AI Data Engineer

AI Data Engineer

Data Analytics Practice | Office of Information Technology

Be You.

The Office of Information Technology is looking for an AI Data Engineer to join our Data Analytics Practice and help shape the future of Duke's enterprise data platform. In this role, you'll build and evolve the data foundations that power analytics, reporting, and AI-driven applications across the university.

You'll work at the intersection of data engineering, analytics, and emerging AI use cases-partnering closely with AI engineers and analysts to ensure institutional data is secure, reliable, and ready for advanced insights. If you enjoy building scalable platforms, working across domains, and turning complex data ecosystems into trusted, reusable assets, this role offers the opportunity to make a broad and lasting impact.

Minimum Requirements

• Bachelor's degree in computer science, engineering, information systems, or a related technical field, or an equivalent combination of education and experience.
• Strong experience designing and building data platforms, including cloud-based data warehouse or lakehouse architectures.
• Proficiency in Python and SQL, with experience developing production-grade data pipelines.
• Hands-on experience with modern data stack tools such as dbt for transformations and Prefect, Airflow, or similar orchestration tools.
• Solid understanding of data modeling approaches (e.g., dimensional modeling, star schema, data vault).

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience supporting AI and ML data workloads, including unstructured data pipelines, embeddings, and integration with vector databases or search platforms.
• Familiarity with data governance practices and tooling (metadata management, lineage, data quality frameworks).
• Experience building shared data infrastructure, reusable frameworks, and self-service data access layers.
• Exposure to containerization, CI/CD pipelines, and modern cloud architecture principles.
• Master's degree in computer science, engineering, or a related discipline.

Other Requirements

• This position is hybrid eligible. Must be available for 1-2 weekly meetings on-site in Durham, NC location.

Be Bold.

In this role, you will:

• Design, build, and maintain Duke's core enterprise data platform, supporting analytics, reporting, and AI applications at scale.
• Develop and manage scalable, reusable data pipelines that integrate data from institutional systems such as student, HR, finance, and research administration.
• Implement standardized transformation frameworks to deliver high-quality, well-documented data models for downstream consumption.
• Partner with AI engineers and analysts to enable AI-ready data infrastructure, including support for retrieval-augmented generation, embeddings, and unstructured data ingestion.
• Establish platform standards, governance capabilities, and best practices, including metadata management, data quality monitoring, security controls, and performance optimization.

Choose Duke.

At Duke University, data is a strategic asset-and the Data Analytics Practice plays a central role in enabling insight, innovation, and informed decision-making across the institution. As part of the Office of Information Technology, you'll collaborate with a diverse group of technologists and stakeholders who are committed to excellence, inclusion, and discovery.

You'll have the opportunity to work on highly visible, enterprise-scale initiatives while helping shape modern data and AI capabilities in higher education. Duke offers a collaborative culture, meaningful work with real-world impact, and a competitive benefits package designed to support your professional growth and personal well-being.
Learn more about Duke University's benefits ;br>
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 on the 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.