Lead Full Stack - AI Engineer (Relocation to Qatar)

EPAM Systems; Turkey; On-site; TRY 3,990,000 - 5,587,000; Full time

Job summary

EPAM Systems seeks a Lead Full Stack AI Engineer to craft pragmatic AI architectures (RAG, agents) within cloud-native microservices and enterprise data platforms. The role involves Java/Spring Boot AI integrations and guiding global teams. Relocation to Qatar is supported; on-site req.

3 days at client site and flexible remote work within Qatar. The candidate will design, implement, and govern AI delivery with SDD, guardrails, observability, and CI/CD for AI assets, with strong leadership and

Qualifications

• 5+ years in Core Java, Spring/Spring Boot, web services and microservices.
• 1-2+ years delivering LLMs, RAG, or agentic systems in production or PoCs.
• Strong leadership and project delivery skills.
• Experience with cloud-native architectures and databases.
• Proven ability to balance cost, quality, and risk in AI delivery.
• Excellent communication in English (B2).
• Hands-on with SDD, agents, guardrails, and governance.

Responsibilities

• Design AI architectures within cloud-native microservices.
• Guide teams on RAG vs agents vs conventional approaches.
• Deliver LLM integrations in Java/Spring Boot services.
• Build agentic use cases, run agents, and enforce guardrails.
• Embed SDD into delivery workflows and playbooks.
• Contribute to documentation, training, and mentoring.
• Deploy on AKS/Azure hosting with SRE guidance.
• Implement observability, rollout/versioning, and CI/CD for prompts and models.
• Apply responsible AI controls per client policies.
• Track KPIs for adoption, productivity, quality and risk.

Skills

Core Java

Spring Boot

Microservices

LLMs & RAG

Agentic systems

Cloud-native

Kafka

GitLab

Azure AKS/Web Apps

React (nice to have)

Leadership

SDD (Spec-driven Dev)

CI/CD

Observability

Quality gates

English B2

Tools

GitLab

Kafka

Azure

AKS

React

Job description

We are seeking a Lead Full Stack AI Engineer to help deliver pragmatic AI architectures (RAG, agents, copilots, automation) embedded in cloud-native microservices and enterprise data platforms at EPAM, with eventual relocation to Qatar. You will shape spec-driven delivery and production-grade Java/Spring Boot AI integrations in a global team.

This is an on-site position in Qatar, requiring 3 days per week to be worked at the client's office, and the rest to be worked from anywhere in Qatar. Relocation is supported by the project.

Responsibilities

• Design pragmatic AI architectures integrated into cloud-native microservices and enterprise data platforms
• Decide when to use RAG vs agents vs conventional approaches and guide teams on tradeoffs
• Deliver production LLM integrations embedded into Java/Spring Boot services, including retrieval, embeddings, and vector stores where relevant
• Build and maintain agentic use cases, write and run agents, and implement program-defined guardrails
• Implement spec-driven development (SDD) specs and templates, and enforce governance and quality gates
• Embed SDD into delivery workflows and contribute to playbooks, training, documentation, and mentoring across squads
• Deploy and operate solutions on AKS and Azure hosting with platform and SRE guidance
• Implement observability, rollout and versioning, and CI/CD for prompts, specs, and models
• Apply responsible AI controls and data handling constraints aligned to client policies and engineering standards
• Track adoption, productivity, quality, and risk KPIs for AI-enabled delivery

Requirements

• Willing to relocate to Qatar and eligible.
• 5+ years of hands-on experience with Core Java, Spring/Spring Boot, web services, and microservices
• 1-2+ years of hands-on experience delivering LLMs, RAG, and agentic systems in production or strong enterprise PoCs
• Strong leadership skills to guide technical decisions such as when to use RAG vs agents vs conventional approaches
• Proven project delivery skills to embed spec-driven development (SDD) into team workflows and quality gates
• Strong cloud-native architecture knowledge including database concepts, Kafka, and GitLab
• Strong communication skills to collaborate effectively in a global team
• Upper-Intermediate English proficiency (B2)
• Practical experience applying SDD, including running and writing agents and implementing guardrails
• Hands-on experience integrating agentic and/or RAG capabilities into engineering workflows
• Production mindset for testing, observability, safe rollout, and secure-by-design implementation
• Strong analytical skills to balance cost, productivity, quality, and risk in LLM and agentic solutions
• Strong prompt engineering skills with an evaluation and testing mindset
• Familiarity with Azure hosting including AKS and/or Azure Web Apps, and CI/CD with GitLab
• Nice to have React knowledge