Lead GenAI Engineer

EPAM Systems; Colombia; On-site; COP 120,000,000 - 190,000,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Healthcare benefits

Paid time off

Upskilling courses

Global career opportunities

LinkedIn Learning

Job summary

EPAM Systems is seeking a Senior AI Engineer to advance large language model integrations, build scalable full-stack applications, and lead engineering teams across projects in a multinational environment.

You will design and implement endpoints, orchestrate tool usage, and ensure secure, scalable backend and frontend systems, while collaborating with product and design teams to drive product success.

Qualifications

• At least five years of hands-on, applicable professional background.
• Minimum one year leading or managing engineering teams.
• Direct experience developing applications built on LLM providers (Claude, OpenAI) or comparable platforms.
• Applied experience with Model Context Protocol (MCP), covering tool schema design and MCP servers.

Responsibilities

• Engage across the entire feature development cycle, from ideation through launch and maintenance.
• Convert business needs into structured technical implementations.
• Develop intuitive, responsive interfaces for users.
• Create and maintain backend services driving essential capabilities.
• Coordinate with designers, product owners, and engineers to influence product direction.
• Identify and fix issues impacting speed, reliability, and usability.
• Contribute to code reviews to uphold quality standards.
• Record decisions, processes, and system behavior for knowledge transfer.
• Provide estimates for task scope and timelines.
• Track emerging tools and methods, suggesting improvements.

Skills

Leadership

LLM integration

Full-stack React/TypeScript

Python/FastAPI

Node.js

API integration

English (B2+)

System design

Tools

Claude

OpenAI

MCP servers

Streaming APIs

Tool calling

Job description

EPAM is a leading global provider of digital platform engineering and development services. We are committed to having a positive impact on our customers, our employees, and our communities. We embrace a dynamic and inclusive culture. Here you will collaborate with multi-national teams, contribute to a myriad of innovative projects that deliver the most creative and cutting-edge solutions, and have an opportunity to continuously learn and grow. No matter where you are located, you will join a dedicated, creative, and diverse community that will help you discover your fullest potential.

Responsibilities

• Engage across the entire feature development cycle, spanning initial ideation through launch and continued maintenance
• Convert business and product needs into clearly structured technical implementations
• Develop and sustain intuitive, responsive interfaces that provide users with a seamless experience
• Create and maintain backend services that drive essential application capabilities
• Coordinate closely with designers, product owners, and engineering peers to influence product direction
• Identify and fix issues impacting application speed, reliability, and overall usability
• Contribute to code review processes to uphold consistent quality standards across the codebase
• Record technical decisions, process flows, and system behavior to facilitate team-wide knowledge transfer
• Provide estimates for task scope and timelines while keeping stakeholders informed of progress
• Track emerging tools and methods, suggesting enhancements to current development practices

Requirements

• At least five years of hands-on, applicable professional background
• A minimum of one year spent leading or managing engineering teams
• Direct experience developing applications built on LLM providers such as Claude, OpenAI, or comparable platforms
• Applied experience with Model Context Protocol (MCP), covering tool schema design and building or adapting MCP servers
• Background architecting multi-step agentic workflows, including tool usage, orchestration mechanisms, and safety controls
• Robust full-stack expertise spanning React and TypeScript for frontend work along with Python/FastAPI or Node.js for backend development
• Experience connecting LLM provider APIs, covering streaming output handling, function/tool calling, and structured response formats
• Effective communication ability with working English fluency at B2 level or higher, supporting clear interpretation of business needs and their conversion into agentic system designs

Nice to have

• Background designing and building Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) pipelines, including chunking approaches and retrieval techniques
• Exposure to vector database solutions such as Pinecone, Weaviate, or pgvector for embedding storage and retrieval
• Experience developing AI-native interface patterns, including streaming output displays, tool-call visualizations, and human-in-the-loop states
• Familiarity with eval-driven development practices using BrainTrust or similar evaluation tools and frameworks
• Experience overseeing prompt version control and running regression tests against established evaluation benchmarks

We offer

• International projects with top brands
• Work with global teams of highly skilled, diverse peers
• Healthcare benefits
• Employee financial programs
• Paid time off and sick leave
• Upskilling, reskilling and certification courses
• Unlimited access to the LinkedIn Learning library and 22,000+ courses
• Global career opportunities
• Volunteer and community involvement opportunities
• EPAM Employee Groups
• Award-winning culture recognized by Glassdoor, Newsweek and LinkedIn

EPAM is an Equal Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, disability, protected veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by applicable law.