University of Waterloo

Information Systems Specialist (AI Literacy and Training Lead)

University of Waterloo$85K — $119K *
Education, Government & Non-Profit
Less than 5 years of experience
Job Overview by Ladders

Qualifications

  • University degree in a related field or equivalent experience.
  • Experience designing and delivering training and workshops.
  • Experience communicating technical concepts to non-technical audiences.
  • Background in documentation and creating user support materials.
  • Experience with technology adoption and organizational change initiatives.
  • Familiarity with generative AI tools is preferred.

Responsibilities

  • Develop and deliver AI literacy programming for diverse audiences.
  • Design learning supports tailored to varying AI readiness levels.
  • Create and maintain reusable AI guidance and support resources.
  • Support onboarding and training for AI-enabled tools and services.
  • Gather user feedback to identify barriers and improve adoption processes.
  • Promote understanding of responsible AI use and associated considerations.

Benefits

  • Flexible work arrangements.
  • Opportunities for professional development.
  • Access to university resources and facilities.
  • Collaboration with academic and technical teams.
  • Potential for career advancement within the organization.
Full Job Description
Job Requisition ID:


Time Type:
Full time

Employee Group:
Staff

Job Category:
Academic Technical Support

Employment Type:
Definite Term

Department:
Information Systems and Technology - Articifical Intelligence Innovation and Systems Development

Hiring Range:

Posting Information:This posting is for an existing vacancy.

The internal posting deadline for this position is August 7, 2026 at 11:59PM.

This position is being offered as a Secondment or contract opportunity. Term: 2 years

This is a Career Path position. The final level will be determined based on demonstrated skills and experience.
Anticipated hiring ranges:
• USG 10: $85,980 - $107,475
• USG 11: $93,878 - $117,348
• USG 12: $95,538 - $119,422

Job Description:

Reporting to the Director, AI Innovation and Systems Development, the AI Literacy and Training Lead is an Information Systems Specialist role focused on the adoption, enablement, and responsible use of AI-enabled information systems and services at the University of Waterloo.

The incumbent supports the AI Discovery Lab, the campus-facing front door for AI questions, ideas, training needs, and responsible adoption support. This role develops and delivers practical AI training, workshops, office hours, documentation, guidance, and reusable learning materials that help staff, teams, and leaders understand how to use AI tools appropriately and effectively in University contexts.

The role works with technical teams, campus partners, service owners, and governance partners to translate emerging AI capabilities, institutional guidance, pilot learnings, and recurring user needs into accessible training and adoption supports.

Key Accountabilities

AI Literacy, Training, and Enablement
  • Develop and deliver practical AI literacy programming for University audiences, including workshops, office hours, demonstrations, awareness sessions, and team-specific training.
  • Design learning supports for users with different levels of AI readiness, from those who are new to AI to early adopters seeking practical guidance.
  • Explain AI capabilities, limitations, risks, and responsible-use expectations in clear, audience-appropriate language.

Guidance, Documentation, and Learning Materials
  • Create and maintain reusable AI guidance, quick-start guides, FAQs, checklists, examples, presentation materials, and other user-facing support resources.
  • Convert recurring questions, pilot learnings, and responsible-use expectations into reusable learning assets.
  • Contribute to AI Discovery Lab web, knowledge base, or service catalogue content as required.

Adoption Support for AI Tools and Pilots
  • Support onboarding, training, and adoption activities for approved, pilot, or emerging AI-enabled tools and services.
  • Develop user guidance for AI tool pilots, including coding assistants, enterprise AI assistants, productivity tools, or AI-enabled workflow solutions.
  • Gather user feedback to identify barriers, learning needs, support gaps, and opportunities to improve adoption.

Responsible AI Enablement
  • Help users understand privacy, security, data sensitivity, copyright, accessibility, bias, accuracy, and human oversight considerations related to AI use.
  • Work with privacy, information security, data governance, procurement, legal, accessibility, records management, and other partners as needed to align training and guidance materials.
  • Help users understand when an AI use case may require additional review, escalation, or support.

Campus Engagement and Continuous Improvement
  • Support AI Discovery Lab events, demonstrations, engagement activities, and communities of practice.
  • Track training activity, participation, feedback, recurring questions, and adoption themes.
  • Use feedback and service data to improve training materials, workshops, office hours, and guidance.
  • Contribute training and adoption insights to the AI Discovery Lab service model and AI innovation portfolio.


Required Qualifications

Education
  • University degree in a related discipline, or equivalent education and experience.
  • Relevant disciplines may include information systems, computer science, education, instructional design, communications, business analysis, public administration, or a related field.

Experience
  • Experience designing and delivering training, workshops, enablement programs, user adoption supports, or professional learning.
  • Experience explaining technical or complex concepts to non-technical audiences.
  • Experience developing documentation, guides, knowledge base content, presentations, FAQs, or other user-facing support materials.
  • Experience supporting technology adoption, service improvement, change enablement, business systems support, or information systems initiatives.
  • Experience working with technical teams, service owners, business stakeholders, and cross-functional partners.
  • Experience with generative AI tools, AI-enabled productivity tools, or emerging technology adoption is preferred.
  • Experience in higher education, public sector, or a large complex organization is an asset.

Knowledge/Skills/Abilities
  • Practical understanding of generative AI tools, common AI use cases, risks, limitations, and responsible-use considerations.
  • Strong facilitation, presentation, and written communication skills.
  • Ability to communicate complex technical concepts clearly to a variety of audiences.
  • Ability to create clear, practical, and accessible training and guidance materials.
  • Strong planning and organizational skills, with the ability to manage multiple concurrent activities and stakeholder needs.
  • Strong analytical and problem-solving skills, including the ability to identify recurring needs and convert them into reusable guidance or learning resources.
  • Strong service orientation and ability to build positive working relationships with campus clients, IST colleagues, and partner teams.
  • Ability to work with ambiguity and help create structure where practices, tools, and expectations are still emerging.
  • Understanding of privacy, security, data handling, accessibility, copyright, accuracy, bias, and human oversight considerations as they relate to AI use.
  • Familiarity with Microsoft 365 Copilot, GitHub Copilot, Claude, ChatGPT Enterprise, or similar AI tools is an asset.
  • Experience with SharePoint, Confluence, Jira Service Management, knowledge management tools, learning platforms, or similar systems is an asset.


Nature and Scope
Contacts: i.e. internal/external contacts, the nature of interactions
Level of Responsibility: i.e. staff management, influence, leadership, coaching, direction
Decision-Making Authority: i.e. types of decisions made/problems solved, escalation point
Physical and Sensory Demands: i.e. distractions, attention to detail, lifting, carrying
Working Environment: i.e. office based, laboratory, travel, deadlines, disruption to personal life, exposure to disagreeable situations

About University of Waterloo

The University of Waterloo is a public research university with a main campus in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. The main campus is on 404 hectares of land adjacent to "Uptown" Waterloo and Waterloo Park. The university also operates three satellite campuses and four affiliated university colleges. The university offers academic programs administered by six faculties and thirteen faculty-based schools. Waterloo operates the largest post-secondary co-operative education program in the world, with over 20,000 undergraduate students enrolled in the university's co-op program. Waterloo is a member of the U15, a group of research-intensive universities in Canada. The institution originates from the Waterloo College Associate Faculties, established on 4 April 1956; a semi-autonomous entity of Waterloo College, which was an affiliate of the University of Western Ontario. This entity formally separated from Waterloo College and was incorporated as a university with the passage of the University of Waterloo Act by the Legislative Assembly of Ontario in 1959. It was established to fill the need to train engineers and technicians for Canada's growing postwar economy. It grew substantially over the next decade, adding a faculty of arts in 1960, and the College of Optometry of Ontario, which moved from Toronto in 1967. The university is a co-educational institution, with approximately 36,000 undergraduate and 6,200 postgraduate students enrolled there in 2020. Alumni and former students of the university can be found across Canada and in over 150 countries; with a number of award winners, government officials, and business leaders having been associated with Waterloo. Waterloo's varsity teams, known as the Waterloo Warriors, compete in the Ontario University Athletics conference of the U Sports.
Learn more about University of Waterloo

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