Principal AI Software Engineer

Elsevier•Philadelphia, PA

About The Position

This position serves as a subject matter expert for a specific team of Software Engineers. In addition to writing code on complex systems and applications, this position provides direction on project plans, schedules, and methodologies. This team supports the CK AI Service team. The new Lead Engineer will have six direct reports and will own the technical strategy and execution for the CK AI Service, including the design and governance of retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) workflows and API expansion. This role will improve delivery velocity, reduce bottlenecks and single points of failure, drive standardization, mentoring, and cross-functional alignment as the platform matures, and establish a sustainable leadership model to support the planned division and growth of the team.

Requirements

Proven ability to mentor, and grow engineering teams, including managing performance, career development, and team health
Established track record of creating high-performing, collaborative team environments and reducing knowledge silos
Ability to remove blockers, manage priorities, and improve delivery velocity across a team
Experience establishing scalable team structures and leadership models to support growth
Deep expertise in designing and delivering distributed systems and APIs at scale
Ability to define and execute technical strategies, balancing short-term delivery with long-term platform sustainability
Experience with microservices architecture, API design, and system integration
Proven ability to identify and eliminate single points of failure and improve system resilience
Hands-on experience designing and implementing retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) workflows
Understanding of: LLM integration and orchestration, Embeddings and vector search, Retrieval pipelines and ranking strategies
Experience building AI-powered APIs and services for production environments
Ability to govern and standardize AI patterns, including evaluation, observability, and performance optimization

Responsibilities

Mentoring of six direct reports.
Driving and owning the technical strategy and execution for the CK AI Service, including the design and governance of retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) workflows and API expansion.
Improving the delivery velocity, reducing bottlenecks and single points of failure, driving standardization, mentoring, and cross-functional alignment as the platform matures
Establishing a sustainable leadership model to support the planned division and growth of the team.
Collaborating with our Data Science team to help drive product road map and feature design forward.