Senior AI Engineer, 80-100% (w/m/d)

With around 2100 Bachelor and Master students, ZHdK is one of the largest and most diverse art universities in Europe. The study and research areas include Art Education, Design, Film, Fine Arts, Music, Dance, Theater and Transdisciplinarity. Located in the middle of Zurich, ZHdK is a dynamic place where passionate people from over 75 countries work, study, teach, research and pursue further education. The university includes numerous exhibition and performance venues where the students' project work is shown publicly. The Information Technology Center (ITZ) of the Zürcher Hochschule der Künste (ZHdK) consists of approx. 50 different specialists who maintain the IT infrastructure of ZHdK, lead projects, develop software and provide active support. The AI Service of ZHdK is newly created. It develops and operates central AI platforms, tools and solutions for administration, research and teaching. Architecture, platforms and standards are being created now. For this development, we are looking for an engaged personality immediately or by arrangement as

Your tasks:
As a Senior AI Engineer, you will significantly shape the technical implementation and further development of the AI Service. Together with the AI Service Owner, you will form the core team and work closely with the existing teams of the ITZ. Your focus is on the construction and further development of our AI platforms as well as on the implementation of production-ready AI solutions.
AI Platform & Architecture: Together with the IT teams and external partners, you build our AI platforms and their technical architecture, develop them further and establish reusable components and technical standards. This also includes the technical evaluation of AI compute infrastructures and participation in their selection and procurement.
AI Solutions Engineering: You design and develop production-ready GenAI solutions, for example RAG applications, AI Agents, automations and specialized AI services.
Integration & Production Engineering: You integrate AI components and solutions into the existing IT landscape and, together with the IT teams, ensure stable and economical operation. This includes APIs, deployment, CI/CD, monitoring and logging as well as the monitoring of usage and costs.
Technology Evaluation: You evaluate new models, frameworks and technologies pragmatically and develop PoCs if necessary.
Collaboration & Knowledge Transfer: You work closely with IT teams, information security, data protection and external partners and ensure that technical knowledge is built up internally and sustainably anchored.

Your profile:
What you should bring:
Completed studies (Uni/FH) in Computer Science, Data Science, Business Informatics or a comparable qualification as well as several years of practical experience as an AI, Software, Cloud or Platform Engineer.
Practical experience with GenAI applications and LLM-based architectures, e.g., RAG or agentic workflows.
Experience in the construction and operation of technical platforms and services as well as the transition of solutions into productive operation.
Experience with APIs, integration architectures and the connection of different systems and data sources.
Solid software engineering knowledge.
Experience in independently developing, explaining understandably and documenting cleanly architectural and technology decisions.
Good German and English skills.
Advantageous is experience in one or more of these areas: Hybrid AI and compute infrastructures, including Cloud, GPU and On-Premises environments as well as the provision and operation of self-hosted AI models.
Security, access and authorization concepts for AI systems.
Evaluation and observability of LLM-based systems.

What awaits you and what makes the role special:
Scope for design from the beginning: The AI Service is under construction. Architecture, tech stack and technical standards are not yet final. You will significantly shape these and have a direct influence on central technological decisions.
Diverse university context: You work on very different requirements from administration, research, teaching and artistic practice.
Special working environment: You work at the interface of art, research and technology in an interdisciplinary environment. Your workplace is located in the Toni-Areal in Zürich-West, where studios, workshops, concert halls, cinema and exhibition rooms are located under one roof. You work in the middle of the operation of an internationally active art and design university and, by arrangement, in the home office.
The terms of employment are based on the cantonal personnel legislation.

Your contact persons for further information: Max Zurkinden (max.zurkinden@zhdk.ch), AI-Service Owner Alessia Consorti (alessia.consorti@zhdk.ch), HR-Business Partner
Additional information about the Zürcher Hochschule der Künste can be found at www.zhdk.ch. We look forward to receiving your complete application documents until 31 October 2026 via the link -Apply online now- at the end of this advertisement. Please note that we only consider online applications (no email applications) for this position. We very much welcome a personal cover letter.