Senior AI/LLM Engineer (Python) - Remote

Kake; Vancouver; On-site; CAD 195,000 - 264,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Competitive pay in USD

Fully remote work

Better Me Fund

Compassion is Badass

Job summary

Kake, a remote-first company and a people-first global community of senior engineers, is seeking a Senior AI/LLM Engineer with strong Python to design, build, and productionize AI systems at scale. It's a great fit for people who enjoy working at the intersection of software engineering and applied AI, and who take ownership from prototyping through production deployment.

You'll work at the intersection of software engineering and applied AI, owning projects from prototyping through production,

Qualifications

• Proficient in Python with production experience in AI/LLM projects.
• Experience building backend services and APIs for AI features.
• Experience with LLM providers (OpenAI/Anthropic) and tooling (LangChain, LlamaIndex).
• Familiarity with RAG pipelines, embeddings, and vector databases.
• Hands-on with Docker and containerized development environments.
• Strong communication skills and ability to work autonomously in a remote setting.

Responsibilities

• Design, build, and deploy LLM-powered features and applications using Python.
• Develop backend services and APIs exposing AI/LLM capabilities to other systems.
• Build and optimize RAG pipelines, embeddings, and vector search strategies.
• Iterate prompts, agents, and orchestration flows using LangChain or similar frameworks.
• Integrate with LLM providers and manage cost, latency, and quality tradeoffs.
• Evaluate model outputs, implement testing frameworks for AI/LLM quality.
• Work with PostgreSQL, Redis, and vector databases in production environments.
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams to translate product needs into AI solutions.

Skills

Independent work

English communication

Remote-friendly

Tools

Python

FastAPI

Docker

PostgreSQL

Redis

LangChain

LlamaIndex

OpenAI API

Anthropic API

Job description

Kake is a remote-first company and a people-first global community of senior engineers. Kake engineers are behind some of the world's most innovative products (Brands you've heard!), from Fortune 500 to fast-growing companies. We believe it's not where your table is, but what you bring to the table that matters. Our community spans 45,000+ engineers across 55+ countries; join a culture where great people stay, grow, and thrive (and love eating kake!).

Senior AI/LLM Engineers with strong Python experience, skilled in designing, building, and productionizing LLM-powered applications and AI systems at scale. It's a great fit for people who enjoy working at the intersection of software engineering and applied AI, and who take ownership from prototyping through production deployment.

What you'll build and own

• Design, build, and deploy LLM-powered features and applications using Python.
• Develop and maintain backend services and APIs (e.g., FastAPI) that expose AI/LLM capabilities to other systems.
• Build and optimize RAG pipelines, including embeddings, vector search, and retrieval strategies.
• Design, test, and iterate on prompts, agents, and orchestration flows using frameworks such as LangChain, LlamaIndex, or similar.
• Integrate with LLM providers and APIs (e.g., OpenAI, Anthropic, open-source models) and manage tradeoffs around cost, latency, and quality.
• Evaluate model outputs systematically, building tooling and metrics to test accuracy, safety, and regression across iterations.
• Work with containerized environments and data infrastructure (e.g., PostgreSQL, Redis, vector databases) to support reliable AI systems in production.
• Collaborate with cross-functional stakeholders to translate ambiguous product needs into technically sound AI solutions.

Core Requirements

• Strong proficiency in Python and experience with FastAPI or similar backend frameworks.
• Experience working with LLM APIs (e.g., OpenAI, Anthropic, or similar) and frameworks such as LangChain or LlamaIndex.
• Experience with RAG architectures, embeddings, and vector databases (e.g., Pinecone, Weaviate, pgvector, or similar).
• Hands-on experience with Docker and containerized development environments.
• Experience working with PostgreSQL, Redis, or similar data stores.
• Strong experience writing functional and integration tests, including evaluation frameworks for AI/LLM output quality.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills in English.
• Ability to work independently in a remote, fast-paced environment.

Nice-to-Have

• Experience fine-tuning or evaluating open-source LLMs.
• Familiarity with prompt engineering best practices and agentic workflows.
• Experience with distributed systems, streaming (e.g., Kafka), or large-scale applications.
• Background in machine learning fundamentals (e.g., scikit-learn, PyTorch, or TensorFlow).
• Comfortable working flexible hours to overlap with distributed teams across different time zones.

Why Join Kake?

The icing on the Kake:

• Competitive Pay in USD: Work globally, get paid globally.
• Fully Remote: Simply put, we trust you.
• Better Me Fund: We invest in your personal growth and passions.
• Compassion is Badass: Join a community that invests in social good.