Lead AI Engineer

Relocation: • This position is open to candidates located anywhere in the United States who are willing to relocate to St. Louis. • Relocation assistance is available for qualified candidates. Location / Remote: Hybrid in St. Louis, MO; requires 3 days per week onsite after relocation Employment Type: Permanent / Direct Hire / Full-time Compensation: $190k base salary + 15% bonus (up to 30% based on performance) Benefits: • Comprehensive medical coverage with HSA/FSA options available for employees and family members • 401(k) with company match • Paid time off (PTO) • Access to employee wellness and benefits programs Position Overview We are seeking a Lead AI Engineer to help design, build, and deploy AI-powered applications used across a large-scale enterprise environment. This is a hands-on engineering role focused on applying modern AI technologies to solve real business problems. The ideal candidate combines a strong software engineering background with recent experience building production AI applications using technologies such as LangChain, LangGraph, RAG, and large language models. You will work closely with product, engineering, and business teams to bring AI solutions from concept to production. Responsibilities: • Lead the design and implementation of AI-powered applications and agent-based workflows using modern LLM tooling. • Build and ship production AI/ML capabilities using LangChain, LangGraph, or similar frameworks, with clear evaluation and reliability strategies. • Develop scalable backend services and APIs that integrate AI functionality into enterprise products and workflows. • Drive cloud-native deployment patterns for AI services, including containerization, Kubernetes orchestration, and secure runtime operations. • Operate and improve production AI systems by monitoring performance, troubleshooting incidents, and optimizing latency, cost, and quality. • Partner with product and engineering stakeholders to translate requirements into technical designs, delivery plans, and working software. • Establish practical engineering standards for AI development, including prompt/version management, testing approaches, and release readiness. • Mentor engineers through design reviews, pairing, and technical guidance to raise overall delivery quality and consistency. Required Skills: • 7+ years of software engineering experience, including delivering and supporting production backend systems. • 2+ years of hands-on experience building AI/ML applications used in real user or business workflows. • Experience building applications using LangChain, LangGraph, or similar AI frameworks to orchestrate tools, agents, or multi-step reasoning. • Experience developing and deploying production AI solutions, including operational ownership after release. • Strong Python development experience, including API/service development and code quality practices. • Experience building APIs, backend services, and cloud-native applications with strong attention to reliability and scalability. • Experience with Kubernetes and containerized workloads, including packaging, deployment, and troubleshooting. • Experience with Google Cloud Platform (GCP), AWS, or Azure, including deploying and operating services in cloud environments. Preferred Skills: • Experience designing and implementing Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) systems, including retrieval strategy, chunking, and evaluation. • Experience implementing CI/CD pipelines and Infrastructure as Code to support repeatable, auditable deployments. • Experience mentoring engineers or leading technical initiatives, including driving architecture decisions and execution plans.