If you’re passionate about building a better future for individuals, communities, and our country—and you’re committed to working hard to play your part in building that future—consider WGU as the next step in your career.

Driven by a mission to expand access to higher education through online, competency-based degree programs, WGU is also committed to being a great place to work for a diverse workforce of student-focused professionals. The university has pioneered a new way to learn in the 21st century, one that has received praise from academic, industry, government, and media leaders. Whatever your role, working for WGU gives you a part to play in helping students graduate, creating a better tomorrow for themselves and their families.

The salary range for this position takes into account the wide range of factors that are considered in making compensation decisions including but not limited to skill sets; experience and training; licensure and certifications; and other business and organizational needs.

At WGU, it is not typical for an individual to be hired at or near the top of the range for their position, and compensation decisions are dependent on the facts and circumstances of each case. A reasonable estimate of the current range is:
 

Pay Range: $157,000.00 - $243,400.00

Job Description

Essential Functions & Responsibilities:

• Define NLP initiatives and strategies with the MLE manager.
• Convert business needs into NLP capabilities with product teams.
• Develop, deploy, and optimize LLM models for various applications.
• Extract insights from unstructured data (transcripts, emails, notes, etc.).
• Utilize generative AI to enhance student learning.
• Manage the ML lifecycle: research, training, fine-tuning, evaluation, deployment.
• Work with Data Engineers to ensure quality data processing pipelines.
• Deploy ML models with MLOps teams for scalability and performance.
• Integrate ML solutions into WGU’s ecosystem with cross-functional teams.
• Stay updated on LLM, NLP, and Deep Learning advancements.
• Establish ML standards and mentor junior team members.
• Follow Agile methodologies and communicate updates.

Knowledge, Skills & Abilities:

• Experience with scalable distributed systems using GitOps (Terraform preferred).
• Proficiency in MLOps frameworks (Databricks, Seldon, SageMaker, etc.).
• Strong programming skills in Scala (Java), Go, or Python.
• Expertise in cloud-based big data infrastructure (AWS preferred).
• Understanding of traffic management, networking, and stream-processing (Spark Streaming, Flink, etc.).
• Familiarity with software engineering best practices (testing, code reviews, CI/CD).
• Ability to develop production-grade services and scalable infrastructure.
• Strong problem-solving, communication, and leadership skills.

Competencies:

• Impact: Prevents complex issues and develops innovative solutions.
• Problem Solving: Leads projects and cross-functional teams, driving decisions.
• Communication: Engages experts and influences senior leadership.

Job Qualifications:

• Minimum:

  • M.S. in Computer Science, ML, Data Science, or related field.
  • 5+ years of software development in cloud environments.
  • 3+ years of experience building large-scale ML/DL models.
  • Deep knowledge of NLP/LLM (language modeling, sentiment analysis, embeddings, etc.).
  • Proficiency in Python, R, SQL, and deep learning frameworks (PyTorch, TensorFlow).
  • Hands-on experience with cloud/data platforms (AWS, Azure, Databricks).
  • Expertise in ETL, feature engineering, and ML tools (MLFlow, Streamlit).
  • Strong problem-solving, creativity, and collaboration skills.

• Preferred:

  • PhD in a related field.
  • Experience with Databricks and AWS.

To explore more about our company and what makes working here special, visit our website at https://www.wgu.edu/about. To view current career opportunities and apply, please visit https://www.wgu.edu/careers.

#LI-SC

#D&I 

Position & Application Details

Full-Time Regular Positions (classified as regular and working 40 standard weekly hours): This is a full-time, regular position (classified for 40 standard weekly hours) that is eligible for bonuses; medical, dental, vision, telehealth and mental healthcare; health savings account and flexible spending account; basic and voluntary life insurance; disability coverage; accident, critical illness and hospital indemnity supplemental coverages; legal and identity theft coverage; retirement savings plan; wellbeing program; discounted WGU tuition; and flexible paid time off for rest and relaxation with no need for accrual, flexible paid sick time with no need for accrual, 11 paid holidays, and other paid leaves, including up to 12 weeks of parental leave.

How to Apply: If interested, an application will need to be submitted online. Internal WGU employees will need to apply through the internal job board in Workday.

Additional Information

Disclaimer: The job posting highlights the most critical responsibilities and requirements of the job. It’s not all-inclusive.

Accommodations: Applicants with disabilities who require assistance or accommodation during the application or interview process should contact our Talent Acquisition team at recruiting@wgu.edu.

Equal Employment Opportunity: All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to any protected characteristic as required by law.