Senior AI Engineer, Contract To Hire

This position is listed on behalf of a partner company, who manages all applications and next steps. Our partner is looking for a Senior AI Engineer, Contract To Hire based in the United States.

This role focuses on designing and delivering production-ready artificial intelligence solutions that solve complex business challenges.
The position combines advanced AI engineering, software development, and applied machine learning expertise to build scalable AI-powered applications.
You will work with modern technologies including generative AI, agentic systems, large language models, and retrieval-augmented generation to create impactful solutions.
The role requires a balance of technical depth, product thinking, and collaboration to transform ideas into reliable enterprise applications.
You will partner with engineering, product, data, and operational teams to integrate AI capabilities into real-world workflows.
This is an opportunity to help shape the future of AI-driven solutions while working in an innovative, fast-moving environment.

Accountabilities:

The Senior AI Engineer will design, develop, and optimize production-grade AI applications while helping organizations leverage emerging technologies effectively. This role requires strong engineering discipline, applied AI expertise, and the ability to translate complex requirements into scalable solutions.

• Design, build, deploy, and maintain production-ready generative AI, agentic AI, and machine learning applications.
• Develop AI solutions using large language models (LLMs), multimodal models, retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), structured extraction, classification, and workflow automation.
• Create evaluation strategies, testing frameworks, and monitoring approaches to measure AI system quality and continuously improve performance.
• Build reliable AI applications with strong observability, guardrails, scalability, and maintainability.
• Apply prompt engineering, tool calling, context management, model selection, and debugging techniques to optimize AI workflows.
• Develop retrieval-based AI solutions using vector databases, embeddings, and semantic search technologies.
• Collaborate with engineering, product, data, and operations teams to integrate AI capabilities into client and business systems.
• Translate business and user requirements into practical AI architectures and technical implementations.
• Stay current with advancements in artificial intelligence and apply emerging techniques where they provide measurable value.
• Contribute to best practices around AI development, quality assurance, and responsible AI implementation.

Requirements:

The ideal candidate brings strong software engineering fundamentals combined with hands-on experience building and deploying AI-powered applications. This role requires technical expertise, problem-solving ability, and the ability to collaborate effectively across multidisciplinary teams.

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Data Science, or a related technical field required; Master’s degree preferred.
• 5+ years of experience in software engineering, applied AI, machine learning, or related technical roles.
• At least 1 year of recent experience designing and delivering production-grade generative AI solutions.
• Strong proficiency in Python and experience building cloud-native applications on platforms such as AWS or GCP.
• Hands-on experience with modern AI systems, including LLMs, agents, retrieval-augmented generation, and AI workflow automation.
• Practical experience with prompt engineering, model evaluation, tool calling, and AI application debugging.
• Experience designing AI evaluation approaches using metrics, test datasets, human review, and error analysis.
• Strong understanding of software engineering principles including system design, testing, scalability, and maintainability.
• Experience working with relational and/or NoSQL databases.
• Hands-on experience with vector databases, embeddings, and semantic search solutions.
• Strong communication skills and the ability to explain complex technical concepts clearly.
• Experience in healthcare, insurance, financial services, or other regulated industries is preferred.
• Familiarity with AI guardrails, prompt optimization, human-in-the-loop workflows, or responsible AI practices is a plus.

Benefits:

• Competitive compensation package based on experience, qualifications, and role scope.
• Estimated base salary range aligned with market expectations and expertise.
• Contract-to-hire opportunity with potential for long-term career growth.
• Fully remote work environment within the United States.
• Opportunity to work on innovative AI transformation initiatives with enterprise impact.
• Collaborative culture focused on learning, innovation, and professional development.
• Exposure to cutting-edge AI technologies and real-world implementation challenges.