitates buy-in, makes recommendations, and guides implementation of corrective and/or preventive actions for complex issues that cross organizational boundaries and are unclear in nature. Identifies potential consequences and risk levels. Seeks support and buy-in for problem definition, methods of resolution, and accountability.

Role Based Competencies:

Accountability (Advanced - A): Sets enhanced objectives for self and others. Monitors performance trends and identifies opportunities to improve standards. Provides regular feedback and suggests alternative approaches necessary to ensure that organizational objectives and superior standards are achieved. Delegates responsibility and reallocates resources as needed to ensure that priorities are met for initiatives within area of responsibility.

Business Process Knowledge (Advanced - A): Describes and documents critical cross-functional business process flows. Applies business process reengineering techniques and methods in analyzing process flow and accountability charts. Recommends and advocates substantive process enhancements and assesses both internal and external implications.

Information Systems Knowledge (Advanced - A): Identifies means of integrating technical support requirements with enterprise processes and strategies. Identifies technological opportunities to meet client needs. Creates information system solutions to meet the needs of business stakeholders. Partners with appropriate technical consultants, experts, and managers to resolves complex problems across all IT solutions.