Senior AI Engineer

Hey Recruiting Agency; India; On-site; INR 900,000 - 1,500,000; Full time

Job summary

Hey Recruiting Agency is seeking a Senior AI Engineer who combines deep AI expertise with strong backend engineering. The role focuses on Python-based backend work, building production AI features with LLMs, agents, and AI tooling.

The ideal candidate has 5+ years of software experience, solid CS fundamentals, and hands-on experience with C/C++ or other low-level systems. IIT/NIT/BITS Pilani graduates are preferred, and candidates should stay actively engaged with AI communities.

Qualifications

• 5+ years of software engineering experience.
• Strong Python backend engineering experience with production systems.
• C/C++ or low-level systems experience preferred.
• Strong CS/Engineering fundamentals.
• Graduate from IIT, NIT, BITS Pilani or equivalent top engineering institutions preferred.

Responsibilities

• Build production AI features using LLMs, agents, RAG, vector databases, inference, tool calling, and AI automation.
• Evaluate and implement emerging AI models, inference platforms, frameworks, and developer tools.
• Design, build, and scale backend systems, APIs, services, and integrations using Python.
• Own features end to end, from architecture through deployment and iteration.
• Debug, optimize, and improve system performance, scalability, and reliability.
• Use AI coding tools extensively to improve engineering speed and quality.

Skills

Python

AI/LLMs

C/C++

Distributed systems

Backend engineering

GitHub

Open-source contributions

CS fundamentals

Education

IIT/NIT/BITS Pilani or equivalent top engineering institutions

Tools

Baseten

Fireworks AI

GLM/Zhipu

GitHub

Job description

We are looking for a Senior AI Engineer who combines deep, hands-on AI expertise with strong backend engineering. Our backend stack is primarily Python. We strongly prefer candidates with a Computer Science or Computer Engineering background and strong core systems fundamentals, with C/C++ experience being a major plus.

The ideal candidate is genuinely AI-native and highly curious — someone who actively follows the latest developments in AI, builds with new models and infrastructure, and stays plugged into technical communities such as X and GitHub. This pull toward AI is intrinsic — it shows up in what they build and follow on their own time, not because a past employer required it.

• Build production AI features using LLMs, agents, RAG, vector databases, inference, tool calling, and AI automation
• Evaluate and implement emerging AI models, inference platforms, frameworks, and developer tools
• Design, build, and scale backend systems, APIs, services, and integrations using Python
• Own features end to end, from architecture through deployment and iteration
• Debug, optimize, and improve system performance, scalability, and reliability
• Use AI coding tools extensively to improve engineering speed and quality
• 5+ years of software engineering experience
• Significant hands-on experience with AI and LLMs and modern AI infrastructure
• Strong, professional Python backend engineering experience — Python should be a primary language you've built and shipped production systems in, not a secondary or occasional one
• Strong Computer Science / Engineering fundamentals
• Graduate from IIT, NIT, BITS Pilani, or equivalent top-tier engineering institutions preferred
• C/C++ or low-level systems experience highly preferred
• Understanding of distributed systems, concurrency, networking, performance, or operating systems
• Experience building production APIs, databases, integrations, and scalable systems
• Strong ownership and the ability to work independently in a fast-moving environment
• Startup / high-growth experience preferred

We are not looking for a traditional backend engineer who has recently added AI to their resume. The ideal candidate is already deeply plugged into the AI ecosystem and knows what's happening across models, inference, AI infrastructure, agents, and developer tooling.

Most importantly, they're drawn to this out of genuine interest and curiosity, not because a job pushed them into it. They experiment with new models on their own, have opinions on tradeoffs, and keep up because they want to — not because they have to.

They should naturally be familiar with emerging platforms and models such as Fireworks AI, Baseten, GLM/Zhipu, and similar technologies, and actively follow their evolution through X, GitHub, research, and technical communities.

• AI-related personal projects or GitHub repositories
• Open-source contributions
• Actively experimenting with the latest models and AI tools
• An active technical presence on X and GitHub
• Strong curiosity about how systems work under the hood
• The ability to evaluate new AI technologies independently and form a point of view

5+ years | AI/LLMs (hands-on, production) | Python Backend | CS/Engineering Fundamentals | IIT/NIT/BITS or Equivalent | C/C++ Preferred | AI-Native by Genuine Interest | Systems Mindset | Builder Mentality