Principal AI Application Engineer

Code for America

1d•Remote

About The Position

Code for America is looking for a talented Principal AI Application Engineer who will bridge the gap between complex policy mandates and technical execution. By building modular, model-agnostic systems, you will prove that civic tech can respond to urgent legislative shifts faster and more responsibly than traditional monolithic "black boxes." The mission of New Ventures within Code for America is to imagine and then build a future of radically improved public service delivery. We are looking for two Principal AI Application Engineers to join a high-impact, lean team that is creating the tools, proof of concepts, and durable products that will define how the next generation of government services are delivered. In this role, you will be architecting the connective tissue that allows government agencies to deploy responsible, portable, and effective AI. This role will report to the VP of New Ventures team and is expected to travel no more than 10% of the time. Code for America is based in California and can employ those who reside full-time within the United States. This is a remote position.

Requirements

7+ years of experience in high-ownership environments (former technical founders encouraged); ability to take a vague objective to a finished system.
Hands-on experience building with LLMs, agentic orchestration, and RAG patterns, with the pragmatism to know when not to use them.
Ability to think in "primitives" and "capabilities," preferring modular, reusable frameworks over bespoke scripts.
Passion for bias detection, harm mitigations, and building systems that are explainable to the people they serve.
Mastery of Git, Linux, CI/CD, Infrastructure as Code(Terraform), and container-based workflows.
A critical eye toward the limitations of AI, especially "black box" logic in high-stakes public services.
Demonstrated ability to influence technical direction and drive alignment across teams without formal authority.

Nice To Haves

Ability to distill complex architecture into compelling prose for policy-makers or the public.
Prior work in Civic Tech, FinTech, or HealthTech where auditability is a core requirement.

Responsibilities

Build and ship high-impact experiments (e.g., digital lockers or AI-augmented procurement tools) to expand the "impact possibilities frontier."
Translate vague policy objectives into robust, working systems.
Identify when to use LLMs, agentic orchestration, or RAG patterns versus simple rules engines or traditional ML models.
Collaborate with policy and domain experts to co-design civic-sector benchmarks, translating complex regulatory requirements into automated evaluation pipelines that rigorously measure model performance.
Identify and define new opportunity spaces by translating emerging policy, technology, and user needs into actionable technical bets.
Architect foundational tools, including declarative task specifications and agentic data layers.
Design infrastructure that respects public sector constraints, focusing on portability and explainability.
Build data layers that interoperate with legacy systems (COBOL, SQL, etc.) to deliver modern value without multi-year migrations.
Establish Code for America as a leader in responsible AI through external thought leadership, including publications, talks, and open-source contributions.
Share demos and earned insights internally to help the organization iterate toward better standards and internal use cases of responsible AI.
Document architectural decisions, successes, and failures to create a blueprint for responsible AI in government.
Drive alignment across engineering, product, policy, and program teams to ensure solutions are technically sound, policy-compliant, and operationally viable.
Partner with and mentor fellow engineers through hands-on code reviews and technical guidance, ensuring the team stays grounded in best practices for responsible AI
Maintain system health through rigorous, hands-on code reviews and the development of shared utilities.
Ensure craftsmanship and system explainability for the vulnerable populations we serve.

Benefits

Leadership and teammates who share a strong work ethic and values, and who respect and care for one another
A collaborative, cross-functional, hardworking, and joyful environment
Laptop provided
A one-time $700 payment for remote environment setup; $200 stipend (in first paycheck) and up to $500 reimbursement, in accordance with our equipment policy
Cell phone and/or internet reimbursement of $50 per month
$500 annual (per calendar year) stipend towards professional development; prorated at time of hire
Up to $500 of professional development funds can be rolled over each year, up to a maximum of $1000
Training / guidance for staff required to utilize AI as part of their role, plus opportunities for employees to gain AI-related skills to support job and career growth
Employees receive a 100% employer match on the first 3% of contributions.
Employees with 3+ years of service receive an additional 50% match on contributions between 3% and 5%, for a maximum employer contribution of 5%
At least one no cost health insurance option for full-time employees for employee-only coverage
A minimum of 80% of the cost of dependent coverage
Code for America employees may work remotely across the US
Code for America employees main residence must be within the US
Full-time employees work 40 hours per week, Monday - Friday
Collaborative working hours: we aim to hold all internal meetings between 10 AM - 3 PM PT. We expect all Code for America staff to be available during these set working hours
Open personal time off (subject to manager approval), a minimum of 14 paid holidays, and an org-wide closure from Christmas Day through New Year's Day
Paid sick time; up to 96 hours annually
17 weeks of paid parental and family leave
3 weeks of paid sabbatical after 5 years of service