AI Technical Lead

CORE DUTIES:

• Design, implement, and deploy web-based applications and websites from initial design and architecture through development, test, and deployment.
• Implement and maintain content management systems, including installation, configuration, troubleshooting, and creation of Stanford-specific modules.
• Evaluate third-party modules for functionality, accessibility, security, and maintainability.
• Perform selected website administration duties for existing clients. Ensure web server and site technical performance.
• Provide technical expertise in front- and back-end web development. Support web infrastructure by providing end-user support, applications maintenance, product evaluation, back-end development, and internal management tools.

More About the Role & Responsibilities
 

Project Development & Technical Strategy

• Lead technical design, prototyping, and iteration of AI-powered applications that we are scoping out with our partner organizations working on eviction defense and reentry help (e.g., legal copilots, triage bots, document generators).
• Work with existing AI models (e.g., GPT, Claude, Gemini, open-source LLMs) to fine-tune and adapt them for legal use cases. Experiment with retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), vector databases, and embedding-based search to improve AI responses with trusted legal knowledge bases.
• Translate legal workflows and design mockups into structured, build-ready technical requirements.
• Oversee and contribute to backend development, data structuring, prompt engineering, and model configuration.

Rapid Prototyping & Web Applications

• Build simple, scalable web applications that integrate AI-powered legal tools.
• Work with UX designers and legal aid partners to make AI tools usable, intuitive, and effective for legal professionals and the public.
• Assess tech stack options (Google Cloud, AWS, open-source LLM frameworks) and make pragmatic recommendations for deployment.
• Ensure applications are secure, privacy-compliant, and scalable for legal service use.

Collaboration & Supervision

• Collaborate with the Legal Design Lab team, legal aid attorneys, and community stakeholders to align technical solutions with user needs and policies.
• Supervise and mentor technical student research assistants and fellows.
• Provide regular updates and planning support to lab leadership and partner organizations.

Data & AI Model Infrastructure

• Work with our partner organizations to collect and process training data and knowledge bases.
• Manage AI prompt and output testing workflows.
• Oversee pipelines for storing, analyzing, and improving model responses.
• Support integration of LLM APIs (e.g., OpenAI, Gemini) and frameworks (e.g., LangChain, Vertex AI, RAG pipelines).

Documentation & Reporting

• Present technical strategy proposals, prototypes, and final applications at stakeholder meetings for discussion. Present development and evaluation work at national conferences.
• Produce documentation, guides, and specs to support reproducibility, onboarding, and stakeholder understanding.
• Contribute to technical reporting for funders and institutional partners.
• Coordinate version control, model testing logs, and performance evaluations.

Required Experience & Qualifications

Education and Experience

Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or related field and 3+ years of relevant work experience, or equivalent.

• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills.
• Demonstrated ability to develop web content management systems.
• Demonstrated ability to develop complex web applications using open source tools, languages, libraries, and current standards-compliant code.
• Knowledge of web content development and cloud services.
• Expert level knowledge of front-end development languages and ability to hand code HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.
• Solid understanding of web standards and usability methods.
• Expert knowledge of content management systems, such as Drupal, including the ability to perform standard installation and configuration.
• Demonstrated ability to write, compile, test, debug, and deploy software.
• Knowledge of web analytics tools and related analyses.
• Ability to design and manage relational databases.
• Ability to design and implement web services.
• Ability to interact positively with and build consensus among a diverse group of colleagues, clients, and senior leadership.