AI Engineer

ONEOK•Dallas, OK

12d•$114,000 - $172,000

About The Position

The AI Engineer designs, builds, and operates AI systems used by Operations. This role takes on technically demanding work—including advanced algorithms, production agents, and shared frameworks—and delivers reusable infrastructure that helps the broader team work efficiently. The engineer develops, deploys, and maintains operations-critical AI systems and is accountable for their reliability, latency, cost, and accuracy. The role also develops specialized algorithmic capabilities when off-the-shelf AI does not meet operational needs, creates shared frameworks and templates for the team, and designs and evaluates tools, function calls, and prompts. The position develops custom interfaces for operations workflows based on user requirements and mentors Forward Deployed Engineers and AI Analysts in AI engineering, code quality, and system design. The AI Engineer partners across the Operations Analytics team and works closely with IT and Security to ensure systems meet company standards when transitioned to production. Success is measured by production-system performance and cost, adoption of shared frameworks, evaluation coverage and regression detection, and the growth and independence of the colleagues being mentored.

Requirements

Bachelor's degree in Engineering, Management Information Systems, Computer Sciences, Accounting, Finance, Business Administration, or another related field, with specific job-related experience.
At least 5 years of software engineering experience, including demonstrated production ownership of AI or ML systems.
Extensive experience with LLM-based systems, including agent frameworks, tool use, evaluations, prompt engineering, and retrieval.
Strong Python engineering skills and familiarity with at least one of optimization, forecasting, or computer vision.
Experience designing APIs, SDKs, or frameworks used by other engineers.
Proven experience operating production systems, including monitoring, incident response, and cost management.
Skills in relational database design, including table structures, indexes, and primary and foreign key fields.
Ability to communicate and advise effectively, develop and present information, and facilitate discussions across teams and technologies.
Ability to develop solutions to complicated issues using abstract thinking in new or complex situations.
Ability to manage and prioritize multiple assignments with competing deadlines.
Ability to apply mathematics, algebra, statistical, and volumetric methods.
Ability to work independently and mentor less experienced personnel on complex technologies.
Licenses and certifications: None required.

Responsibilities

Develop, deploy, and maintain operations-critical AI systems, including agents, harnesses, tools, and evaluation pipelines; own their reliability, latency, cost, and accuracy.
Develop numerical optimization, forecasting, computer vision, and anomaly detection capabilities when off-the-shelf AI does not meet operational requirements.
Create reusable code templates, agent skills, and function-calling patterns for Forward Deployed Engineers and AI Analysts.
Design, tune, and evaluate purpose-built tools, function calls, and prompt templates.
Develop custom user interfaces for operations workflows based on user requirements.
Mentor Forward Deployed Engineers and AI Analysts in AI engineering practices, code quality, and system design, and establish and maintain the team's technical standard.
Ensure AI systems meet ONEOK IT and security standards as they are transitioned to production.
Partner with Forward Deployed Engineers to advance prototypes into enterprise-grade products and support AI Analysts with tooling and prompt optimization.
Work with the Data Steward for reliable, contextualized data and maintain close working relationships with IT and Security.
Operate production systems, including monitoring, incident response, and cost management.