Senior Machine Learning Engineer, Generative AI Products, HBS Foundry

Position Description

HBS Foundry, created by Harvard Business School, is a cutting-edge digital platform dedicated to empowering entrepreneurs from underserved backgrounds. At the forefront of innovation, we leverage advanced AI technologies to create interactive tools that enhance the entrepreneurial journey. Our mission is to democratize access to the knowledge, tools, and resources necessary for entrepreneurs to address the world's most impactful venture opportunities. Join our dynamic team and help shape the future of entrepreneurship.

Your Role

We are seeking a talented Generative AI Engineer to join our team. In this role, you will design, develop, and deploy state-of-the-art generative AI models, directly impacting our platform's ability to provide interactive and intelligent tools for our users. As a Senior Machine Learning Engineer specializing in Generative AI applications, you will play a pivotal role in developing innovative generative AI products that support the HBS Foundry team and learners on our platform. This key technical role requires hands-on expertise across the full machine learning lifecycle. You will operationalize machine learning models in production and manage the lifecycle of artificial intelligence algorithms and tools across a variety of domains. The Foundry Team will support with domain knowledge.

Duties and Responsibilities:

AI Tool Development and Implementation

• Designing, developing, deploying, and implementing multi-agent AI tools that:
  • Assess and provide feedback on venture-related submissions
  • Automatically generate pitch decks, financial projections, marketing strategies, and other materials to support entrepreneurs
  • Act as a counterparty to simulate important entrepreneurial interactions such as customer interviews, negotiations with an investor, etc.
• Designing generative AI models using techniques like natural language processing and machine learning that can power interactive tools on HBS Foundry.
• Designing an AI-powered system that collects key factors to determine a learner's profile, entrepreneurial progress, and venture progress, and provides customized learning pathways based on these factors.
• Integrating AI tools into the HBS Foundry platform in a seamless manner so they are easy for users to access and utilize.
• Building guardrails, compliance rules, and oversight workflows into the GenAI tools and Foundry platform.
• Continually improving AI tools using feedback from users to ensure they are providing valuable assistance.

Project and Performance Management

• Monitor, debug, track, and resolve production issues.
• Work with the Foundry Project Director to ensure that projects proceed on time and on budget.
• Collaborate with Product Managers to ensure proper tracking of performance KPIs and prioritize improvements based on effort and impact.
• Presenting prototypes and progress updates to stakeholders.
• Complete other responsibilities as assigned.

Research and Collaboration

• Staying up to date on the latest advances in AI/ML research and identifying how new techniques could enhance the HBS Foundry platform.
• Collaborating with a team of engineers, designers, and subject matter experts to deliver high-quality, helpful AI-powered experiences.

This role is responsible for other duties as assigned.

Basic Qualifications

• Minimum of seven years' post-secondary education or relevant work experience

Additional Qualifications and Skills

Other Required Qualifications:

• Bachelor's degree in mathematics, physics, computer science, engineering, statistics, or an equivalent technical discipline

Additional/Desired Qualifications:

• Advanced degree in computer science, data science, engineering, or a related field within AI/ML or equivalent experience preferred
• 3+ years of experience building (Generative) AI models and tools highly preferable
• Experience working in a similar role in a startup environment preferable
• Expertise in NLP, deep learning, and other relevant techniques
• Passion for using AI to solve real-world problems
• Strong programming skills in Python and frameworks like TensorFlow
• Experience building advanced workflows such as retrieval augmented generation, model chaining, dynamic prompting, PEFT/SFT, etc. using Langchain and similar tools
• Experience integrating AI into consumer-facing applications (front-end and back-end development for integrating AI solutions into web applications
• Experience establishing model guardrails and developing bias detection and mitigation techniques for AI applications using tools (such as NeMo)
• Experience with various embedding models and setting up and tuning vector databases to improve performance of semantic search and retrieval systems
• Understand the underlying fundamentals of LLMs
• Experience working with a variety of relational SQL and NoSQL databases, big data tools (such as Hadoop, Spark, Kafka), and at least one cloud provider solution (AWS highly preferable)
• Experience in using version control systems such as Git.
• Experience with containerization and orchestration tools like Docker and Kubernetes.
• Experience with API development and integration for AI services.
• Excellent communication and collaboration skills
• Knowledge of data pipeline and workflow management tools.
• Expertise in standard software engineering methodology, e.g., unit testing, test automation, continuous integration, code reviews, design documentation.

Additional Information

This role has the possibility of being remote or hybrid.

Remote work may be considered for individuals living at least 100-mile radius from campus and where all work will be completed within a state that Harvard is registered to do business in (CA - exempt roles only, CT, GA, IL, MA, MD, ME, NH, NJ, NY, RI, VA, VT or WA).

We consider hybrid to be a combination of remote and 3 days per week onsite work at our Boston, MA based campus.

Specific hours and days onsite will be determined by business needs and are subject to change with appropriate advanced notice.

We may conduct candidate interviews virtually (phone and/or via Zoom) and/or in-person for this role.

A cover letter is required to be considered for this opportunity.

Harvard Business School will not offer visa sponsorship for this opportunity.

Culture of Inclusion: The work and well-being of HBS is profoundly strengthened by the diversity of our network and our differences in background, culture, national origin, religion, sexual orientation, and life experiences. Explore more about HBS work culture here .

About Us

Founded in 1908 as part of Harvard University, Harvard Business Schoo l ( is located on a 40-acre campus in Boston. The School offers two full-time MBA and PhD programs, more than 175 Executive Education programs, and certificates and courses through Harvard Business School Online. For more than a century, Harvard Business School faculty have drawn on their research, connection to practice, global expertise, and passion for teaching to educate leaders who make a difference in the world. The School and its curriculum attract the boldest thinkers and the most collaborative learners who will shape the practice of business and entrepreneurship around the globe.

Benefits

We invite you to visit Harvard's Total Rewards website ( ) to learn more about our outstanding benefits package, which may include:

• Paid Time Off: 3-4 weeks of accrued vacation time per year (3 weeks for support staff and 4 weeks for administrative/professional staff), 12 accrued sick days per year, 12.5 holidays plus a Winter Recess in December/January, 3 personal days per year (prorated based on date of hire), and up to 12 weeks of paid leave for new parents who are primary care givers.
• Health and Welfare: Comprehensive medical, dental, and vision benefits, disability and life insurance programs, along with voluntary benefits. Most coverage begins as of your start date.
• Work/Life and Wellness: Child and elder/adult care resources including on campus childcare centers, Employee Assistance Program, and wellness programs related to stress management, nutrition, meditation, and more.
• Retirement: University-funded retirement plan with contributions from 5% to 15% of eligible compensation, based on age and earnings with full vesting after 3 years of service.
• Tuition Assistance Program: Competitive program including $40 per class at the Harvard Extension School and reduced tuition through other participating Harvard graduate schools.
• Tuition Reimbursement: Program that provides 75% to 90% reimbursement up to $5,250 per calendar year for eligible courses taken at other accredited institutions.
• Professional Development: Programs and classes at little or no cost, including through the Harvard Center for Workplace Development and LinkedIn Learning.
• Commuting and Transportation: Various commuter options handled through the Parking Office, including discounted parking, half-priced public transportation passes and pre-tax transit passes, biking benefits, and more.
• Harvard Facilities Access, Discounts and Perks: Access to Harvard athletic and fitness facilities, libraries, campus events, credit union, and more, as well as discounts to various types of services (legal, financial, etc.) and cultural and leisure activities throughout metro-Boston.