Senior Applied AI Engineer
Signify TechnologyAbout the role
Senior Applied AI Engineer
Location: United States – Remote/Hybrid
About the role
We are looking for a Senior Applied AI Engineer to design, build and deploy production-grade AI products and intelligent workflows.
You will work at the intersection of software engineering, machine learning and product development, translating emerging generative AI capabilities into reliable solutions that solve genuine customer and business problems.
This is an applied engineering position rather than a research-focused role. You will be responsible for taking AI capabilities from initial experimentation through to secure, scalable and observable production systems.
What you’ll be doing
Design and build LLM-powered applications, AI agents and workflow-automation solutions
Develop agentic systems capable of reasoning, retrieving context, calling tools and completing multi-step tasks
Build and optimise Retrieval-Augmented Generation pipelines, including ingestion, chunking, embeddings, retrieval and reranking
Integrate models from providers such as OpenAI, Anthropic, Google and AWS
Evaluate different models and architectures based on accuracy, latency, reliability and cost
Develop evaluation frameworks to measure model and agent performance
Implement guardrails, structured outputs, fallback handling and human-in-the-loop processes
Build production-quality Python services and APIs around AI functionality
Deploy and operate AI applications within cloud environments
Monitor quality, hallucinations, latency, token usage, model drift and production failures
Partner with product managers, designers, data teams and business stakeholders
Translate ambiguous business requirements into practical technical solutions
Contribute to architectural decisions and establish AI-engineering standards
Mentor engineers and provide technical guidance across AI initiatives
What we’re looking for
Five or more years of professional software-engineering experience
Commercial experience building and deploying AI or machine-learning products
At least one to three years of hands-on generative AI or LLM experience
Strong proficiency in Python and modern backend development
Experience building production applications using large language models
Practical knowledge of prompt and context engineering
Experience with agentic workflows, function calling and tool use
Strong understanding of RAG, embeddings, semantic search and vector databases
Experience with frameworks such as LangGraph, LangChain, LlamaIndex or equivalent
Experience using OpenAI, Anthropic, Gemini, Bedrock or open-source models
Experience creating evaluation, testing and monitoring processes for LLM applications
Familiarity with AWS, Azure or Google Cloud
Experience with APIs, Docker, CI/CD and distributed systems
Strong communication and cross-functional problem-solving skills
Evidence of independently delivering products from concept to production
Desirable experience
Kubernetes and production infrastructure
AWS Bedrock, SageMaker, Azure OpenAI or Vertex AI
Pinecone, Weaviate, pgvector, Elasticsearch or OpenSearch
LangSmith, Langfuse, MLflow or similar observability tools
Model fine-tuning and open-source model deployment
Multi-agent architectures and Model Context Protocol integrations
AI security, governance and responsible-AI practices
Experience working with sensitive or regulated data
Previous start-up or customer-facing engineering experience
What success looks like
Within your first six months, you will have taken ownership of one or more AI capabilities, established reliable evaluation and monitoring practices, and deployed functionality that produces measurable improvements for customers or internal teams.
Responsibilities
- Design and build LLM-powered applications, AI agents and workflow-automation solutions
- Develop agentic systems capable of reasoning, retrieving context, calling tools and completing multi-step tasks
- Build and optimise Retrieval-Augmented Generation pipelines
- Integrate models from providers such as OpenAI, Anthropic, Google and AWS
- Evaluate different models and architectures based on accuracy, latency, reliability and cost
- Develop evaluation frameworks to measure model and agent performance
- Implement guardrails, structured outputs, fallback handling and human-in-the-loop processes
- Build production-quality Python services and APIs around AI functionality
Qualifications
- Five or more years of professional software-engineering experience
- Commercial experience building and deploying AI or machine-learning products
- At least one to three years of hands-on generative AI or LLM experience
- Strong proficiency in Python and modern backend development
- Experience building production applications using large language models
- Practical knowledge of prompt and context engineering
- Experience with agentic workflows, function calling and tool use
- Strong understanding of RAG, embeddings, semantic search and vector databases
Skills mentioned
About Signify Technology
We aim to build exceptional teams in the tech space, focusing on two core engineering specialisms: Advanced Software Engineering and AI, ML, & Data Engineering. As a multi-award-winning global staffing specialist, we're passionate about connecting talented individuals with some of the world's top companies. Starting out as the leading niche recruitment experts in Scala eight years ago, we've expanded our expertise to support clients and candidates in building exceptional tech teams across a wider range of specializations. From our offices in LA, Austin, and London, we offer both permanent and contract technology staffing solutions and are dedicated to nurturing the tech community. We share knowledge through blogs and podcasts, organize meetups, sponsor events, and offer some of the coolest jobs on the market. We are a minority-owned business certified by MSDUK and our mission is to diversify and evolve the tech space. We support our clients in their DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) journeys and are committed to transforming the industry by providing opportunities to individuals from underrepresented backgrounds. Our dedication to DEI is reflected in our values and we believe that the strength of a company lies in the diversity of its people. ‘No. 11 on London's Best Small Companies To Work For’ ‘No. 15 on Recruitment's Best Companies To Work For’ ‘No. 31 on The UK's 100 Best Small Company To Work For’ ‘Best Recruitment Company to Work For (£5M - £50M) – Tiara Recruitment Awards’ ‘Recruiter Hot 100 - Ranking #49’ ‘The Sonovate Client Service Award - Tiara Recruitment Awards’ ‘APSCo Embrace award 2023’ 'Certified as a Great Place to Work UK 2023' 'Best Tech Recruiter - Global Business Tech Awards 2023' 'Ryan Adams - Leader of the Year - British Recruitment Awards 2022' Accredited by APSCo, the regulatory body for the Recruitment industry.