Cloud Developer

Position Summary

The Cloud Developer performs critical infrastructure and development functions for Vanderbilt’s

growing initiatives in digital scholarship, cloud-based research computing, and generative AI

(GenAI) deployment. Working closely with technologists across the Heard Libraries and other

campus units, the Cloud Developer is responsible for designing, building, and maintaining the

scalable cloud infrastructure required to make research data scalable and accessible. Given the

agile, collaborative nature of the work unit, this role demands a blend of deep technical

execution, nimble project management, and mentorship capabilities. The Cloud Developer will

serve as a "Principal Engineer" within our experiential learning programs, helping to manage

student developers, architect "fail-fast" innovations, and scale computational solutions for wide

impact.

About the Work Unit

The Jean and Alexander Heard Libraries at Vanderbilt University comprise nine libraries and

multiple specialized service departments. The libraries are fundamental to the university’s goal

of advancing scholarship and learning by collecting, preserving, and making accessible a wide

variety of resources,and partnering with faculty and students to shape research. The Digital Lab

advances the creation, development, and sustainability of faculty and student-driven digital

projects. As an applied research and learning center, the Lab transforms unstructured library

collections into machine-readable computational assets and builds cutting-edge software

solutions leveraging generative AI. The AWS-sponsored Vanderbilt Cloud Innovation Lab

(VCIL), which provides immersive, hands-on software development experiences for student

fellows, is a core focus of this work. By embedding students directly into professional

engineering workflows as junior developers, the Digital Lab bridges advanced faculty research, technical mentorship, and scalable cloud infrastructure to broaden computational innovation across campus.

Key Functions and Expected Performance

Cloud Architecture & Software Development

Design, deploy, and maintain secure, scalable cloud infrastructure (primarily AWS) to

host digital scholarship platforms and process massive library archives.

Implement and scale generative AI pipelines and machine-learning models to automate metadata enrichment and text extraction.

Ensure faculty and institutional projects are built on modern, sustainable, and well-documented technical stacks that integrate efficiently with broader university infrastructure.

Position Description

Project Management & Operational Delivery

Manage the full lifecycle of assigned digital projects, tracking timelines, deliverables, and resource allocation across partner units.

Serve as an agile project manager for select faculty-driven R&D initiatives, ensuring transparent communication and consistent progress.

Coordinate technical requirements and scope with key campus partners, including Research IT, the Advanced Computing Center for Research & Education (ACCRE), and the Data Science Institute.

Student Mentorship & Team Leadership

Recruit, interview, and hire undergraduate and graduate student fellows and research assistants.

Act as a "Principal Engineer" by embedding students into professional software development workflows, conducting code reviews, and providing technical mentorship.

Guide student teams through real-world deployment challenges, balancing structured learning with hands-on software delivery.

Sustained Innovation & Grant Support

In coordination with Digital Lab leadership, write staff technical expertise and infrastructure costs into external grant applications.

Explore and implement "fail-fast" innovations using emerging technologies to maintain

the Lab's best-in-class standing in GenAI and research computing.

Education and Certifications

Undergraduate degree in computer science, cloud computing, data science, or a related

technical discipline, or equivalent professional experience and industry certifications is

required. Postgraduate degree preferred.

AWS Certified Solutions Architect, SysOps Administrator, or Developer certification is

highly preferred.

Experience and Skills

Two to four years of relevant experience is necessary.

Technical Skills & Experience

Cloud Infrastructure

Proven experience provisioning and managing cloud

environments, preferably AWS (including EC2, S3, Lambda, and IAM infrastructure), is required.

Development & Frameworks

Proficiency in programming languages common to data

processing and cloud back-ends (e.g., Python, Node.js) is required. Experience with

modern web frameworks and frontend development is preferred.

AI & Data Pipelines

Familiarity with deploying generative AI models, vector databases,

or orchestration frameworks, as well as handling distributed data storage is required.

Tooling

Experience with version control (Git), CI/CD pipelines, and infrastructure-as-code

(IaC) is required.

Core Competencies

Leadership & Collaboration

Evidence of strong interpersonal skills and translating

complex technical requirements for non-technical faculty or students is required.

Experience with mentoring novice developers is highly preferred.

Organization

Demonstrated ability to manage multiple small-to-medium digital projects simultaneously in a fast-paced, collaborative environment is required.