Senior GenAI Engineer

WORK OPTION: The NBA currently provides eligible employees the option of working remotely one day per week

Position Summary:
The NBA’s Enterprise Generative AI team is seeking a visionary and motivated Software Engineer (early-career) to support the development, deployment, and scaling of cutting-edge Generative AI applications that reimagine how our internal IT systems and business operations function. This role offers a unique opportunity to work alongside senior engineers to build foundational AI infrastructure and products that directly impact the way the NBA operates across departments—ranging from IT automation and support to business intelligence and productivity enhancement.

As a technical thought leader, you’ll drive forward the use of large language models (LLMs) and foundational models (FMs), designing and fine-tuning bespoke AI solutions tailored to enterprise challenges. You’ll collaborate across IT, business, and product teams to identify transformative use cases and implement scalable AI-first workflows that unlock new value.

Why Join Us:
• Be at the forefront of enterprise AI transformation within one of the most recognized sports and media organizations in the world.
• Drive high-impact initiatives that blend technology, data, and user experience to shape the future of work across the NBA.
• Work with cutting-edge tools and LLM platforms in a collaborative, fast-paced, and forward-thinking environment.

Major Responsibilities:

• Design and Develop: Architect and implement robust, scalable Generative AI systems using LLMs to solve enterprise-wide challenges in automation, knowledge discovery, and workflow acceleration.
• Model Development & Optimization: Fine-tune LLMs and foundational models to enterprise-specific data, optimizing for performance, latency, and relevance.
• Enterprise Integration: Seamlessly integrate AI tools into existing systems such as ServiceNow, GitHub, Tableau, SharePoint, and other platforms.
• Infrastructure Leadership: Define, build, and maintain scalable MLOps and LLMOps infrastructure for efficient model deployment, monitoring, and lifecycle management.
• Operational Efficiency: Develop automated AI-driven tools for internal support, IT ticketing systems, and operational efficiency improvements.
• AI Productization: Lead the creation of proof-of-concepts and transition them into production-grade AI features with cross-functional adoption plans.
• Best Practices & Governance: Champion ethical AI practices, security compliance, and responsible AI principles across the development lifecycle.
• AI Evangelism: Collaborate with internal stakeholders to promote AI literacy and adoption through demos, training sessions, documentation, and strategic influence.
• Innovation Watch: Stay up-to-date on industry trends, research papers, and emerging models to continuously improve and innovate NBA’s internal AI capabilities.
• Impact: Work closely with business and technology leaders to identify high-impact AI use cases and develop plans to address them.

Required Education/Professional Experience:

• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Computer Science, Machine Learning, Data Science, or related discipline.
• Enterprise Engineering Experience: Minimum 5 years in applied AI/ML roles, ideally in enterprise contexts. Experience integrating ML solutions with platforms such as ServiceNow, GitHub, or cloud-based environments.

Required Skills/Knowledge Attributes:

• AI/ML Expertise: Deep understanding of Generative AI, LLMs, NLP, Transformers, and model fine-tuning techniques. Practical experience building and deploying models using frameworks like Hugging Face, PyTorch, or TensorFlow.
• Infrastructure & MLOps: Strong knowledge of cloud AI infrastructure (AWS/GCP/Azure), containerization (Docker/Kubernetes), and ML pipelines. Hands-on with tools like MLflow, Weights & Biases, or SageMaker.
• Software Engineering: Strong full-stack engineering skills (Python, JavaScript, Node.js, React, etc.) and background in building APIs and microservices.
• Data Fluency: Proficient in building ETL pipelines, managing structured/unstructured datasets, and using SQL and NoSQL systems. R experience is a bonus.
• Communication & Strategy: Exceptional communication skills to present technical topics clearly to executives, and a strategic mindset to align AI concepts and projects with business objectives.

Salary Range:$180,000 - $220,000

The NBA does not accept unsolicited resumes from search firms or any other third parties. Any unsolicited resume sent to the NBA will be considered NBA property, and the NBA will not pay a fee should it hire the subject of any unsolicited resume.

The NBA considers applicants for all positions on the basis of merit, qualifications, and business needs, and without regard to race, color, national origin, religion, sex, age, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, alienage or citizenship status, ancestry, marital status, genetic predisposition or carrier status, veteran status, familial status, status as a victim of domestic violence, or any other status or characteristic protected by applicable federal, state, or local law.

The NBA is committed to providing a safe and healthy workplace. To safeguard our employees and their families, our visitors, and the broader community from COVID-19, and in consideration of recommendations from health authorities and the NBA’s own advisors, any individual working onsite in our New York and New Jersey offices must be fully vaccinated against COVID-19. The NBA will discuss accommodations for individuals who cannot be vaccinated due to a medical reason or sincerely held religious belief, practice, or observance.

About the NBA
The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a global sports and media organization with the mission to inspire and connect people everywhere through the power of basketball.  Built around five professional sports leagues:  the NBA, WNBA, NBA G League, NBA 2K League and Basketball Africa League, the NBA has established a major international presence with games and programming available in 215 countries and territories in more than 50 languages, and merchandise for sale in more than 200 countries and territories on all seven continents.  NBA rosters at the start of the 2021-22 season featured a record 121 international players from 40 countries.  NBA Digital’s assets include NBA TV, NBA.com, the NBA App and NBA League Pass.  The NBA has created one of the largest social media communities in the world, with 2.1 billion likes and followers globally across all league, team, and player platforms.  Through NBA Cares, the league addresses important social issues by working with internationally recognized youth-serving organizations that support education, youth and family development, and health-related causes.