Principal AI Engineer

Principal AI Engineer

A major enterprise is building a new AI Engineering function and is looking for a senior technical leader to anchor its most advanced AI initiatives. This is a hands‑on, high‑impact IC role where you’ll shape the organisation’s AI strategy, design agentic AI systems, and build production‑grade applications that plug directly into real business workflows.

You’ll work at the intersection of large‑scale systems, modern cloud platforms, and frontier AI models — architecting solutions, mentoring engineers, and setting the technical bar for how AI is built and deployed in a highly regulated environment. If you’re an experienced engineer who wants to stay close to the code while influencing enterprise‑level decisions, this role hits the sweet spot.

What You’ll Lead:

• Architect and deliver agent‑driven AI systems that integrate with enterprise data, workflows, and internal platforms
• Build production AI applications on modern cloud infrastructure using state‑of‑the‑art LLMs
• Define technical standards for safe, reliable, and auditable AI in a regulated environment
• Mentor engineers through code reviews, design guidance, and hands‑on technical leadership
• Evaluate emerging AI tools and model capabilities, shaping the roadmap for future adoption

What You Bring:

• Deep engineering experience across distributed systems, APIs, microservices, and event‑driven design
• Strong Python expertise plus comfort with SQL, containers, orchestration, and CI/CD
• Hands‑on experience with LLMs, AI agents, or the engineering depth to ramp quickly
• Understanding of AI safety, risk vectors, and responsible deployment practices
• Background working on complex, high‑stakes production systems; regulated industry experience is a bonus

Compensation:

• $190-200k base
• 30% bonus
• 25+ days PTO
• 6% 401k match
• Health, vision, dental and life plans

This is a hybrid role, based in Chicago and cannot support any form of visa sponsorship.