Senior Python Dev. (AI Engineer)
About The Position
ROKO Labs is a fast-growing strategic product and technology consultancy based in NYC, working with Fortune 500 companies and VC-backed start-ups. They are seeking an experienced Senior AI Engineer to lead the design and implementation of scalable, production-ready AI solutions that drive business value. This role combines architectural thinking with strong hands-on technical execution and business alignment. The ideal candidate will define AI architecture and best practices, build, test, and deploy solutions directly, and work cross-functionally with engineering, data, product, and business teams to translate requirements into robust AI systems. The company prides itself on understanding client businesses and building user-loved products, with an extended team spanning multiple countries.
Requirements
- Master’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, AI, or a related field
- 5+ years of experience in AI/ML engineering or backend software engineering
- Proven hands-on experience building and deploying LLM applications, especially RAG-based systems
- Strong programming skills in Python
- Experience integrating LLM APIs (e.g., OpenAI, Anthropic, Azure OpenAI)
- Solid understanding of vector databases (e.g., Pinecone or Weaviate) and semantic search architectures
- Experience with at least one major cloud platform (AWS, Azure, or GCP) in production environments
- Understanding of APIs, microservices, and scalable backend architecture
- Experience deploying applications to production environments
- Strong problem-solving skills and ability to work in a fast-evolving AI landscape
Nice To Haves
- Experience contributing to AI system architecture design and technical standards
- Experience participating in AI roadmap discussions and technical planning
- Experience designing or implementing multi-agent AI systems
- Experience with alternative vector databases (e.g., FAISS, Milvus)
- Experience with Hugging Face ecosystem or fine-tuning open-source models
- Hands-on experience with advanced MLOps frameworks and model governance
- PhD (completed or in progress) in a relevant field
- Experience mentoring junior engineers or leading smaller technical initiatives
Responsibilities
- Design and implement end-to-end LLM-powered applications, with a strong focus on Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) pipelines
- Build production-ready AI systems using Python and modern AI/ML frameworks
- Develop and optimize data ingestion, embedding pipelines, and semantic search workflows
- Design and implement scalable vector database architectures
- Integrate and work with selected AI platforms and APIs (e.g., OpenAI, Anthropic, Azure OpenAI)
- Deploy and maintain AI solutions in cloud environments (AWS, Azure, or GCP)
- Collaborate with product and engineering teams to translate business requirements into scalable technical solutions
- Ensure code quality, testing, monitoring, and performance optimization of AI systems in production
- Contribute to MLOps practices including CI/CD pipelines, model lifecycle management, and observability
- Document technical decisions and implementation details
Benefits
- Our developers work on only one project at a time, so there is no need to juggle 2 or more projects
- We work on long-term projects, you have the opportunity to get to know the client and his needs well, as well as the team
- You will have the opportunity to work on complex solutions with the latest technologies
- Remote work means it's up to you whether you work from home, beach, or the office
- Flexible working hours mean that you can tailor your workday to your preferences, without a time-tracking system
- All our employees will right away receive a contract for an indefinite period (B2B collaboration is also an option)
- We provide regular feedback as part of our commitment to your ongoing development and success
- Job role switch, if you want to try some new roles or technologies, we are here to support you by providing opportunities, feedback, and mentor
- If you love taking courses or going to conferences, we are always open to discussing education opportunities
- Each team has its own monthly knowledge-sharing sessions combined with weekly talks and brainstorming sessions aimed at improving our current work and processes
- If you have a colleague or a friend who could be a good fit for us, we can offer you a referral fee
- Salary will be based on your experience and skills
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What This Job Offers
Job Type
Full-time
Career Level
Senior
Number of Employees
101-250 employees
