Senior AI Cloud Engineer

Arizona State University is seeking a Senior Software Engineer, MCP / Full-Stack AI Platform Engineer to join the AI Acceleration Team within Enterprise Technology. This role will help design, build, and scale the technical infrastructure that enables ASU’s next generation of AI-powered learning, research, and operational tools. The engineer will focus on the Model Context Protocol (MCP), which connects AI applications to external tools, data sources, workflows, and enterprise systems in a secure, governed way. The successful candidate will serve as a senior technical contributor and architecture partner for ASU’s AI platform ecosystem, including CreateAI, ASU’s secure, model-agnostic AI platform. This person will build production-grade MCP servers, full-stack AI-enabled applications, APIs, AWS infrastructure, data integrations, and reusable patterns that help ASU safely connect AI systems to university services. This is a hands-on engineering role for someone who is comfortable moving between architecture, backend development, frontend development, cloud infrastructure, security design, and stakeholder collaboration. The ideal candidate is technically deep, product-minded, mission-driven, and excited to help ASU build tools for the future of learning. The AI Acceleration Team is responsible for helping ASU build, govern, and scale responsible AI capabilities across the institution. This role will help the team in building secure, agentic, tool-connected AI systems that can support meaningful university workflows. The team supports ASU’s AI strategy by:Building and maintaining secure AI infrastructure and platforms, including CreateAIDeveloping AI-powered tools that support learners, faculty, researchers, and staffCreating reusable patterns for responsible AI developmentSupporting enterprise integrations between AI systems and university data/servicesPartnering across ASU to build culture, literacy, trust, and responsible adoption around AIAdvancing ASU’s vision for the future of learning through personalized, ethical, and accessible AI experiences Salary Range: $140,000- $168,100/ Depends on Experience Essential Duties:MCP Platform EngineeringDesign, build, deploy, and maintain production-grade MCP servers and clients.Implement MCP capabilities that allow AI applications to securely access approved tools, resources, prompts, and enterprise data.Develop reusable MCP templates, SDK wrappers, reference services, and starter patterns for ASU engineering teams.Integrate MCP-enabled services with CreateAI and other ASU AI applications.Track the evolving MCP specification and recommend updates to ASU implementation patterns.Evaluate emerging agentic interoperability standards beyond MCP and advise on practical adoption.Full-Stack AI Application DevelopmentBuild full-stack applications and platform features that support AI-enabled workflows.Develop backend services, REST APIs, serverless functions, frontend interfaces, and integration layers.Work with modern JavaScript/TypeScript frameworks such as React or Next.js.Develop backend services in Python, Node.js, or comparable languages.Implement secure user experiences that make complex AI capabilities accessible to non-technical users.Rapidly prototype AI-driven experiences, validate usability, and mature successful prototypes into reliable production systems.AWS Cloud Architecture and InfrastructureDesign and implement AWS-native services using technologies such as:LambdaAPI GatewayS3DynamoDBCloudFrontSQS/SNSEventBridgeCloudWatchSecrets ManagerOpenSearchBedrockBuild infrastructure-as-code using Terraform or comparable tools.Design scalable, resilient, cost-conscious cloud architectures.Implement deployment pipelines, CI/CD workflows, automated testing, and operational monitoring.Troubleshoot performance, reliability, security, and cost issues in production systems.Security, Governance, and Responsible AIPartner with security and operations teams to define guardrails for MCP and AI integrations.Help assess risks such as:Prompt injectionTool poisoningData exfiltrationOver-permissioned toolsSupply-chain vulnerabilitiesInsecure third-party MCP serversSensitive data exposureImplement authentication and authorization using OAuth, OIDC, JWTs, scopes, service roles, and secrets management.Ensure AI integrations follow ASU expectations for privacy, FERPA-aware design, responsible innovation, and human-centered impact.Build logging, auditing, and usage analytics into MCP and AI services.Contribute to integration review processes and technical approval criteria. Minimum Qualifications:Bachelor's degree and seven (7) years of experience appropriate to the area of assignment/field; OR, Any equivalent combination of experience and/or training from which comparable knowledge, skills and abilities have been achieved. Desired Qualifications: Hands-on experience designing, building, or operating MCP servers, MCP clients, AI tools, or agentic AI integrations.Strong understanding of the Model Context Protocol, including tools, resources, prompts, transports, and security considerations.Experience with retrieval-augmented generation, embeddings, vector search, prompt engineering, evaluation, and agentic workflows.Familiarity with AI safety, responsible AI practices, model evaluation, and governance.Experience with Node.js and modern frontend frameworks such as ReactExperience designing RESTful APIs, event-driven services, and microservice-style architectures.Experience with AWS cloud services, especially serverless architectures (AWS Lambda, API Gateway, S3, DynamoDB, IAM, CloudWatch, CloudFront, SQS)Strong background in API security, authentication, authorization, and secrets management, including OAuth, OIDC, and JWT.Experience supporting security reviews, incident response, threat modeling, or integration approval processes.Ability to explain complex technical concepts clearly to technical and non-technical audiences.Strong written communication, documentation, and presentation skills.Demonstrated ability to model empathy, compassion, and emotional intelligence.Experience in a values-driven organization with a strong commitment to inclusion and belonging.Ability to cultivate a psychologically safe environment where all team members can thrive.Capacity to inspire and drive meaningful change in individual, institutional, and corporate behaviors to support a more sustainable environment.Commitment to leading by example through effective communication, active participation, and advocacy for the institution’s sustainability programs. Special Instructions: In your cover letter, please describe your experience using artificial intelligence (AI), including the tools or technologies you have worked with. We also encourage you to share your passion for AI and how you have applied it to improve your work, solve problems, increase efficiency, or support innovation. Working EnvironmentActivities are primarily performed in an environmentally controlled office or hybrid work setting.Work requires regular use of a computer, keyboard, mouse, video conferencing, and collaboration tools.Role may require extended periods of sitting and focused technical work.Regular communication with team members, stakeholders, and university partners is required.Responsibilities may require changing priorities quickly, responding to production issues, and resolving ambiguity across teams. Department Statement:Enterprise Technology (ET) embraces its role as both an enabler and catalyst for advancing the vision and work of the New American University. We are a values-driven organization. Our commitments are reflected in all of the work we do in pursuit of operational excellence, the experience and delight of our community, and our strategic and innovation initiatives. Applicants must be eligible to work in the United States. Join the team that sparks human-centered innovation ET is a rapidly reconfigurable and entrepreneurial organization at ASU that prioritizes and executes to meet the needs of our community of learners, faculty, researchers and staff. Our work emphasizes autonomy, flexibility and distributed decision-making to leverage the strengths of individuals. Together, we embrace a culture that nurtures, engages and embraces many voices with a shared lens of positive community impact and expanded opportunities for collaboration. Why join us? Mission oriented. Everything we do is to advance ASU’s charter -- measuring who we include and how they succeed. We are staunch champions of learner success and put people first. Flexibility. Our flexible work environment allows employees to explore opportunities with their supervisor beyond the traditional work schedule. Opportunities include hybrid work where staff are in person three days per week. Culture forward. We embrace a Positive Core culture: Belonging, Relational, Authentic, Visionary and Empowered. Scale of impact. Our work changes the world. With 200k+ learners, faculty, researchers and staff, working with ET means you have the capacity to improve many lives and entire communities. World-class, low cost education. Our professional development is built in! ET encourages staff to seek additional certificates and degrees via ASU’s top ranked programs with major tuition breaks. Exposure to industry giants. ET partners with Amazon, Apple, Arista, Cox, Verizon, Salesforce, Alteryx and a diversity of technology companies to enhance our innovations and deepen their impact.