Senior AI Engineer

YTL AI Labs; Kuala Lumpur; On-site; MYR 180,000 - 280,000; Full time

Job summary

YTL AI Labs is seeking a Senior AI Product Engineer to design, build, and operate production-grade AI systems that power real-world applications. This role sits at the intersection of applied AI, backend engineering, and platform reliability.

You will work closely with product, platform, and infrastructure teams to turn research and experimentation into scalable, reliable AI capabilities, owning the engineering decisions that ensure performance, safety, and cost efficiency at scale.

Qualifications

• 4+ years of software engineering experience, with hands-on exposure to AI/ML or LLM-based systems.
• Proficient backend skills with production experience in Python/Node.js or similar.
• Experience with LLMs, prompts, tools, and agent-style architectures.

Responsibilities

• Design and implement end-to-end AI systems including inference pipelines, agent workflows, and tool-calling architectures.
• Build and manage context orchestration for LLMs (system prompts, memory, retrieval, and structured inputs).
• Engineer latency-aware and cost-efficient fallback strategies across models and providers.
• Develop backend services for prompt routing, response handling, and tool execution (Python / Node.js or similar).
• Integrate and optimise RAG pipelines, memory stores, and evaluation workflows.

Skills

Python

Node.js

LLMs

Backend engineering

System design

Education

Bachelor's degree in CS/Software Engineering

Tools

OpenAI API

Vector databases

Embedding pipelines

Job description

At YTL AI Labs, we build sovereign AI models that perform on par with the world’s best—while staying grounded in local needs, values, and context. Our flagship model, Ilmu, is designed to be culturally aware, contextually intelligent, and fluent in Bahasa Melayu, delivering cutting‑edge solutions that empower Malaysian businesses with intelligence that truly understands the market and the people they serve.

As pioneers of sovereign AI, we believe every nation should have the power to shape its own intelligence, guided by its people, priorities, and principles.

About the Role

As an Senior AI Product Engineer, you will design, build, and operate production‑grade AI systems that power real‑world applications. This role sits at the intersection of applied AI, backend engineering, and platform reliability.

You will work closely with product, platform, and infrastructure teams to turn research and experimentation into scalable, reliable AI capabilities, owning the engineering decisions that ensure performance, safety, and cost efficiency at scale.

You’ll:

• Design and implement end-to-end AI systems including inference pipelines, agent workflows, and tool‑calling architectures
• Build and manage context orchestration for LLMs (system prompts, memory, retrieval, and structured inputs)
• Engineer latency‑aware and cost‑efficient fallback strategies across models and providers
• Develop backend services for prompt routing, response handling, and tool execution (Python / Node.js or similar)
• Integrate and optimise RAG pipelines, memory stores, and evaluation workflows
• Implement observability for AI systems: logging, metrics, tracing, and quality monitoring
• Maintain CI/CD pipelines for AI services and ensure safe, repeatable deployments
• Collaborate with product and platform teams on system design, risk assessment, and scaling strategies
• Continuously refine system performance using telemetry, offline evaluation, and real user feedback
• Contribute reusable abstractions, internal libraries, and engineering best practices across the AI stack

What We’re Looking For

• 4+ years of software engineering experience, with hands‑on exposure to AI/ML or LLM-based systems
• Strong backend engineering skills (Python, Node.js, or similar) with production experience
• Practical experience working with LLMs, prompts, tools, and agent-style architectures
• Solid understanding of system design tradeoffs: latency, cost, reliability, and scalability
• Comfortable operating in fast‑moving, exploratory environments with evolving requirements

Bonus points if you have:

• Experience with LLM APIs such as OpenAI, Claude, or similar providers
• Hands‑on work with RAG systems, vector databases, and embedding pipelines
• Experience evaluating LLM quality, hallucinations, and failure modes
• Background in Fintech, GovTech, EdTech, or other regulated or high‑impact domains
• Exposure to model safety, guardrails, or responsible AI practices

Why Join Us

You’ll be building national‑scale AI infrastructure, not demos. Your work will directly shape how sovereign AI is engineered, deployed, and trusted, setting foundations that matter far beyond a single product.

If you care deeply about how AI is built, not just what it can do, we’d love to meet you.