Principal Software Engineer Applied AI Development

AT&T • Atlanta, GA

68d • $158,200 - $237,400 • Remote

About The Position

Job Description: Principal Software Engineer - Applied AI Development About the Company: At AT&T, we are connecting the world through the latest tech, top-of-the-line communications and the best in entertainment. Our groundbreaking digital solutions provide intuitive and integrated experiences for millions of customers across online, retail and care channels. Join our mission to deliver compelling communication and entertainment experiences to customers around the world as we continue to evolve as a technology-powered, human-centered organization. As part of our team, you will transform the way we deliver a seamless customer experience with digital at the center of all you do. In our world, digital is much larger than just an eCommerce channel, we are transforming all channels to digitally perform as one team to create a better customer experience. As we move into 2026, the digital transformation will revolutionize the digital space, and you can build a career that will propel your future. About the Team: As a Principal Software Engineer - Applied AI Development, you will join our Digital Engineering and Customer Experience (DECX) Automation & Applied AI team. This team is committed to developing autonomous AI agents that empower customers to purchase our products and services seamlessly, delivering exceptional sales experiences across both text and voice channels. Job Summary: We are seeking a highly motivated and innovative Agentic AI Software Developer to join our dynamic team. In this role, you will be responsible for designing, developing, and deploying advanced conversational AI applications that leverage agentic AI principles—enabling AI systems to act autonomously, adaptively, and proactively to deliver exceptional user experiences. You will collaborate closely with cross-functional teams to create next-generation solutions that push the boundaries of natural language understanding and intelligent dialogue management.

Requirements

• Over 10 years of professional experience in software development with strong understanding of software engineering principles, design patterns, and algorithms.
• Exceptional analytical and problem-solving skills, particularly in handling unstructured conversations and handle the conversations within the scope of the solutions.
• Proficiency in programming languages such as Python to develop agentic AI solutions.
• Proficiency in API design and implementation for secure services.
• Knowledge on application development using React, NodeJS.
• Proficiency in prompt engineering is desired, to design, iteratively refine, and optimize the prompts.
• Exposure to Tools or platforms that help version, test, and deploy prompt templates at scale.
• Proficiency in LLMs, token cost optimization, and hallucination avoidance principles.
• Hands-on experience in developing agentic workflows, semi-autonomous, or fully autonomous agents is preferred.
• Strong expertise in GCP/Azure is preferred (AWS is also good).
• Experience in LangGraph /LangChain /ADK /Autogen is highly desired.
• Experience in quality assurance of agentic AI solutions and prompts is highly sought.
• Strong expertise in productionizing solutions as APIs with RBAC controls is sought.
• Expertise in a range of database and data warehouse technologies such as SQL (MySQL, PostgreSQL), NoSQL databases (MongoDB, Azure Cosmos DB, Bigtable), and data warehouse/data lake technologies (Snowflake, BigQuery).
• Experience with AI monitoring tools and framework for AI models.
• Expertise in AI auditability and explainability: Understanding how to implement explainable AI (XAI) features and audit trails for autonomous agents.
• Expertise in VertexAI, BQML or equivalent is a bonus.
• Knowledge of RAG implementation.
• Familiarity with Linux and Docker is a nice-to-have.
• Experience with container orchestration and scaling: Kubernetes, Helm, or serverless architectures to scale agentic AI solutions.
• Experience with version control systems (e.g., Git) and collaborative development workflows.
• Experience with Power BI and other visualization tools such as Kibana, Grafana, or Tableau is a plus.
• Knowledge of cloud services (AWS, Google Cloud, or Azure) and understanding of distributed data processing frameworks.
• Proven ability to manage and delegate work across delivery teams to meet priorities.
• Skill in client engagements, deciphering client business needs, and providing data solution recommendations.
• Strong financial analysis skills to assess business impacts of statistical solutions.
• Excellent communication skills, with experience in designing, developing, and delivering presentations.

Nice To Haves

• Familiarity with Linux and Docker.
• Experience with Power BI and other visualization tools such as Kibana, Grafana, or Tableau.

Responsibilities

• Design, build, and maintain robust, scalable autonomous AI agents for conversational sales that can guide the user to conversational finish a sales including cart/checkout and payments.
• Identify and implement the best architectures to develop AI agents such that they are reusable.
• Implement MCP tools to enable bi-directional communication with other systems.
• Implement, refine, and optimize LLM prompts to avoid hallucination and to deliver expected outcomes.
• Apply security guardrails surrounding LLMs to protect sensitive data and ensure compliance with privacy and legal guidelines.
• Implement logging and monitoring for the agents.
• Design evaluation tests to validate the agents' outcomes.
• Design and implement low-latency, minimal-hop, reusable agentic solutions.
• Explore optimal methods to improve conversational sales solutions by grounding responses and minimizing errors.
• Design and implement security guardrails while interacting with LLM's or with other agents to follow industry standard security guidelines; including data governance frameworks and federated learning.
• Collaborate with product managers, UX designers, and other engineers to translate requirements into technical solutions.
• Continuously monitor, evaluate, and improve AI performance, focusing on user engagement, personalization, and task completion.
• Contribute to research and development efforts to stay ahead of emerging trends in agentic AI and conversational technologies.
• Always ensure compliance with ethical standards, data privacy, and responsible AI practices throughout the development process.

Benefits

• Medical/Dental/Vision coverage
• 401(k) plan
• Tuition reimbursement program
• Paid Time Off and Holidays (based on date of hire, at least 23 days of vacation each year and 9 company-designated holidays)
• Paid Parental Leave
• Paid Caregiver Leave
• Additional sick leave beyond what state and local law require may be available but is unprotected
• Adoption Reimbursement
• Disability Benefits (short term and long term)
• Life and Accidental Death Insurance
• Supplemental benefit programs: critical illness/accident hospital indemnity/group legal
• Employee Assistance Programs (EAP)
• Extensive employee wellness programs
• Employee discounts up to 50% off on eligible AT&T mobility plans and accessories, AT&T internet (and fiber where available) and AT&T phone.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Senior
• Industry: Telecommunications
• Education Level: Bachelor's degree