Founding AI/ML Tech Lead

AIEMTEK Private Ltd; Hyderabad; Hybrid; INR 3,500,000 - 7,000,000; Full time

Job summary

AIEMTEK Private Ltd is seeking a Founding AI/ML Tech Lead to define the technical direction and build production-ready AI solutions. You will work closely with the Founder, lead R&D, and set engineering standards while establishing AI architecture and scalable ML systems.

You will initially be both a technical leader and hands-on engineer, shaping the stack, and recruiting the initial engineering team as the product evolves. This is a high-impact early-stage role with global customer focus.

Qualifications

• 3–5+ years in software engineering, AI/ML engineering or related field.
• Strong hands-on experience developing AI/ML applications.
• Strong Python programming skills.
• Good understanding of modern Generative AI and LLMs.
• Experience with RAG, vector databases, embeddings, prompt engineering, AI agents/agentic workflows, LLM orchestration, model evaluation and AI application development.
• Experience with cloud platforms such as AWS, Azure or Google Cloud.
• Experience designing and deploying production-grade applications.
• Strong software architecture and API design.*
• Experience with relational and/or NoSQL databases.
• Solid Git, CI/CD, testing and deployment practices.
• Strong problem-solving and analytical skills.
• Ability to independently research new technologies and turn them into practical solutions.

Responsibilities

• Define the technical architecture and AI strategy for the company's products.
• Evaluate emerging AI technologies, models, frameworks and platforms.
• Select appropriate LLMs and supporting technologies based on cost, performance and security.
• Design scalable AI/ML architectures for enterprise applications.
• Develop approaches for RAG, AI agents and workflow automation.
• Establish best practices for AI evaluation, reliability, security and performance.
• Lead research, prototyping and development of new AI solutions.
• Convert business problems into practical AI solutions and technical specs.
• Build rapid proofs of concept and MVPs.
• Design and develop proprietary AI workflows, tools and reusable components.
• Identify opportunities for differentiated technology/IP.
• Continuously evaluate new AI research and tools for commercial use.
• Develop prototypes into reliable production solutions.
• Lead and mentor a small AI/ML and software engineering team.
• Establish coding, testing, documentation, deployment and engineering standards.
• Conduct design and code reviews.
• Establish CI/CD, version control, testing and monitoring.

Skills

Python

Generative AI

LLMs

RAG

Vector databases

Embeddings

Prompt engineering

AI agents

LLM orchestration

Model evaluation

AI applications

Cloud platforms

API design

Relational/NoSQL databases

Git CI/CD

Testing & deployment

Problem solving

Independent research

Tools

Kubernetes

Docker

Job description

The Role

As our Founding AI/ML Tech Lead, you will be responsible for defining and implementing the technical direction of the company.

You will work closely with the Founder to identify commercially valuable AI opportunities, evaluate emerging technologies, design AI solutions, build prototypes and lead the development of production-ready products.

This is a hands-on leadership role. We are looking for someone who enjoys solving difficult problems, experimenting with new AI technologies and turning ideas into working products.

You will initially be both a technical leader and hands-on engineer, with responsibility for establishing our AI architecture, development standards and engineering practices.

Key Responsibilities

AI Strategy & Architecture

• Define the technical architecture and AI strategy for the company's products.
• Evaluate emerging AI technologies, models, frameworks and platforms.
• Select appropriate LLMs, foundation models, open-source models and supporting technologies based on cost, performance, security and business requirements.
• Design scalable AI/ML architectures for enterprise applications.
• Develop approaches for RAG, AI agents, workflow automation, document intelligence and other enterprise AI use cases.
• Establish best practices for AI evaluation, reliability, security and performance.

Product & R&D

• Lead the research, prototyping and development of new AI solutions.
• Convert business problems into practical AI solutions and technical specifications.
• Build rapid proofs of concept and minimum viable products (MVPs).
• Design and develop proprietary AI workflows, algorithms, tools and reusable components.
• Identify opportunities for creating differentiated technology and intellectual property.
• Continuously evaluate new AI research, models and tools and determine their practical commercial application.
• Develop prototypes into reliable production solutions.

Engineering Leadership

• Lead and mentor a small team of AI/ML and software engineers.
• Establish coding, testing, documentation, deployment and engineering standards.
• Conduct technical design reviews and code reviews.
• Establish CI/CD, version control, testing and monitoring practices.
• Make appropriate build-vs-buy technology decisions.
• Help recruit and develop the initial engineering team.

Enterprise Integration

• Design integrations between AI solutions and enterprise systems, APIs and data sources.
• Work with technologies such as ERP, CRM, databases, document repositories and business workflow systems.
• Ensure AI solutions can operate securely within enterprise environments.
• Consider data privacy, access control, security, auditability and compliance from the design stage.

Client Engagement

• Participate in technical discussions with prospective customers.
• Understand customer business problems and translate them into technical solutions.
• Lead technical discovery sessions and AI solution assessments.
• Demonstrate prototypes and AI capabilities to clients.
• Support solution proposals, estimates and technical documentation.

Preferred candidate profile

Required Skills & Experience

Essential

• 3-5 plus years of experience in software engineering, AI/ML engineering or a closely related field.
• Strong hands-on experience developing AI/ML applications.
• Strong Python programming skills.
• Good understanding of modern Generative AI and Large Language Models (LLMs).
• Practical experience with technologies such as:
• RAG
• Vector databases
• Embeddings
• Prompt engineering
• AI agents / agentic workflows
• LLM orchestration
• Model evaluation
• AI application development
• Experience with cloud platforms such as AWS, Azure or Google Cloud.
• Experience designing and deploying production-grade applications.
• Strong understanding of software architecture and API design.
• Experience working with relational and/or NoSQL databases.
• Good understanding of Git, CI/CD, testing and deployment practices.
• Strong problem-solving and analytical skills.
• Ability to independently research new technologies and turn them into practical solutions.

Desirable

• Experience integrating AI with enterprise systems such as SAP, Oracle, Microsoft Dynamics, Salesforce or similar platforms.
• Experience in Finance, Procurement, Supply Chain, ERP or other enterprise business processes.
• Experience building AI-powered workflow automation.
• Experience with document AI / intelligent document processing.
• Experience with AI evaluation, observability and governance.
• Experience with fine-tuning or adapting open-source models.
• Experience with Kubernetes, Docker and modern cloud-native architectures.
• Experience taking an AI prototype from PoC through production.
• Understanding of intellectual property, patents or technology commercialisation.

Technical Environment

You may work with technologies including:

Languages: Python, SQL, JavaScript/TypeScript

AI/ML: LLMs, Generative AI, RAG, embeddings, agentic AI, NLP, ML frameworks

Frameworks: LangChain, LangGraph or equivalent frameworks

Data: PostgreSQL, vector databases, data pipelines and APIs

Cloud: AWS / Azure / GCP

DevOps: Git, Docker, CI/CD, monitoring and cloud deployment

The exact technology stack will evolve as the company develops, so a strong ability to learn and evaluate new technologies is more important than experience with a particular framework.

What We Are Looking For

We are looking for someone who is:

• Hands-on comfortable writing code and building solutions rather than only managing teams.
• Product‑minded understands that technology must solve a real customer problem.
• Curious actively follows developments in AI and experiments with new approaches.
• Commercially aware – able to assess whether an AI solution has genuine business value.
• Entrepreneurial – comfortable working in an early‑stage environment with ambiguity.
• Pragmatic – knows when to use existing technology rather than reinventing it.
• A strong communicator – able to explain complex technical concepts to both technical and non-technical stakeholders.
• A mentor – capable of building and developing a high-performing engineering team.

Perks and benefits

Why Join Us?

This is an opportunity to join an AI company at an early stage and have significant influence over its technology and product direction.

You will have the opportunity to:

• Shape the company's AI technology strategy.
• Build AI products from the ground up.
• Work on commercially meaningful enterprise AI problems.
• Develop proprietary technology and potentially protectable IP.
• Build and lead the initial AI engineering team.
• Work with customers in India, the UK, Europe and Americas.
• Work closely with the Founder and influence key business and technology decisions.
• Grow into a senior technology leadership position as the company scales.

Compensation

Competitive salary + performance incentive + potential ESOP/equity participation, depending on experience and the candidate's contribution to the company's growth.