Intermediate AI Developer (AI First)

Patterson-UTI•Houston, TX

About The Position

Design, develop, and integrate AI-driven features within industrial control systems and related software platforms. Implement AI-assisted tooling and automation to improve engineering productivity, testing, diagnostics, or operator workflows. Collaborate with software developers, hardware engineers, and product stakeholders to identify practical AI use cases aligned with operational needs. Develop and maintain services that integrate with LLM APIs, local AI models, or intelligent automation frameworks. Evaluate model performance, reliability, latency, and cost considerations in production environments. Design safeguards and validation layers to ensure AI-generated outputs meet operational safety and correctness standards. Contribute to data preparation, structured logging, and telemetry systems that support AI-enabled workflows. Participate in architectural discussions to ensure AI components integrate cleanly within modular, service-oriented systems. Utilize AI development tools to accelerate coding, prototyping, documentation, and research while validating all outputs for correctness and maintainability. Participate in Agile/Scrum ceremonies including sprint planning, backlog refinement, and retrospectives. Provide accurate estimates, surface technical risks early, and communicate trade-offs clearly. Support troubleshooting, performance tuning, and continuous improvement of AI-enabled features. Perform other related duties and special projects, as assigned.

Requirements

Demonstrated ability to design and implement production-quality software systems.
Experience integrating external APIs, services, or SDKs into software applications.
Strong understanding of software architecture, modular design, and service-oriented systems.
Working knowledge of data handling, structured formats, and secure API communication.
Ability to evaluate AI-generated output critically for accuracy, bias, safety implications, and operational risk.
Strong verbal and written communication skills, including the ability to explain AI-related technical concepts to cross-functional stakeholders.
Ability to work effectively in a cross-functional, matrixed organization including software, hardware, controls, and operations teams.
Ability to manage multiple initiatives in a fast-paced environment while maintaining quality standards.
Experience using AI-assisted development tools in a professional setting.
Represent the Company and its values with integrity while maintaining high professional and ethical standards in all interactions.
Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Software Engineering, Data Science, or related field (or equivalent practical experience).
3–6 years of professional software development experience.
Strong proficiency in C#, C++, Python, or comparable programming languages.
Experience working within an Agile development framework.
Experience integrating AI APIs, automation tools, or intelligent systems into applications.

Nice To Haves

Experience working with LLM APIs, prompt engineering, embeddings, or vector databases.
Experience building internal AI tooling or workflow automation systems.
Exposure to real-time or hardware-integrated systems.
Familiarity with industrial or Oil & Gas environments.
Experience implementing monitoring, evaluation, or guardrails for AI-enabled systems.
Understanding of latency, throughput, and cost optimization considerations for AI workloads.

Responsibilities

Design, develop, and integrate AI-driven features within industrial control systems and related software platforms.
Implement AI-assisted tooling and automation to improve engineering productivity, testing, diagnostics, or operator workflows.
Collaborate with software developers, hardware engineers, and product stakeholders to identify practical AI use cases aligned with operational needs.
Develop and maintain services that integrate with LLM APIs, local AI models, or intelligent automation frameworks.
Evaluate model performance, reliability, latency, and cost considerations in production environments.
Design safeguards and validation layers to ensure AI-generated outputs meet operational safety and correctness standards.
Contribute to data preparation, structured logging, and telemetry systems that support AI-enabled workflows.
Participate in architectural discussions to ensure AI components integrate cleanly within modular, service-oriented systems.
Utilize AI development tools to accelerate coding, prototyping, documentation, and research while validating all outputs for correctness and maintainability.
Participate in Agile/Scrum ceremonies including sprint planning, backlog refinement, and retrospectives.
Provide accurate estimates, surface technical risks early, and communicate trade-offs clearly.
Support troubleshooting, performance tuning, and continuous improvement of AI-enabled features.
Perform other related duties and special projects, as assigned.