Applied AI Lead

Sia•Philadelphia, PA

1d•$129,500 - $160,000•Hybrid

About The Position

We're looking for an Applied AI Lead to join Sia's ETI practice and help clients move AI, automation, and agent-based workflows from idea to working production systems. This is a hands-on technical role. You will personally build, prototype, and ship AI-enabled solutions inside client environments, often bridging modern AI tooling with the operational technology (OT) and legacy IT systems common in energy, transportation, and industrial settings. You'll partner closely with our AI Transformation Managers, who own the business case and stakeholder relationships, so you can focus on what you do best: building things that actually work in production, not just in a demo. You'll join a growing ETI technical team, working day to day alongside AI Transformation Managers and Sia's broader Data & AI colleagues on live client engagements.

Requirements

5-8+ years of experience building and shipping software or AI/ML solutions, including production deployment
Hands-on experience building with Generative AI: LLMs, AI agents, copilots, retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), or workflow automation platforms; you should be able to speak to code you've written, not just tools you've used
Proficiency in Python or another relevant language, plus experience with common AI/ML frameworks and at least one major cloud platform (AWS, Azure, or GCP)
Experience integrating AI solutions with existing enterprise systems, data platforms, or industrial/OT environments
Comfort working directly with client technical teams, including engineers, data teams, and IT/OT staff
Ability to explain technical work and trade-offs to non-technical stakeholders
Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related technical field, or equivalent hands-on experience

Nice To Haves

Experience serving clients in Energy & Utilities, Transportation & Logistics, Manufacturing, or Industrial Products, especially where OT/IT integration was part of the work
Experience with AI platforms and frameworks such as OpenAI, Anthropic Claude, LangChain, LlamaIndex, AWS Bedrock, or Azure AI
Experience in a consulting or client-facing technical delivery role
Familiarity with DevOps/MLOps practices such as CI/CD, monitoring, or model evaluation

Responsibilities

Design, prototype, and build AI agents, copilots, and automation workflows directly inside client systems
Write production-quality code to move solutions from pilot to scaled deployment
Integrate AI tooling with clients' existing data platforms, applications, and, where relevant, operational technology (OT) environments
Own technical delivery of assigned workstreams end to end, including testing, iteration, and hand-off to client teams
Partner with AI Transformation Managers to translate business requirements into technical specifications and delivery plans
Work directly with client engineering, data, and IT/OT teams to understand system constraints and integration paths
Translate technical trade-offs and constraints back into plain language for business stakeholders
Evaluate emerging AI platforms, frameworks, and tools for practical fit within client environments, where legacy, high-reliability, or safety-critical systems are often the norm
Build monitoring, evaluation, and guardrails so solutions perform reliably once in production
Troubleshoot and resolve technical issues that arise during pilot and scale phases
Build reusable technical accelerators, code libraries, and reference architectures for the ETI practice
Mentor junior technical talent and contribute to technical hiring and practice development
Share learnings across engagements to shorten build time on future projects