Principal AI Engineer
The HOTH•St. Petersburg, FL
•$180,000 - $200,000•Hybrid
About The Position
We're looking for a Principal AI Engineer to help build the future of NextNet AI. This is a senior, hands-on engineering position focused on building and solving complex technical problems across the platform, not a management role. The engineer will partner directly with the CTO to jump into unfamiliar systems, understand them quickly, and ship production-quality solutions. Responsibilities include debugging, optimizing AI pipelines, designing scalable cloud infrastructure, improving distributed services, and shipping new product capabilities.
Requirements
- 10+ years building production software.
- Built production AI applications that real customers use.
- Can comfortably move between frontend, backend, cloud infrastructure, and AI systems.
- Strong Python experience.
- Hands-on AWS experience.
- Enjoy debugging difficult technical problems.
- Prefer shipping software over talking about software.
- Take ownership without needing a lot of direction.
- Care deeply about writing maintainable, scalable systems.
Nice To Haves
- Experience with distributed systems.
- Experience with Terraform or Infrastructure as Code.
- Experience with LLMs, RAG, vector databases, or agentic workflows.
- Experience scaling SaaS products.
- Experience in SEO, digital marketing, or MarTech.
Responsibilities
- Build and deploy production-grade AI software.
- Own complex engineering initiatives from design through deployment.
- Work comfortably across frontend, backend, infrastructure, cloud, and AI systems.
- Design scalable backend services and APIs.
- Improve platform performance, reliability, and observability.
- Debug issues across distributed systems and identify root causes rather than surface symptoms.
- Reduce technical debt and improve long-term maintainability.
- Evaluate emerging AI technologies and recommend practical adoption.
- Document technical decisions that help the team move faster.
- Partner directly with the CTO on architecture, platform evolution, and strategic technical initiatives.
Benefits
- Competitive salary ($180,000-$200,000 DOE)
- Hybrid work schedule (Monday, Wednesday, Friday in-office)
- Remote Tuesdays & Thursdays
- Medical, Dental & Vision Insurance
- 401(k) with 3% company match
- Paid Vacation, Sick Time, Paid Holidays & Parental Leave
- $50/month Wellness Stipend
- Free Downtown Parking
- Free Breakfast Mondays & Lunch Fridays
- Dog-Friendly Office
- Casual Dress
- Team Celebrations & Company Events
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What This Job Offers
Job Type
Full-time
Career Level
Principal
Education Level
No Education Listed
