Senior AI Engineer

Senior AI Engineer (Agentic & Retrieval Systems)

Location: Flexible / Hybrid

Level: Senior–Principal

Type: Full-time

A fast-growing, AI-native firm is expanding its engineering capability to deliver agentic, retrieval, and knowledge-driven AI systems for enterprise clients.

They are hiring a Senior AI Engineer — a hands-on builder who combines deep AI engineering with product thinking to turn messy business problems into reliable, production-grade AI systems.

You'll work in small senior teams, directly with clients, shaping solutions from first principles through deployment.

What You'll Do

Build & Own AI Systems

• Design and ship LLM applications using modern orchestration, prompt frameworks, and evaluation loops
• Build multi-agent systems (planning, tool use, safety constraints, monitoring)
• Implement retrieval and vector-based architectures (RAG, embeddings, semantic workflows)
• Apply ontology and knowledge-modelling concepts for more precise reasoning
• Integrate APIs, tools, and enterprise systems
• Set the technical direction for your delivery pod

Shape Solutions Early

• Translate ambiguous business problems into clear technical approaches
• Run feasibility checks across data, systems, and architecture
• Work directly with domain experts to surface edge cases
• Produce clear diagrams and lightweight technical documentation

Ensure Reliability & Trust

• Implement evaluation, observability, and safety checks
• Support production deployment, environments, and release cycles
• Apply governance, risk, and compliance principles
• Ensure systems are maintainable, measurable, and reliable

Build Reusable Capability

• Create accelerators, agent patterns, and technical templates
• Share research, tools, and emerging AI engineering practices
• Influence internal standards and architectures

Experience Needed

• 6–8+ years in software, AI, or applied data engineering
• Strong hands-on experience with LLMs, RAG, vector stores, and embeddings
• Experience building or orchestrating multi-agent systems
• Strong Python skills and ability to ship production-grade code
• Experience with at least one major AI cloud ecosystem (AWS, Azure/OpenAI, GCP, Anthropic, etc.)
• Literacy in semantic modelling or ontology-driven thinking
• Comfortable in client-facing, delivery-focused environments

You're Likely Someone Who Is:

• AI-native and deeply hands-on
• High-agency, self-directed, and outcome-focused
• Comfortable operating under ambiguity
• A fast builder who cares about quality and safety
• Clear, pragmatic communicator with low ego

Why This Role

• Real ownership of AI systems in production
• Deep focus on agentic systems, retrieval, and semantic layers
• Senior teammates, fast cycles, minimal bureaucracy
• Opportunity to shape engineering direction from an early stage

If this is of interest, please apply or share your CV with j.lamport@ltharper.com