Lead AI Agent Engineer

EPAM Systems; Turkey; On-site; TRY 5,926,000 - 8,889,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Private health insurance

Continuous learning and development

Annual leave and mentoring programs

Job summary

EPAM Systems is seeking a hands-on technical leader to design and deliver production AI agent solutions. You will guide engineers, shape architecture, and ensure operational readiness across the team’s work.

We value deep language expertise and the ability to learn new tools. This role leads design across memory, identity, tool integration, and observability while coordinating with customers and stakeholders.

Qualifications

• Five+ years delivering production software and tech leadership.
• Experience shipping LLM-based agents to production.
• Strong programming depth across at least one general language.

Responsibilities

• Lead solution design across agent execution, memory, identity, tool integration and observability.
• Guide cloud AI hosting services and validate platform choices for reliability, cost, and security.
• Design and review memory, context and state management for long-running workflows.
• Set integration standards for MCP servers and tools in security workflows.
• Establish testing, CI/CD, observability and engineering practices.
• Guide production readiness and incident response with cost controls and rollback strategies.
• Plan and prioritize technical delivery with stakeholders and break work into milestones.
• Build prototypes and production-grade slices, mentoring others through reviews and feedback.
• Improve engineering processes and communicate progress, risks, and decisions to customers.

Skills

Technical leadership

Architecture design

Cloud AI services

LLM-based agents

Prototyping

Security and compliance

CI/CD practices

Mentoring

Tools

Bedrock

Vertex AI

Azure AI Foundry

Job description

Lead the technical design and delivery of production AI agent solutions. This is a hands-on technical leadership role combining architecture, engineering, and team delivery. You will work with customers and stakeholders to define the right solution, guide engineers through implementation, and take responsibility for technical quality and operational readiness across the team's work.

We welcome engineers from different programming backgrounds. We value depth in your existing language and the ability to learn the languages and tools needed for the role.

Responsibilities

• Lead solution design across agent execution, memory, identity, tool integration, and observability. Turn customer needs into clear requirements, compare alternatives, and explain the business and technical reasons for the chosen approach.
• Guide the team's use of cloud-managed services for AI hosting (e.g., Bedrock, Azure AI Foundry, Vertex AI). Establish implementation patterns and validate platform choices against reliability, security, cost, and operational requirements.
• Design and guide implementation of an LLM gateway & routing layer covering model tiering, quota/cost control, and observability (e.g., LiteLLM, APIM AI Gateway).
• Design and review memory, context, and state-management approaches for long-running workflows, including recovery, data retention, access boundaries, and isolation between users or engagements.
• Set integration standards for MCP servers and tools used in authorized security workflows, including reconnaissance, scanners, controlled exploit tooling, and internal services. Define permissions, approval requirements, auditability, and containment of failures.
• Establish a balanced testing and evaluation strategy covering software correctness, agent behavior, security boundaries, and operational performance. Define release criteria and ensure the team can demonstrate that they are met.
• Guide production readiness and incident response, including observability, cost controls, staged delivery, rollback, and recovery. Use operational evidence to prioritize improvements and technical debt.
• Plan and prioritize technical delivery with product, security, and engineering stakeholders. Break work into achievable milestones, delegate ownership, manage dependencies, and resolve technical and delivery impediments.
• Personally build working prototypes and production-grade slices of the solution, taking them through implementation, testing, and deployment. Lead complex troubleshooting and develop other engineers through design reviews, coaching, and constructive feedback.
• Improve engineering processes, contribute to technical hiring, and communicate progress, risks, alternatives, and decisions clearly to customers and the team.

Requirements

• Substantial experience delivering and operating production software, typically five or more years, including at least one year shipping LLM-based agents to production. You also bring a demonstrated record of technical leadership and team delivery.
• Strong programming skills and production depth in at least one general-purpose language, with practical agent development experience. You can work across language boundaries, guide technology choices, and help the team adopt unfamiliar tools. You personally deliver working prototypes and production-grade implementations.
• Experience designing system components or complete solutions, evaluating architectural alternatives, and making decisions against business needs and non-functional requirements.
• Deep experience with cloud-managed services for AI hosting (e.g., Bedrock, Azure AI Foundry, Vertex AI), including runtime, state, identity, integration, and observability concerns, and evidence of leading a team through adoption of an unfamiliar platform.
• Practical expertise in MCP, tool orchestration, context and memory management, and agent evaluation, supported by a strong understanding of distributed-system failures and security boundaries.
• Experience establishing or improving testing, CI/CD, observability, and engineering practices. You can explain how these practices improved quality, delivery, or operational outcomes.
• Experience leading technical discussions with customers, presenting alternatives, and aligning stakeholders on scope, priorities, risks, and trade-offs.
• The ability to plan team delivery, delegate effectively, resolve disagreements and impediments, mentor engineers, and conduct technical interviews.
• Sound judgment when adopting AI development tools: clear expectations for data access, permissions, review, and verification, with outcomes assessed through evidence.
• English proficiency at B2 level or higher.

Nice to have

• Experience leading engineering work in application security, penetration testing, red-teaming, or security automation within an authorized scope.
• Experience designing platforms for sandboxed code execution, browser agents, or autonomous tool orchestration.
• Experience establishing reusable agent components, evaluation practices, or operational standards used by multiple teams.
• Experience taking a new product or technical capability from initial design through launch and ongoing operation.

We offer

• CONTINUOUS UPSKILLING, LEARNING & DEVELOPMENT
  • Diversity of tasks and projects
  • Assessment center for objective review of competency level
  • Personal development plan
  • Mentoring programs and leadership development
  • Certification and professional development support
  • Access to learning platforms including more than 2,500 internal courses
  • English courses taught by certified teachers
• CORPORATE BENEFITS
  • Extra leave days
  • Referral bonuses
• COMPENSATION PACKAGE
  • Competitive compensation paid in USD
  • Regular salary and performance reviews
• MEDICAL & HEALTHCARE
  • Private health insurance
  • Well-being events
• WORKING ENVIRONMENT
  • Recreation areas and kitchens
  • Tea, coffee and snacks
  • Sports equipment and game consoles
  • IT Equipment
  • Microsoft's Software Assurance Home Use Program (HUP)

Please note that our Talent Attraction Team reviews applications and CVs submitted in English.

EPAM is global leader in AI transformation engineering and integrated consulting, serving Forbes Global 2000 companies and ambitious startups. With over thirty years of expertise in custom software, product and platform engineering, we empower our clients to become AI-Native enterprises, driving measurable value from innovation and digital investments.