Sr. Principal AI Developer

OpenText; Southwestern Ontario; On-site; CAD 180,000 - 240,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading information management company in Ontario seeks a Sr. Principal AI Developer to take a hands-on role in shaping AI solutions. The successful candidate will leverage over 12 years of experience in software engineering, focusing on building, evolving, and improving AI strategies. Responsibilities include prototyping, providing guidance on best practices, and collaborating with teams to ensure robust AI architecture. This is an opportunity to work with cutting-edge technologies and drive the future of digital transformation.

Qualifications

• Minimum 12 years of software engineering experience in principal or architect roles.
• Proven experience building enterprise AI solutions.
• Deep understanding of the AI lifecycle from experimentation to production.
• Ability to guide teams through architectural decisions.
• Builder mindset with fast execution on code.

Responsibilities

• Shape AI solutions design and evaluation.
• Prototype and build proof-of-concept solutions.
• Work with teams to adopt best practices for AI.
• Lead architecture discussions and ensure production‑ready designs.
• Collaborate with architects and developers across the stack.

Skills

Designing RAG pipelines

Building agent orchestration

Creating prototypes and POCs

Advising on prompt engineering

Identifying architectural gaps

Explaining AI decisions clearly

Google ADK

LLM tooling

Prompt engineering

Observability

Cloud platforms

FastAPI

Microservices

Education

Bachelor’s or Master’s in Computer Science

Tools

Python

JavaScript / TypeScript

Java

Google Vertex AI

FastAPI

Job description

OpenText - The Information Company

OpenText is a global leader in information management, where innovation, creativity, and collaboration are the key components of our corporate culture. As a member of our team, you will have the opportunity to partner with the most highly regarded companies in the world, tackle complex issues, and contribute to projects that shape the future of digital transformation.

AI-First. Future-Driven. Human-Centered.

At OpenText, AI is at the heart of everything we do—powering innovation, transforming work, and empowering digital knowledge workers. We are hiring talent AI can’t replace to help us shape the future of information management. Join us.

Job Title: Sr. Principal AI Developer
Job Location: Richmond Hill, ON

The AI Engineering and Enablement organization defines and evolves OpenText’s AI architecture and technical foundations, enabling teams to build secure, scalable, and production‑grade AI solutions across the enterprise. We operate at the intersection of platform engineering, applied AI, and product innovation, translating emerging AI capabilities into real‑world enterprise solutions.

This organization partners closely with engineering, product, and architecture teams to establish modern AI patterns, reference architectures, and best practices that accelerate adoption while maintaining reliability, security, and governance.

The Opportunity

As Sr. Principal AI Developer, you will be a hands‑on technical leader and architectural partner responsible for shaping how AI solutions are designed, built, evaluated, and evolved at OpenText. You will work closely with architects and development teams to design, review, and improve modern RAG and agentic solutions, both new and existing.

This role is intentionally very hands‑on. You are expected to prototype, build proof‑of‑concepts, create starter projects, and validate architectural approaches in code. You will help teams adopt best practices across the full AI lifecycle, including prompt design, evaluation, observability, and continuous improvement.

This role requires deep technical credibility, strong enterprise experience, and the ability to guide teams through practical, real‑world AI architecture challenges.

You Are Great At

• Designing and reviewing modern RAG pipelines and agentic systems for enterprise use cases.
• Building and evolving agent orchestration and agent‑to‑agent solutions, including task delegation and tool calling.
• Creating hands‑on prototypes, POCs, and starter templates to guide development teams.
• Advising teams on prompt engineering best practices, evaluation strategies, and observability patterns.
• Identifying architectural gaps and helping teams refactor or improve existing AI solutions.
• Working closely with architects and developers to translate AI patterns into production‑ready designs.
• Staying current with AI frameworks, tools, and research, and applying them pragmatically.
• Explaining complex AI architecture decisions clearly and effectively.
• Technology Stack & Focus Areas
• Strong experience in the following areas is highly preferred:
• Primary Languages: Python (primary), JavaScript / TypeScript, Java
• AI & Agentic Frameworks: LangGraph (highly preferred), Google ADK (highly preferred)
• LLM‑based agent frameworks and orchestration patterns
• AI Techniques & Practices: Retrieval‑Augmented Generation (RAG), Prompt engineering and prompt management, Evaluation frameworks and quality measurement, Observability, tracing, and debugging of AI systems
• Cloud & Platforms: Google Vertex AI (strong preference), Experience with AWS or Azure AI services, Containerized and cloud‑native AI deployments
• Application & Platform Architecture: FastAPI and modern backend frameworks, Microservices and API‑driven architectures, Event‑driven and scalable runtime systems

What It Takes

• 12+ years of software engineering experience, with significant time in principal or architect‑level roles.
• Proven, hands‑on experience building and evolving enterprise AI solutions.
• Deep understanding of the end‑to‑end AI lifecycle, from experimentation to production and optimization.
• Strong ability to evaluate, adjust, and improve AI systems based on quality, performance, and reliability.
• Experience guiding multiple teams through architectural decisions without direct authority.
• A practical, builder mindset with the ability to move from theory to working code quickly.
• Curiosity, strong learning instincts, and a passion for continuous improvement.
• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field.

One Last Thing

OpenText is more than just a corporation, it’s a global community where trust is foundational, the bar is raised, and outcomes are owned.

Join us on our mission to drive positive change through privacy, technology, and collaboration. At OpenText, we don’t just have a culture; we have character. Choose us because you want to be part of a company that embraces innovation and empowers its employees to make a difference.

OpenText's commitment to diversity and inclusion surpasses legal requirements, evident in our Equal Employment Opportunity Statement of Policy which promotes a respectful and empowering environment for employees of all backgrounds, culture, national origin, race, color, gender, gender identification, sexual orientation, family status, age, veteran status, disability, religion, or other basis protected by applicable laws.

If you need assistance and/or a reasonable accommodation due to a disability during the application or recruiting process, please submit a ticket at Ask HR. Our proactive approach fosters collaboration, innovation, and personal growth, enriching OpenText's vibrant workplace.

Compensation:

At OpenText, we offer a thoughtfully designed benefits package that supports your physical, emotional, and financial wellbeing. As you move through the hiring process, we’re happy to provide more details about our compensation programs, including variable and commission compensation opportunities for eligible roles, vacation entitlement, and paid time off.

AI Usage Disclosure:

As part of our commitment to transparency, we use artificial intelligence (AI) tools to assist in various stages of our recruitment process, including resume screening, candidate matching, interview scheduling, and communications. These tools are designed to improve efficiency, reduce bias, and enhance candidate experience. All decisions regarding hiring are made by qualified human professionals, and we continuously monitor our AI systems to ensure fairness and compliance with applicable regulations.