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Principal AI Engineer | Onsite

Photon USA
3 hours ago
Full-time
On-site
San Francisco, California, United States
Job Description

Key Responsibilities

Technical Leadership & Architecture

Own and define

enterprise - grade GenAI architectures , including RAG pipelines, agentic workflows, prompt orchestration, and multi-model routing strategies. Drive

production readiness

for GenAI solutions, ensuring scalability, resilience, observability, and cost efficiency. Lead complex architectural decisions spanning

data ingestion, vector databases, model selection, guardrails, latency optimization, and API scalability . Establish reference architectures and reusable patterns to accelerate GenAI adoption across Lines of Business. Enterprise Use - Case Delivery (FDE Model) Act as a

Forward Deployed Principal Engineer , partnering directly with business and product teams to deliver high-impact GenAI use cases from ideation to production. Translate business problems into

well - defined AI system designs and NFRs , ensuring measurable outcomes. Troubleshoot and resolve complex production issues across non-prod and prod environments. Influence platform roadmap by feeding real-world use-case requirements back into central AI services (e.g., Tachyon). Governance, Risk & Compliance Ensure all AI solutions align with

risk, cyber, and model governance standards , including AIRR, data protection, and guardrails. Partner with Cyber, MRM, Legal, and Risk teams to design compliant AI patterns without slowing delivery. Embed security, privacy, and ethical AI principles into solution design by default. Organizational Influence & Mentorship Serve as a

recognized GenAI expert

across the enterprise-regularly consulted by engineering, architecture, and leadership teams. Mentor senior and staff-level engineers; raise the technical bar across teams. Contribute to internal communities of practice, architecture reviews, and executive-level technical discussions. Represent GenAI capabilities in internal innovation forums and knowledge-sharing sessions

Required Qualifications

7+ years of software engineering experience, with significant depth in

AI/ML or data - intensive systems . 2+ Years of experience in Python programming language. 2+ Proven experience designing and delivering

production - scale Generative AI systems

in an enterprise environment. 2+ years of experience in: LLMs, prompt engineering, and RAG architecture Vector databases and semantic search API-driven, cloud-native architectures Distributed systems and performance optimization

Preferred Qualifications

Strong understanding of

non - functional requirements : security, scalability, resiliency, observability, and cost management. Demonstrated

Principal - level impact : influence across multiple teams, platforms, or business units. Experience operating in

highly regulated environments

(financial services strongly preferred). Hands-on experience with

agentic AI frameworks

and multi-model orchestration. Prior experience in a

Forward Deployed Engineer or embedded engineering model . Ability to communicate complex technical concepts clearly to

senior executives and non - technical stakeholders .

Compensation, Benefits and Duration

Minimum Compensation: USD 64,000 Maximum Compensation: USD 225,000 Compensation is based on actual experience and qualifications of the candidate. The above is a reasonable and a good faith estimate for the role. Medical, vision, and dental benefits, 401k retirement plan, variable pay/incentives, paid time off, and paid holidays are available for full-time employees. This position is available for independent contractors No applications will be considered if received more than 120 days after the date of this post