Lead AI Engineer

About the Role

We're looking for a Lead AI Engineer to build production-ready AI systems that solve real operational problems—not research experiments. You'll design and deploy LLM-powered applications, integrate machine learning workflows with large-scale data platforms, and work directly with customers to deliver measurable outcomes. This is a hands-on technical leadership role where your code ships, your architecture scales, and your decisions matter.

If you're energized by turning ambiguous business challenges into elegant technical solutions—and you know the difference between a demo and a deployed system—this role is for you.

---

What You'll Do

• Design and deploy LLM-powered applications and machine-learning workflows that operate reliably at scale
• Integrate AI capabilities with large-scale data platforms, ensuring seamless data flow and system interoperability
• Evaluate model quality, safety, and reliability in production environments, establishing best practices for monitoring and observability
• Partner closely with customers and multidisciplinary teams to deliver measurable outcomes and drive adoption
• Translate ambiguous business or operational needs into clear technical solutions, bridging the gap between stakeholder vision and engineering reality

---

What You Bring

• Strong software engineering skills—you write clean, maintainable code and understand system design
• Experience with modern AI/ML systems in production contexts
• Proficiency in Python and comfort working across the stack
• Knowledge of distributed systems and how to build for scale
• Data engineering experience—you understand pipelines, transformations, and data quality
• Cloud infrastructure experience (AWS, GCP, Azure, or equivalent)
• Ability to translate ambiguous business or operational needs into clear technical solutions—you thrive in uncertainty and bring structure to complexity

---

Nice to Have

• Applied generative AI experience—you've shipped LLM-based products or features

---

Why This Role Matters

AI is only valuable when it works in the real world. This isn't about chasing benchmarks or publishing papers—it's about building systems that customers rely on, that scale gracefully, and that deliver tangible business value. You'll have the autonomy to architect solutions, the support to execute them, and the impact to see them transform operations.

---

Placed by HIR — we're working with a confidential client to find the right person for this role.