Vice President, AI Engineering

at  Vector Institute

The Vector Institute is seeking a talented and experienced VP of AI Engineering to lead our engineering and staff scientist team working alongside machine learning, deep learning, reinforcement learning and other AI researchers and on applications projects working with a growing number of sponsor companies and partner organizations in academia, industry, healthcare, and government.

PROFILE OF IDEAL CANDIDATE

You are a strong technical visionary, comfortable with and respected by scientists and business leaders, with extensive experience managing groups of highly skilled individual contributors. A results-driven, customer-centric thinker, you deliver operationally-efficient, cost-effective and innovative technology services and solutions to the research institute.
You have a track record of setting budgets and timelines that are met and are constantly on the lookout for ways to further improve technical processes and adoption of new technology, within the budgets and committed timelines. You are familiar with and have a track record of achieving compliance with audit-friendly processes and highly effective security practices. You are a pragmatic resource manager with appreciation for the expediency needed for agile prototype experimentation and dependable artifact maintenance.
An effective team leader, with demonstrated group facilitation and presentation skills, you have a knack for inspiring highly qualified diverse technical staff to work together on common goals and are a developer of people who successfully meet business and professional developmental objectives.
You have experience in start-ups, especially at the early stages of staffing and organizing a software R&D team from scratch, and with cloud-computing based software development or service offerings.
You are likely currently a VP or Director of Engineering in a small to medium sized software technology firm using data analytics or machine learning, or a project lead or senior manager in a large information technology firm developing algorithms or machine learning tools or workflow systems, who is ready for and looking for exactly this kind of exciting opportunity to play a key leadership role in contributing to Vector’s success in helping Ontario and Canada realize the potential of machine learning.
Reporting to the President and CEO of the Vector Institute, you are a member of the senior leadership team and in this key role you will contribute to Vector’s success in realizing our vision, mission, and strategic objectives.

SKILLS AND EXPERIENCE

• You have a PhD in Computer Science, Computer Engineering or equivalent field and/or many years of technical leadership in R&D for innovative information technology software firms, and more recently, machine learning applications for AI industry labs
• You are a highly effective communicator and relationship manager with demonstrated proficiency in collaborating successfully with diverse stakeholders.
• You are familiar with the operations, design, utility and weaknesses in the popular ML/DL/RL systems like TensorFlow, PyTorch, Caffe, Scikit, Matlab, R and popular analytics systems such as Tableau, Spark and Hadoop, and with popular cloud infrastructure such as AWS, Azure, GCP, Docker, Kubernetes, and OpenStack
• You have proven experience with open source development, community decision-making, project management, maintenance, and encouraging deployment of large software artifacts, especially ML/DL/RL/AI cutting-edge systems
• You have strong direct, if not necessarily recent, programming experience in modern languages such as Python, Rust, Scala, C++ and Linux shell scripts
• You have experience in start-ups, especially in the early stages of staffing and organizing a software R&D team from scratch
• You have experience in leading, funding or collaborating with academic research projects, graduate student interns, or university sponsored research
• You have strong time management and organizational skills
• You have experience inventing or commercializing intellectual property
• You are comfortable working with a diverse range of clients (e.g., leadership teams, operations staff, graduate students, and external partners), maintaining confidentiality and providing all with a trusted, respectful point of contact
• You possess a positive attitude, integrity, a sense of humour, and bring a positive energy and outlook to a not-for-profit corporate culture
• You are motivated by continuous learning and the opportunity to make a difference and a real contribution to the AI ecosystem
  Please address applications to Kailyn Burke, Assistant Talent Specialist. We thank all applicants for their interest in this exciting opportunity and will be in touch with those whose qualifications most closely match with our needs.
  The Vector Institute is committed to employment equity and diversity in the workplace and welcomes applications from women, racialized persons/visible minorities, Indigenous peoples, persons with disabilities, and LGBTQ+ persons. All qualified candidates are encouraged to apply.
  Further, we are committed to fostering an environment of inclusivity and accessibility. If you require an accommodation at any point throughout the recruitment and selection process, please contact Kailyn Burke at kailyn.burke@vectorinstitute.ai and we will happily work with you to meet your needs

• Scope out and staff for Vector’s cutting-edge AI developments, transfer AI technology to sponsor and partner organizations and operate a leadership class machine learning computing facility;
• Execute on and ensure successful completion of projects, AI developments, technology transfers to sponsor and partner organizations, and AI computing facility initiatives on time and within budget;
• Effectively build and lead a diverse team of highly skilled technical staff who are engaged and who deliver on commitments to researchers, sponsors, and partners;
• Manage a portfolio which includes prototype, platform and infrastructure software development, upskilling developers and researchers on recent open source and proprietary AI system developments, R&D support services for small and large projects with researchers and/or partner professionals, and procurement and operations of large-scale computer clusters with hybrid utilization of cloud computing services;
• Act as a trusted and credible spokesperson for Vector, performing public speaking engagements on behalf of Vector on AI technologies, Vector’s accomplishments and directions;
• Recognize, capture and develop intellectual property for the benefit of its inventors, Vector resources & partner organizations; and
• Perform other technical and leadership functions, as requested by the CEO, which contribute to Vector achieving its vision, mission, and strategic objectives.