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AI Data Engineering

Forward-Deployed Engineers build your campus 'memory layer' for AI agents - with your data, in your environment.

AI Data Engineering - Forward-Deployed Engineers (FDEs)

Build your campus "memory layer" for AI agents - with your data, in your environment.

What This Is

ibl.ai's Forward-Deployed Engineers embed with your team to connect SIS, LMS, CRM, ERP, identity, storage, and content systems into a secure, policy-aware memory layer. That memory becomes the backbone for AI agents—student tutors, instructor TAs, and administrative assistants—running privately in your infrastructure. This is professional services, billed by the hour (ultra-competitive rates), with clear milestones and artifacts you own.

Who We Work With

IT & Enterprise Architecture
Institutional Research
Student Success / Advising
Teaching & Learning Centers
Program/Department Leads
Security, Privacy, Legal

What We Do (Scope at a Glance)

Systems & Data MappingInventory: SIS (e.g., Banner, PeopleSoft, Colleague), LMS (Canvas, Blackboard, Brightspace, Moodle), CRM (Salesforce, Slate), ERP/HR (Workday, Oracle), Identity (Entra/Okta/Google), Storage (SharePoint/OneDrive/S3/GCS). Schemas & Contracts: enrollment, rosters, outcomes, accommodations, deadlines, advising notes, policies, course materials metadata. Policy & Governance: FERPA fields, role scopes, retention rules, redaction maps, consent flows.
Memory Layer EngineeringMCP-based Connectors: secure adapters that normalize read/write paths across systems. Per-Learner Memory Graph: knowledge graph + vector index for contextual retrieval (course content, outcomes, deadlines, interventions). Guardrails Engine: RBAC, field-level permissions, PII masking, consent receipts, audit trails. Sync & Freshness: event bus/CDC, backfills, idempotent jobs, conflict resolution, replay.
Agent Enablement (Optional)Student Tutor: citable Q&A grounded in course content, deadlines, and policies. Teaching Assistant: study guides, FAQ triage, formative feedback, discussion support. Digital Assistant (Admin): policy lookups, enrollment snapshots, risk roll-ups, "what's changed?" digests. Model Hub: OpenAI, Gemini, Anthropic, Llama, or local/NPU—hot-swappable per policy/cost.
Workflow Automation (Partner Institutions)Proactive nudges (risk, deadlines), case routing, degree milestones. Content pipelines (ingest → chunk → cite), assessment item generation with human review. Approval gates for academic control (human-in-the-loop).

Deliverables You Keep (No Lock-In)

Connector code & IaC (Terraform/K8s manifests) to deploy in your VPC/on-prem
Data dictionaries, schemas, and contract tests
Policy configs (RBAC matrices, redaction rules, retention/expiry)
ETL/ELT jobs, sync runbooks, and observability dashboards
Agent starter kits (prompts, tool definitions, evaluation harnesses)
Security & Compliance packet (threat model, data flows, audit checklist)

Engagement Model (Hours-Based, Transparent)

Discovery & Design (1–3 weeks):workshops, architecture, backlog, estimates
Integration Sprints (2–6 weeks):connectors, memory layer, policy engine, tests
Pilot & Hardening (2–4 weeks):limited cohorts, telemetry, tuning, handover
Handoff or Co-Manage:your team runs it; we stay on a light retainer if desired
Billing:hourly, ultra-competitive rates; weekly timesheets; milestone demos; you can pause/rescope anytime

Security, Privacy, and Compliance

Runs in your environment (AWS/Azure/GCP or on-prem), with your IAM/KMS
FERPA/GDPR support, SOC 2–aligned practices, least-privilege access
Data minimization, field-level masking, consent receipts, audit logs
Red-team prompts, safety filters, and replay evaluation for agents

Reference Architecture (Typical)

MCP Integration Layer → Normalized APIs to SIS/LMS/CRM/ERP/Identity/Storage
Event Bus + CDC → Reliable syncs, backfills, and change capture
Student Memory Layer → Graph + vector store with policy-aware retrieval
Policy/Guardrails Engine → RBAC, PII redaction, consent, rate limits
Agent Interfaces → Tutor (student), TA (instructor), Digital Assistant (admin)
Observability → Metrics, traces, cost monitors, evaluation harnesses

Common Use Cases We Deliver

"Single pane of glass" tutor with deadlines, materials, and accommodations context
TA that drafts study guides and triages repetitive questions (cited answers)
Admin assistant that surfaces risk cohorts and policy answers with provenance
Cross-system automations: enrollment triggers, nudges, degree-progress alerts
Content ingestion pipelines with citations and IP safeguards

Why ibl.ai FDEs

Higher-ed native:LTI 1.3, SIS/LMS nuances, academic governance baked in
Ownership by design:you get the code, configs, and deployment scripts
Model-agnostic and cost-aware:swap models; optimize for accuracy and spend
Speed + rigor:we ship working integrations quickly, with tests and runbooks

Get Started

Architecture Review (hours):map systems, goals, risks, and a pragmatic MVP
Fixed-Scope Pilot (optional):cap hours for a specific cohort or program
Ongoing Hours (as needed):enhancements, new connectors, and workflow builds

What our partners say about us

Chris Gabriel

Chris Gabriel | Google

Lorena Barba

Lorena Barba | George Washington University

Dr. Juana Mendenhall

Dr. Juana Mendenhall | Morehouse College

Juile Diop

Juile Diop | MIT

Adam Tetelman

Adam Tetelman | Nvidia

Jason Dom

Jason Dom | American Public University System

Erika Digirolamo

Erika Digirolamo | Monroe College

David Flaten

David Flaten | SUNY

David Vise

David Vise | Modern States Education Alliance

Linda Wood

Linda Wood | ARM Institute (U.S. Department of Defense)

Chris Gabriel

Chris Gabriel | Google

Lorena Barba

Lorena Barba | George Washington University

Dr. Juana Mendenhall

Dr. Juana Mendenhall | Morehouse College

Juile Diop

Juile Diop | MIT

Adam Tetelman

Adam Tetelman | Nvidia

Jason Dom

Jason Dom | American Public University System

Erika Digirolamo

Erika Digirolamo | Monroe College

David Flaten

David Flaten | SUNY

David Vise

David Vise | Modern States Education Alliance

Linda Wood

Linda Wood | ARM Institute (U.S. Department of Defense)