Senior AI Software Engineer

J Harlan Group • New York, NY

5d • Hybrid

About The Position

J Harlan Group is currently conducting a search for a Senior AI Software Engineer to join the firm's AI Engineering team at a prominent global Investment Manager. This role offers the opportunity to collaborate with talented engineers, product owners, and business partners building high-impact AI products with leverage across the firm. As a Senior Software Engineer in the firm's Labs' AI Engineering team, you will independently design, build, and scale production-grade AI agents and intelligent systems that solve complex business problems. You will lead technical workstreams, incubate new AI products, experiment with emerging technologies and innovative ideas, and partner with business-aligned technology teams to enable broader adoption at enterprise scale. This is a hands-on, end-to-end engineering opportunity for an experienced engineer with strong software engineering fundamentals, practical AI engineering experience, and a product mindset. You will take ownership of complex and ambiguous technical problems, mentor other engineers, and contribute to the engineering patterns and practices that help shape AI engineering across the firm. The team is building production systems incorporating AI agents, agent orchestration, tool and function calling, retrieval-based systems, prompt and context engineering, structured outputs, evaluation frameworks, observability, guardrails, and appropriate human-in-the-loop patterns. The position is not focused on AI research or training foundation models. Instead, it focuses on building and productionizing modern AI applications and intelligent systems that are reliable, scalable, measurable, secure, and capable of operating within a sophisticated enterprise environment. The firm's AI Labs focuses on building its next generation of data and AI capabilities and developing high-impact technology solutions that can ultimately be scaled across the organization.

Requirements

• BS or MS in Computer Science or a related technical field, or equivalent practical experience, with 5+ years of professional software engineering experience.
• Strong hands-on development experience in object-oriented languages such as Python, Java, or JavaScript/TypeScript.
• Hands-on experience building AI-enabled applications, intelligent workflows, or agentic systems using modern LLMs and AI development frameworks.
• Practical experience with modern AI engineering patterns such as agent orchestration, tool/function calling, retrieval-based systems, prompt and context engineering, structured outputs, evaluation, observability, or guardrails.
• Experience taking AI-enabled systems beyond prototypes toward production, including testing, monitoring, reliability, security, and operational considerations.
• Strong experience with cloud-native architectures, containerized microservices, APIs, and modern software delivery practices.
• Strong analytical, problem-solving, software design, and debugging skills.
• Demonstrated commitment to engineering quality through automated testing, code reviews, observability, and continuous delivery.
• Ability to independently own complex technical problems and clearly communicate designs, decisions, and trade-offs.
• A product mindset, strong learning agility, and passion for staying current with the rapidly evolving AI engineering landscape.

Nice To Haves

• Experience mentoring engineers or leading technical workstreams.
• Understanding of financial markets, asset management, or financial instruments.

Responsibilities

• Own the end-to-end design and delivery of production-grade AI agents and intelligent systems, including architecture, implementation, testing, evaluation, deployment, observability, and production support.
• Design agentic workflows using orchestration, tool integration, retrieval-based systems, structured outputs, context management, and appropriate human-in-the-loop patterns.
• Partner with product owners and business stakeholders to take control of complex or ambiguous problems, evaluate alternative approaches, and translate needs into scalable AI solutions.
• Lead technical workstreams from rapid experimentation and validation through production adoption.
• Establish evaluation and testing approaches for non-deterministic AI systems, including quality metrics, regression testing, failure analysis, and production monitoring.
• Make informed engineering trade-offs across models, prompts, context, tools, latency, cost, reliability, security, and maintainability.
• Contribute to reusable AI capabilities and shared engineering patterns that improve speed, quality, and consistency across teams.
• Lead code and design reviews, mentor less-experienced engineers, and help others solve complex technical problems.
• Own technical debt and continuously improve the quality, reliability, and maintainability of the systems you build.
• Rapidly evaluate emerging AI technologies and determine when and how they can be applied to deliver meaningful business value.
• Support the Build-Operate-Transfer model by preparing successful AI solutions for long-term ownership and scale by business-aligned technology teams.
• Work directly with business stakeholders and product owners to understand priorities, shape solution direction, and deliver measurable outcomes.
• Translate complex business needs into effective technology solutions and clearly communicate technical trade-offs.
• Balance innovation, business value, scalability, risk, fiscal responsibility, and long-term maintainability when making technical decisions.

Benefits

• Competitive compensation and annual bonus eligibility
• A generous retirement plan
• Hybrid and flexible work opportunities
• Health and wellness benefits, including online therapy
• Paid time off for vacation, illness, medical appointments, and volunteering days
• Family-care resources, including fertility and adoption benefits

What This Job Offers

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