AI Agent Engineer

Ochsner Health•New Orleans, LA

1d•Hybrid

About The Position

The Agent Engineer designs, builds, and continuously improves Ochsner’s AI voice and chat agents. Working across healthcare operations, AI, and enterprise systems integration, the role translates large language model capabilities into solutions for patients and staff. The engineer serves as a technical leader and trusted advisor to the iO, Epic, and broader IS teams, helping create and implement AI-powered solutions to improve efficiency, clinical outcomes, and financial performance. This is a hybrid position with an expectation of onsite presence approximately once per month. Additional onsite travel may be required based on business needs. The role may involve variable hours, including nights, evenings, and weekends, as well as occasional out-of-town travel. The position requires a bachelor’s degree. No work experience is required; five years of experience in healthcare IT, Epic systems, or enterprise AI/ML platforms is preferred. An Epic certification in at least one clinical application is also preferred. The role involves working with clinical operations, compliance, IT, and engineering colleagues; maintaining awareness of applicable laws and standards; and complying with the employer’s Compliance & Privacy Program and Standards of Conduct. The position is classified as Light Work, requiring exertion of up to 20 pounds occasionally and/or up to 10 pounds frequently, or a negligible amount constantly. The normal routine involves no exposure to blood, body fluid, or tissue, and the employee is not called upon to perform or assist with emergency care or first aid. There is no occupational risk of exposure to communicable diseases. Because the work is in a healthcare setting, occupational exposure to hazardous medications or waste may occur, with risk varying based on job duties.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree.
Software programming skills in multiple languages.
Effective verbal and written communication skills, including the ability to present information clearly and professionally.
Strong interpersonal skills.
Critical-thinking skills and the ability to formulate solutions to complex problems.
Ability to generate, evaluate, and articulate unconventional and useful ideas and persuade others to pursue them.
Ability to tolerate ambiguity, overcome obstacles, and take reasonable risks.
Ability to be self-motivated, solve problems, and take responsibility for one’s actions.
Ability to work under stressful situations with frequent interruptions and changing priorities.
Ability to work variable hours, including nights, evenings, and weekends, and occasional out-of-town travel.

Nice To Haves

Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Data Science, or a related science field.
Five years of experience in healthcare IT, Epic systems, or enterprise AI/ML platforms.
Epic certification in at least one clinical application.
Hands-on experience with large language models and generative AI platforms such as Google Gemini, OpenAI GPT, Anthropic Claude, or open-source models via Hugging Face.
Experience with prompt engineering, retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), and agentic AI design patterns such as tool use, multi-turn reasoning, and function calling.
Familiarity with voice AI platforms and telephony integration, such as Cisco or Eleven Labs.
Experience with healthcare interoperability standards such as HL7 FHIR, Epic APIs, and CDS Hooks.
Knowledge of healthcare compliance frameworks, including HIPAA, patient consent management, and clinical data governance.
Experience with MLOps and AI observability tools for monitoring agent performance, latency, and safety in production, such as LangSmith, Weights & Biases, or Datadog.
Familiarity with conversation design best practices, dialog management frameworks, and natural language understanding (NLU) evaluation.
Experience building CI/CD pipelines for AI agent deployment, including automated testing, regression suites, and canary release strategies.
Understanding of contact center operations and workforce management as they relate to AI-assisted call handling and escalation.
Experience with cloud platforms such as GCP, AWS, or Azure and containerized deployment using Docker or Kubernetes.
Prior experience in a healthcare system, health plan, or health-tech startup environment.

Responsibilities

Design and build production-grade AI agents for voice and chat, including conversation flows, tool orchestration, and safe escalation logic.
Integrate agents with Ochsner’s clinical and operational systems so they can take actions, not just answer questions.
Create and iterate on agent behavior, routing logic, and prompts grounded in Ochsner workflows and compliance requirements.
Test and refine agents using real-world patient interactions, improving resolution rates and experience quality.
Partner with clinical operations, compliance, and IT to ensure agents meet regulatory, consent, and audit requirements.
Analyze business processes, functions, and associated technologies to identify AI automation opportunities.
Maintain and enhance professional competencies in AI/ML, healthcare IT, and industry best practices.
Mentor and provide technical guidance to the Epic team, AI engineering peers, and other IS department areas.
Perform other related duties as required.
Remain knowledgeable about applicable federal, state, and local laws, accreditation standards, and regulatory requirements, and ensure compliance.
Immediately report known or suspected unethical or questionable behavior and patient or employee safety, privacy, or other compliance concerns.