Senior AI/ML Engineer

Cable ONE • Phoenix, AZ

2d • Remote

About The Position

At Sparklight/Cableone and our family of brands, we keep our customers and associates connected to what matters most. For our associates, that means: a thriving and rewarding career, respect for the communities where they live and work, a focus on health and wellness, an excellent work/life balance, and an open and inclusive workplace. We are open to hiring remote if we find the right talent in any of the following states: AL, AR, AZ, FL, GA, IA, ID, IL, IN, KS, LA, MD, MO, MS, NC, ND, NE, NM, NV, OR, OK, PA, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT. The Senior AI/ML Engineer will serve as the technical authority for AI/ML platforms, agent architecture, Model Context Protocol (MCP) strategy, context engineering, orchestration, governance, and AI-assisted experiences within Network Intelligence. This role will define how agentic systems safely consume network data, engineering knowledge, automation capabilities, and operational intelligence. The Senior AI/ML Engineer will establish reusable architectural patterns, development standards, evaluation practices, human approval controls, and governance requirements while providing technical mentorship to AI Engineers assigned to technology-domain delivery teams. The position will partner closely with the Senior Network Automation Engineer to maintain a clear boundary between deterministic network capability development and intelligent consumption of those capabilities.

Requirements

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Data Science, Information Technology, or a related technical field is preferred.
• Alternatively, 8 or more years of progressive experience in software engineering, platform engineering, data engineering, AI/ML engineering, or related technical disciplines will be considered.
• Five or more years of experience designing or delivering AI/ML, large language model, or agentic systems is preferred.
• Demonstrated experience leading technical architecture, establishing engineering standards, and guiding complex or net-new solution delivery.
• Strong Python development skills and experience building production-grade services and integrations.
• Experience with large language models, agent frameworks, tool calling, retrieval-augmented generation, context engineering, and model evaluation.
• Experience designing MCP servers, MCP clients, or comparable tool-integration architectures is strongly preferred.
• Experience with REST APIs, event-driven integrations, structured data, and enterprise system integration.
• Experience with vector databases, graph databases, knowledge graphs, semantic retrieval, or metadata-driven knowledge systems.
• Experience with cloud-based AI services, containerized deployment, Git, CI/CD, testing, monitoring, and production support.
• Experience applying security, governance, human approval, auditability, and responsible AI practices to production systems.
• Experience in telecommunications, ISP, network engineering, infrastructure, or operational technology environments is preferred.
• Demonstrated ability to distinguish deterministic automation responsibilities from agentic orchestration and AI-consumption responsibilities.
• Experience establishing reusable agent architectures, development standards, governance patterns, and evaluation methods.
• Experience with MCP, Semantic Kernel, LangGraph, LangChain, Azure AI services, Azure OpenAI, or comparable agent and orchestration frameworks.
• Experience with retrieval-augmented generation, embeddings, vector search, graph-based retrieval, and knowledge packaging.
• Understanding of AI safety, hallucination reduction, prompt injection risks, tool-use controls, auditability, and human approval patterns.
• Ability to evaluate AI-generated outputs and agent actions for correctness, safety, reliability, and operational impact.
• Ability to translate engineering procedures, operational knowledge, and business processes into governed agentic workflows.
• Ability to communicate complex architecture, risks, tradeoffs, and technical recommendations to technical and non-technical stakeholders.
• Strong technical leadership, mentoring, problem-solving, and cross-functional collaboration skills.
• Ability to work effectively with Network Automation Engineers, Platform Engineers, Data Engineers, NMS Engineers, Reporting Engineers, Capacity Engineers, Network Security, and Infrastructure Engineering.
• Adaptability and willingness to evaluate emerging AI technologies while maintaining disciplined production standards.
• Ownership mindset and accountability for architecture quality, production readiness, governance, and delivery outcomes.
• Position may require occasional on-call availability.
• Position may require up to 10% travel.

Nice To Haves

• Microsoft Certified: Azure AI Engineer Associate
• Microsoft Certified: Azure Solutions Architect Expert
• Microsoft Certified: DevOps Engineer Expert
• AWS Certified Machine Learning Engineer - Associate or AWS Certified Machine Learning - Specialty
• Google Cloud Professional Machine Learning Engineer
• Databricks Certified Machine Learning Professional
• Certified Kubernetes Application Developer or Certified Kubernetes Administrator
• Relevant responsible AI, cloud security, data engineering, or architecture certifications

Responsibilities

• Define and own architecture and technical standards for AI/ML platforms, agent frameworks, agent harnesses, and agentic workflows.
• Define MCP strategy, server integration patterns, tool contracts, access controls, and lifecycle standards.
• Design reusable patterns for agent orchestration, multi-agent coordination, long-running workflows, and escalation paths.
• Establish standards for context engineering, memory systems, retrieval, grounding, source attribution, and knowledge packaging.
• Define human-in-the-loop approval requirements, reasoning boundaries, tool execution safeguards, auditability, and governance controls.
• Create evaluation frameworks and acceptance criteria for correctness, safety, reliability, hallucination reduction, and tool execution.
• Define how agents consume network APIs, automation services, data products, procedures, and engineering knowledge.
• Partner with the Senior Network Automation Engineer to maintain the capability contract between Network Automation Engineering and AI Engineering.
• Review complex, high-risk, or net-new AI and agentic solution designs.
• Guide AI Engineers assigned to technology-domain delivery teams and establish reusable implementation patterns.
• Provide technical mentorship, design guidance, code review, and architectural support for AI-focused engineering resources.
• Partner with Platform Engineering on AI service hosting, deployment, monitoring, alerting, scalability, and production readiness.
• Partner with Data Engineering, NMS Engineering, Reporting Engineering, and Capacity Engineering to ensure agents use trusted and appropriately structured data.
• Coordinate conversational and AI-assisted user experience requirements with UI/UX and front-end contributors.
• Produce High Level Designs (HLDs), architecture decision records, technical standards, and implementation guidance.
• Apply secure software development, CI/CD, source control, testing, and operational support practices to AI solutions.
• Evaluate emerging AI/ML, agentic, orchestration, and MCP technologies for practical enterprise adoption.
• Communicate architectural decisions, technical risks, dependencies, and recommendations to engineering and leadership stakeholders.

Benefits

• Medical, dental, and vision plans – start when you start!
• Life insurance (self, spouse, children)
• Paid time off (vacation, holiday, and personal/sick days)
• 401(k) - 100% company match starts day 1 of employment (up to 5% of eligible compensation)
• Group Legal plan with Identity Theft Protection
• Tuition reimbursement (up to $5,250 on 1st year)
• Annual community support to various organizations across the U.S.
• Associate recognition & awards programs
• Advancement opportunities
• Collaborative work environment
• FREE Cable One services for associates who live in a serviceable area
• Up to $75/mo. Stipend
• Remote Access to select premium channels (Cable One, Sparklight, Cable America and ValueNet Fiber Only)
• Vehicle provided for daily work purposes, if residing within reasonable radius from office location

What This Job Offers

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