EPFL, the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne, is one of the most dynamic university campuses in Europe and ranks among the top 20 universities worldwide. The EPFL employs more than 6,500 people supporting the three main missions of the institutions: education, research and innovation. The EPFL campus offers an exceptional working environment at the heart of a community of more than 18,500 people, including over 14,000 students and 4,000 researchers from more than 120 different countries.
About the position
Academic services and operations are getting more complex with the increasing number of programs, courses and students. At the Center for Digital Education, we are collaborating with academic support units to develop AI services that help answer requests from students, instructors and teaching sections. The services encompass the evaluation, verification and classification of documents (e.g. open survey responses) as well as support for the editing of documents (e.g. course descriptions).
We are seeking an AI Engineer for academic services and program support to design, develop, and deploy safe and secure AI systems that support existing business processes, allowing staff to focus on helping students and instructors solve their problems. Working with Large Language Models hosted on EPFL's secure infrastructure, you'll create innovative solutions which follow a responsible approach to AI. Our infrastructure includes:
- Graph AI Platform: Knowledge graph, semantic search, and RAG construction
- RCP Computational Infrastructure: GPU clusters, local LLMs, specialized AI services
- Agents Framework: Orchestration layer for chatbots and AI applications
- Production Applications: 20+ AI tutors and chatbots, analytics tools, search engines
You'll extend this ecosystem with functionalities and APIs specifically designed to support academic services that run in their dedicated IT environment.
Mission
You will develop AI applications that support academic services and operations at EPFL. You will closely collaborate with the Teaching Support Centre, the Registrar's office and the Central IT services. You'll build tools that help pedagogical advisors analyse survey responses, lighten instructors' administrative tasks, support administrators in checking documents for completeness and quality as well as support program directors in conducting accreditation work.
Main duties and responsibilities
- Supporting pedagogical processes (50%)
- Course evaluations (extract topics, categorize comments)
- Course description (support description of skills with regards to competence framework)
- Supporting administrative processes (50%)
- Administrative document analysis and quality checks
- Support administrators in complex decision making processes
Both areas of activity require particular attention to fairness and a strong commitment to the security of data processing. Potential solutions will be tested and evaluated in collaboration with our benchmark engineer for the absence of bias and the quality of responses.
Profile
Education & Experience
- Master's degree in Computer Science, Machine Learning, AI, or related field
- 2-3 years of professional experience in ML/AI application development
- Strong background in Large Language Models
Technical Skills
- Expert in Python programming and ML frameworks
- LLM application development: RAG systems, prompt engineering, fine-tuning
- Computer Vision/OCR: Experience with handwriting recognition or document processing
- API development and data engineering experience
- Familiarity with vector databases and semantic search
Desired Qualifications
- Experience in educational technology or learning analytics
- Knowledge of educational assessment theory and practices
- Background in AI ethics and responsible AI development
- English (C1) and French
We offer
Professional Environment
- Work at the intersection of AI and education at a world-leading technical university
- Collaborate with AI & Education specialists from the Center for Learning Sciences (LEARN)
- Access to EPFL's secure on-premise AI infrastructure (RCP GPU clusters, local LLMs)
- Direct impact on teaching and learning for 1,000+ instructors
Technical Resources
- State-of-the-art GPU computing infrastructure
- Access to latest open-weight models and commercial APIs for development
- Integration with established platforms (Graph AI, Intelligent Agents, chatbot framework)
Development Opportunities
- Continuous learning environment with access to courses and training
- Work on cutting-edge applications of LLMs in education
- Contribute to open-source educational AI tools
Informations
- Contract Start Date : 01/04/2027
- Activity Rate Min : 80.00
- Activity Rate Max : 100.00
- Contract Type: CDD
- Duration: 1 year
- Reference: 2558
