Lead AI Engineer
This position is listed on behalf of a partner company, who manages all applications and next steps. Our partner is looking for a Lead AI Engineer based in the United States.
This is a high-impact engineering leadership role focused on building an enterprise workflow automation platform powered by AI. You will shape the technical foundation of a product designed to become a core customer offering, making key architectural decisions with significant autonomy. The role combines hands-on software development, AI engineering, enterprise solution delivery, and client-facing technical leadership. You will work directly with senior leadership while deploying solutions into customer environments across the United States. Success requires the ability to move quickly, embrace ambiguity, and turn complex business workflows into scalable technology. This opportunity is particularly suited to an entrepreneurial engineer who enjoys owning problems from architecture through implementation and measurable business impact.
Accountabilities
- Design and build the core architecture for an enterprise-grade workflow automation platform, establishing scalable patterns, APIs, integrations, and workflow engines.
- Make independent decisions around technology stacks, architecture, implementation approaches, and engineering practices while constructively challenging assumptions when appropriate.
- Deploy solutions virtually or onsite within customer organizations across the United States, adapting to varying technical environments and business requirements.
- Lead discovery sessions with customers to understand workflows, operational challenges, technical requirements, and opportunities for automation.
- Rapidly prototype and develop customized enterprise solutions that address customer needs while maintaining appropriate standards for scalability, reliability, and security.
- Integrate generative AI capabilities into workflows and applications to improve automation, efficiency, and measurable customer outcomes.
- Serve as a senior technical representative during customer engagements, clearly communicating technical concepts, setting expectations, and guiding stakeholders through implementation.
- Work closely with executive leadership and operate with a high degree of autonomy, taking ownership of technical challenges and delivering solutions with minimal oversight.
- Establish engineering patterns and best practices, guide senior engineers, and contribute to raising the technical quality of the broader team.
- Continuously iterate on products and solutions, prioritizing rapid delivery, learning, experimentation, and measurable impact over lengthy upfront planning.
- 7+ years of experience building and shipping production software across both front-end and back-end environments, including complex systems.
- 2+ years of hands-on experience building and deploying generative AI capabilities in real-world products.
- Expert-level proficiency with TypeScript and JavaScript and modern frameworks such as Next.js and React, with strong backend experience using Node.js, NestJS, Express, or comparable technologies.
- Strong understanding of data technologies including PostgreSQL/SQL, caching systems, vector stores, and related data layers.
- Demonstrated expertise using AI-assisted development tools such as Cursor, Claude Code, Windsurf, Copilot, or comparable platforms to improve engineering velocity and quality.
- Ability to effectively design prompts, decompose complex problems, establish testing strategies, and critically review AI-generated code and outputs.
- Strong understanding of application security and compliance, including authentication and authorization, RBAC/ABAC, auditing, data residency, secrets management, and PII protection.
- Experience with cloud and DevOps technologies such as AWS, GCP, Azure, Vercel, CI/CD pipelines, infrastructure as code with Terraform or Pulumi, and monitoring and observability.
- Proven ability to guide senior engineers, establish technical standards, make architectural decisions, and raise engineering quality.
- Strong client-facing communication skills and the ability to translate technical concepts into clear business outcomes.
- Experience in retail, hospitality, logistics, healthcare, or life sciences is a plus.
- Demonstrated curiosity, proactive learning, ownership, adaptability, and comfort operating in ambiguous, fast-moving environments.
- Strong interpersonal skills, with the ability to build trust, navigate complex stakeholder relationships, and lead teams through challenging technical problems.
- Competitive compensation with performance-based upside.
- Comprehensive benefits package.
- Remote work flexibility.
- Paid time off (PTO).
- Opportunity to work on generative AI, workflow automation, and enterprise technology initiatives.
- High-autonomy environment with significant technical and strategic ownership.
- Direct exposure to enterprise customers and senior leadership.
- Opportunities to build foundational technology and rapidly deploy AI-enhanced solutions into real-world environments.
- Final compensation and benefits package will depend on experience and location.