Principal AI Engineer & Technical Instructor

Pennymac • Carrollton, TX

7d • Onsite

About The Position

Pennymac is building a new, dedicated R&D division focused on creating an AI-powered platform to serve as a force multiplier for their Digital Technology Organization. The mission is to develop next-generation intelligent developer tools to accelerate the Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC), automate tasks, and empower product and engineering teams. This role is for a foundational member of a small, fast-moving team focused on rapidly building and deploying new AI tools for engineers and product managers.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Science or equivalent, with 5+ years of professional software engineering experience.
• Competent coder who speaks the language of senior engineers.
• Proven experience as a Lead Instructor or Curriculum Developer at a coding bootcamp (e.g., General Assembly, Hack Reactor, Flatiron) or in a technical enablement role at a major tech company.
• Experience taking learners from "zero to hero" in compressed timeframes.
• Node.js and TypeScript proficiency: ability to read, write, and teach patterns in this ecosystem.
• Teaching others how to write strict TypeScript that agents can parse.
• Hands-on experience using and teaching LLM-based tools.
• Power user of Cursor, GitHub Copilot, or Devin.
• Understanding of the mechanics of RAG, Embeddings, and Agentic Workflows.
• Exceptional public speaking and technical storytelling skills.
• Ability to command a room of skeptical senior engineers and get them excited about a new way of working.
• High ownership, high energy, and the ability to thrive in an undefined, fast-paced environment.

Nice To Haves

• Experience with AWS Bedrock and AgentCore.
• Background in Developer Relations (DevRel) or Technical Evangelism at a platform company.
• Experience building or teaching Agentic Systems (LangChain, AutoGen).
• Familiarity with the Model Context Protocol (MCP).

Responsibilities

• Architect Technical Curriculum & Training ("The Academy")
• Design the AI-DLC Curriculum: Develop a comprehensive, leveled curriculum that transitions engineering teams from traditional SDLC to the AI-Driven Development Life Cycle (AI-DLC). This includes modules on "Mob Elaboration" (Phase 1), "Mob Construction" (Phase 2), and "Self-Healing Operations" (Phase 3).
• Develop "Repo Readiness" Standards: Create and teach technical workshops on how to instrument repositories for autonomous agents. This involves deep-diving into linting configurations, strict typing (TypeScript), and automated feedback loops that allow agents to self-correct. You will teach teams how to implement the 14 Core Best Practices for AI-ready codebases.
• Build the "Gym": Establish a dedicated training environment ("The Gym") where engineers practice manual debugging and "simulation steps" to prevent skill atrophy. You will design exercises that force engineers to spot "hallucinations" and verify AI outputs against Golden Datasets, ensuring they maintain critical reasoning skills even as they code less.
• Create Reusable Training Assets: Convert emerging best practices into high-quality, self-service training materials (video tutorials, interactive notebooks, and documentation) that explain complex concepts like RAG, Vector Embeddings, and Agentic Orchestration to a diverse technical audience.
• Drive AI Adoption & Evangelism ("The Champion")
• Internal Developer Advocacy: Act as the "Dev Tools Champion" for the Nexus platform. Embed with different "Initiative Pods" to identify friction points, gather feedback, and demonstrate how to leverage AI agents for specific tasks like automated code reviews, test plan generation, and epic decomposition.
• Facilitate "Mob Elaboration" Sessions: Lead by example in facilitating synchronous sessions between Product Managers, Tech Leads, and AI Agents to define rigorous specifications. Model the behavior of "interrogating the AI" to resolve ambiguity before coding begins.
• Community Building: Organize and host internal hackathons, "lunch and learns," and "AI Office Hours" to foster a community of practice. Identify and mentor "AI Champions" within other teams to scale your impact.
• Establish the "Reviewer-First" Culture: Evangelize the shift in value definition from "lines of code written" to "lines of code verified." Coach engineers on the psychological shift required to become "System Orchestrators" rather than "Bricklayers," helping them overcome the "loss of maker" identity.
• Technical Liaison & Feedback Loop ("The Interface")
• Product Feedback Cycle: Serve as the primary conduit between the user base (engineers) and the AI Platform Services engineering team. Translate user struggles and "hallucination" patterns into technical requirements for the platform team (e.g., "We need a better hallucination checkpoint for the React component generator").
• Prompt Library Stewardship: Manage and curate the organization's Prompt Library using the internal Promp platform. Define the standards for "Prompt Engineering" as code, ensuring that high-value system prompts are version-controlled, tested, and shared across the organization.
• Stay Ahead of the Curve: Continuously research the rapidly evolving landscape of Generative AI (e.g., Amazon Nova, Claude 3.5 Sonnet, OpenAI o1) and synthesize these developments into actionable updates for the Pennymac engineering team.

Benefits

• Comprehensive Medical, Dental, and Vision
• Paid Time Off Programs including vacation, holidays, illness, and parental leave
• Wellness Programs, Employee Recognition Programs, and onsite gyms and cafe style dining (select locations)
• Retirement benefits, life insurance, 401k match, and tuition reimbursement
• Philanthropy Programs including matching gifts, volunteer grants, charitable grants and corporate sponsorships
• Bonus opportunities

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Principal