AI Generalist

• Job Type: Officer of Administration
• Regular/Temporary: Regular
• End Date if Temporary:
• Hours Per Week: 35
• Standard Work Schedule:
• Building: Studebaker
• Salary Range: $95,000 - $115,000

Position Summary

Reporting to the Sr. Director of AI & Emerging Technologies, the AI Generalist will serve as the primary intake and concierge lead for AI-related requests across Columbia University. This role will provide consultative support to faculty, staff, and business units seeking to leverage AI tools, automation, and process improvements. Acting as a bridge between stakeholders and technical teams, the AI Generalist will gather requirements, assess business needs, triage requests, guide users toward appropriate AI-enabled solutions and resources, and help ensure a high-quality customer experience as Columbia University Information Technology (CUIT) launches and scales AI consulting services.

The Emerging Technologies team is a fast-paced, startup inspired group that develops extremely innovative solutions to some of the most challenging problems in higher education and research. 

The ideal candidate will be the following:

• Customer-Centered AI Concierge - You are the first point of contact for AI-related questions and requests, helping stakeholders navigate options with clarity, responsiveness, and sound judgment.
• Consultative Problem Solver - You can turn ambiguous needs into clear use cases, requirements, next steps, and measurable outcomes.
• AI Adoption Partner - You help users understand practical AI opportunities, responsible-use considerations, and available University resources.
• Operational Coordinator - You manage intake, triage, follow-up, documentation, and handoffs with discipline and attention to detail.
• Strong Communicator - You explain AI concepts and service processes in plain language to technical and non-technical audiences.

The successful candidate will be a service-oriented, highly organized professional who can support rapid AI adoption while ensuring requests are understood, routed, documented, and advanced through the appropriate governance and delivery channels.

Responsibilities

• AI Intake & Concierge Support: Serves as the primary front door for AI consulting requests; conducts discovery conversations; clarifies needs, goals, stakeholders, urgency and expected outcomes.
• Requirements Gathering & Use-Case Definition: Translates user needs into clear use-case summaries, business requirements, success criteria, constraints, and recommended next steps.
• Triage & Routing: Assesses incoming requests and route them to the appropriate AI resource, technical team, platform owner, governance process, or self-service resource.
• Consultative Guidance: Advises schools, departments, and administrative units on available AI tools, responsible-use guidance, common automation opportunities, and practical paths for adoption.
• Pipeline Coordination: Maintain the intake queue, request documentation, follow-up actions, status updates, and service metrics to support portfolio visibility and prioritization.
• Stakeholder Enablement: Supports communications, training, documentation, FAQs, office hours, and other enablement activities that help users adopt AI services effectively.
• Cross-Team Collaboration: Works closely with AI Solutions Engineers, existing Emerging Technologies team members, Service Management, Security/Risk, Enterprise Architecture, and other CUIT partners to coordinate delivery and handoffs.
• Continuous Improvement: Identifies recurring needs, user pain points, process gaps, and opportunities to improve the AIaaS intake and consulting experience.
• All other duties as assigned.

Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree and/or its equivalent required.
• Minimum 3-5 years’ related experience.
• Progressively responsible experience in business analysis, service delivery, customer success, consulting, program coordination, or technology enablement roles.
• Demonstrated ability to gather requirements, define business needs, document use cases, and coordinate next steps across multiple stakeholders.
• Working understanding of AI-enabled tools, automation concepts, and responsible-use considerations in an enterprise or institutional setting.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to explain complex or emerging technology topics to non-technical audiences.
• Strong organizational skills, attention to detail, follow-through, and ability to manage multiple concurrent requests in a fast-paced environment.
• Demonstrated customer-service orientation and ability to work effectively with faculty, staff, leadership, and technical teams.
• Demonstrated ability to work in a fast-paced, deadline driven environment.
• Demonstrated excellence in a variety of competencies including teamwork/collaboration, analytical thinking, communication and influencing skills, and technical expertise.
• Ability to work with changing priorities and with multiple projects.
• Ability to be precise and attentive to detail is essential.
• Ability to work with minimal supervision and exercise sound judgment when handling sensitive, ambiguous, or high-visibility requests.
• Ability to work occasional evening/off-hour work as needed to support major launches, events, or critical service milestones.
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Preferred Qualifications

• Experience in higher education, research, healthcare, or similarly complex regulated environments.
• Experience supporting an intake, triage, service catalog, consulting, or technology advisory function.
• Familiarity with service management practices and tools such as ServiceNow.
• Experience creating user-facing documentation, training materials, FAQs, or adoption resources.
• Familiarity with AI productivity platforms, prompt engineering practices, workflow automation tools, or enterprise collaboration platforms.
• Experience partnering with technical teams to translate business needs into implementable solution requirements.

Equal Opportunity Employer / Disability / Veteran

Columbia University is committed to the hiring of qualified local residents.