Python + AI Engineer

Cognizant Technology Solutions Corporation; Halifax; Remote; CAD 70,000 - 92,000; Full time

Job summary

Cognizant Technology Solutions Corporation in Canada invites an experienced Python + AI Engineer to design, build, and deploy scalable AI-enabled applications. You will lead backend services, integrations with LLMs, and AI workflows, ensuring security, observability, and reliability across enterprise-grade platforms.

Ideal candidates have 8+ years in software engineering, deep Python expertise, and hands-on experience with Generative AI, RAG, vector stores, and cloud deployments using Azure,

Qualifications

• 8+ years of software engineering experience.
• Hands-on Python programming expertise.
• Experience with LLMs and Generative AI.
• Knowledge of REST APIs, microservices, and distributed systems.
• Experience with cloud environments (Azure/AWS/GCP).
• Familiarity with vector databases and embeddings is a plus.
• Understanding of AI safety, monitoring, and production support.

Responsibilities

• Design and develop scalable Python-based enterprise applications.
• Build Generative AI and LLM-based applications and workflows.
• Implement RAG solutions using embeddings and vector stores.
• Develop AI agents and orchestration across tools and memory.
• Integrate LLMs from major platforms (Azure OpenAI, OpenAI, Anthropic).
• Create reusable AI services and APIs using Python frameworks.
• Implement prompt engineering, guardrails, and structured outputs.
• Ensure security, observability, reliability, and maintainability.

Skills

Python

Generative AI

LLMs

RAG

APIs

Cloud platforms

Asynchronous programming

Distributed systems

DevOps

Observability

Tools

FastAPI

Flask

Django

Pandas

NumPy

Pydantic

pytest

Azure OpenAI

OpenAI

Anthropic

Kafka

Azure Service Bus

Docker

Kubernetes

Git

CI/CD

Job description

We are seeking an experienced Python + AI Engineer with 8+ years of software engineering experience and strong expertise in building scalable Python applications and AI-driven solutions. The ideal candidate will have hands-on experience with Generative AI, Large Language Models (LLMs), Agentic AI, RAG, APIs, cloud platforms, and enterprise application development. The engineer will be responsible for designing, developing, integrating, and operationalizing AI solutions while ensuring scalability, security, observability, reliability, and maintainability.

In this role, you will

• Design and develop scalable enterprise applications and backend services using Python.
• Build Generative AI and LLM-based applications, including conversational AI, intelligent assistants, summarization, knowledge retrieval, and workflow automation.
• Design and implement Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) solutions using embeddings, vector databases, and enterprise knowledge sources.
• Develop AI agents and Agentic AI workflows capable of reasoning, tool invocation, orchestration, and multi-step task execution.
• Integrate LLMs from platforms such as Azure OpenAI, OpenAI, Anthropic, or open-source model ecosystems.
• Build reusable AI services and APIs using FastAPI, Flask, or similar Python frameworks.
• Implement prompt engineering, structured outputs, function/tool calling, context management, and AI guardrails.
• Establish evaluation approaches for measuring response quality, groundedness, relevance, hallucination risk, latency, and cost.
• Develop integrations with relational databases, NoSQL databases, vector stores, APIs, and enterprise platforms.
• Design asynchronous and event-driven processing using technologies such as Kafka, Azure Service Bus, or equivalent platforms.
• Containerize and deploy applications using Docker, Kubernetes, CI/CD pipelines, and cloud-native services.
• Implement unit testing, integration testing, automated quality controls, logging, monitoring, and observability.

Work model:

We strive to provide flexibility wherever possible. Based on this role’s business requirements, this is a remote position open to qualified applicants in Canada. Regardless of your working arrangement, we are here to support a healthy work-life balance through our various wellbeing programs.

Note: The working arrangements for this role are accurate as of the date of posting. This may change based on the project you’re engaged in, as well as business and client requirements. Rest assured; we will always be clear about role expectations.

What you need to have to be considered:

• 8+ years of software engineering/application development experience.
• Strong hands-on programming experience with Python.
• Strong understanding of OOP, design patterns, asynchronous programming, REST APIs, microservices, and distributed systems.
• Experience with Python frameworks such as FastAPI, Flask, Django, Pandas, NumPy, Pydantic, and pytest.
• Hands-on experience developing solutions using LLMs and Generative AI.
• Experience with RAG, embeddings, vector search, prompt engineering, and LLM orchestration.
• Knowledge of Agentic AI concepts, including agents, tools, memory/state, workflow orchestration, and human-in-the-loop patterns.
• Experience with at least one major cloud environment such as Microsoft Azure, AWS, or Google Cloud.
• Knowledge of relational and NoSQL databases such as PostgreSQL, SQL Server, MongoDB, or Redis.
• Experience with vector search/vector databases such as Azure AI Search, Pinecone, Weaviate, FAISS, or pgvector.
• Experience with Git, Docker, CI/CD, Kubernetes, and DevOps practices.
• Understanding of AI application security, responsible AI, monitoring, and production support.

We're excited to meet people who share our mission and can make an impact in a variety of ways. Don't hesitate to apply, even if you only meet the minimum requirements listed. Think about your transferable experiences and unique skills that make you stand out as someone who can bring new and exciting things to this role.

Total compensation:

We regularly assess market data to ensure we offer a competitive compensation package for our associates. The base salary for this position ranges between CAD 70,000 - 92,000 per year. Where the successful candidate may fall within the range depends on relevant education, work and/or management experience and other business-related and job-necessary qualifications. This position is also eligible for Cognizant's discretionary annual performance-based bonus, as well as benefits that support your physical, mental and financial wellbeing.