Senior Software Developer – AI & Automation Solutions- Hybrid, Cary, North Carolina or Remote in the US

About the job

The Technology Integration and Architecture team (TIA) is looking for a Senior Software Developer to work on AI enablement and automation capabilities that will be used throughout the SAS Research and Development Organization! Our team is the enablement arm for Research and Development at SAS, providing hardware, software, and integrated solutions to developers and testers across the organization.

For this position, a candidate should expect to be regularly challenged by different use cases, so thinking on their feet and bringing their full technology background to bear is a must!  In some of those cases, it will mean taking those challenges and turning them into delivered capabilities for the R&D community.  This is a Senior-level position, so the expectation is that this individual will be able to, depending on the project, either deliver as an individual or lead a team to deliver success!  It will not be out of the ordinary for this individual to present status on efforts to the CTO and leadership.  So, if you are a motivated, technology-curious, “what can be if we…”, automation-addicted type of individual, you might have just found your calling!

As a Senior Software Developer, you will:   

• Work with new and emerging open AI technologies and models for enabling R&D developers and testers with tools that can make them more efficient and effective.
• Develop using AI and scripting new enablement and automation capabilities that will be used throughout R&D.
• Participate in planning, road mapping, and budgeting related to new enablement capabilities within R&D.
• Be encouraged to participate in open-source projects on behalf of SAS. 
• Ensure all applicable security policies and processes are followed to support the organization's secure software development goals.
• Embrace curiosity, passion, authenticity and accountability. These are our values and influence everything we do.

Required qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in computer science or related field.
• Minimum 8 years of experience in infrastructure, automation, or information security.
• An equivalent combination of related education, training, and experience may be considered in place of the above qualifications.
• Experience designing, developing, or supporting AI-enabled solutions, including prompt engineering, prompt lifecycle management, AI governance, model utilization optimization, and cost management associated with Large Language Model (LLM) usage.
• Experience implementing automation solutions using enterprise automation and configuration management tools such as Ansible, Jenkins, Git, and custom automation frameworks.
• Strong understanding of enterprise infrastructure components, including routers, switches, network architectures, server hardware, storage technologies, memory architectures, and network performance characteristics.
• Demonstrated experience working with LLMs, VLMs (Vision Language Models), and AI routing/orchestration technologies, including model selection, request routing, and optimization of AI workflows across multiple models.

Additional competencies, knowledge and skills

• Collaboration.  While this individual should bring a lot of technology knowledge to the table, they are not the source of all knowledge.  They should be able to collaborate fully with other members of the R&D community, including some within the team and others outside it.
• Technology Savvy.  There are some technologies that this individual will be a deep-dive expert in, but other technologies may not be on that list.  This individual should have a wide breadth of knowledge of various areas of technology in their wheelhouse.
• Adaptability.  Adaptability is an absolute for this position!  The new technology front is constantly changing, and this individual needs to be as dynamic as this space!
• Continuously Learning.  This individual needs to maintain a consistent pulse on their understanding of topics and should be self-motivated to improve.
• Innovation.  This position is one focused on bringing new and emerging solutions to R&D in the most mature way possible.
• Quality Orientation.  Delivering mature, quality solutions to technology problems is an absolute requirement for this position.

World-class benefits  

Highlights include...

• Comprehensive medical, prescription, dental and vision plans.
• Medical plan options include:
  • PPO with low annual deductible and copays.
  • HDHP combined with a health savings account with a contribution from SAS (no access to on-site health care center).
• Onsite Health Care Center (HQ) that’s free to employees and family members enrolled in the PPO plan. There's a pharmacy too! Not local to HQ? The pharmacy will ship prescriptions for no additional charge!
• An industry-leading 401k plan.
• Tuition Assistance Program and programs and resources to support your development
• Generous time away including vacation time, a variety of paid holidays, and our much-loved U.S. Winter Wellness Break between December 25 and January 1.
• Volunteer Time Off, parental leave and unlimited paid sick days.
• Generous childcare benefits for all full-time employees.