AI Developer

Salvo Software; United States; Hybrid; USD 120,000 - 190,000; Full time

Job summary

Salvo Software LLC is expanding its AI team and seeks a hands-on AI Developer to build and operate LLM-powered systems, including open-source models via Ollama and llama.cpp. You will own RAG pipelines and MCP integrations, connect models to internal tools, and deploy production-grade Python services.

You will collaborate across distributed teams, gain mentorship while ramping up in RAG architecture, Kafka, and MCP work, and contribute to DevOps practices with Docker, CI/CD, and cloud

Qualifications

• 3–5+ years of engineering experience with production-level Python for building services.
• Hands-on LLM integration using Ollama/llama.cpp and vector retrieval with RAG pipelines.
• Experience with cloud/infrastructure: Azure or AWS, containerization with Docker, and CI/CD automation.

Responsibilities

• Serve and operate open-source LLMs locally and on-prem.
• Build and maintain RAG pipelines and vector stores.
• Develop MCP integrations connecting LLMs to internal tools and data sources.
• Build back-end services in Python powering ML inference and AI features.
• Process structured/semi-structured data (XML, Office formats) as pipeline inputs.
• Improve model quantization and GPU tuning; consider offline deployments.
• Create CI/CD pipelines for AI services; deploy on Azure/AWS.
• Automate tasks with Python, Bash, and PowerShell.
• Troubleshoot across the stack with root-cause analysis.

Skills

Python

LLM integration

DevOps fundamentals

Root-cause analysis

Remote collaboration

Tools

Ollama

llama.cpp

Docker

Azure DevOps

GitHub Actions

GitLab CI

Kubernetes

Terraform

Apache Kafka

Python

Job description

the company is a global technology company specializing in custom software development and advanced engineering solutions. With distributed teams across the US, LATAM, and India, we partner with clients to build high-performance, scalable systems that solve complex technical challenges. Our culture values innovation, ownership, and engineering excellence. We're growing our AI department and are looking for a hands‑on AI Developer to help build it.

Role Overview

We are looking for an AI Developer to join and strengthen our AI department. Your core work will be building and operating LLM-powered systems: serving open-source models with Ollama and llama.cpp, building RAG pipelines, and developing MCP integrations that connect large language models to real tools and data. Solid DevOps fundamentals – Docker, CI/CD, Azure – support this work, but AI engineering is the heart of the role. You don't need to be a deep ML researcher. What matters is production-grade Python, strong fundamentals, and the aptitude to learn fast. You'll work closely with our engineering and product teams to take LLM-powered features from prototype to reliably deployed systems, with mentorship available as you ramp up in areas like RAG architecture, Kafka, and advanced MCP work.

Key Responsibilities AI / LLM Engineering (core focus)

• Serve and operate open-source LLMs using Ollama and llama.cpp, locally and in on‑prem environments.
• Build and maintain RAG pipelines: embeddings, vector databases, chunking strategies, and retrieval quality.
• Develop MCP (Model Context Protocol) integrations connecting LLMs to internal tools and data sources.
• Build backend services in Python that power ML inference and AI-driven product features.
• Parse and process structured and semi-structured data (XML/XSD, Office document formats) as pipeline inputs.
• Grow into model optimization over time: quantization (GGUF), GPU/CUDA tuning, and offline/air-gapped deployments.
• Build and maintain CI/CD pipelines for AI services (Azure DevOps preferred; GitHub Actions / GitLab CI also used).
• Deploy AI workloads to Microsoft Azure,AWS and containerize services with Docker.
• Automate operational tasks with Python, Bash and/or PowerShell scripting.
• Troubleshoot across the stack - dig into root causes rather than patching symptoms.
• Support event-driven architectures using Apache Kafka (producers/consumers).

3â5+ years engineering experience with production-level Python for building real services, LLM inference, RAG pipelines, and automated tooling. Hands‑on LLM & AI integration serving models via Ollama/llama.cpp, implementing vector retrieval/RAG, and developing MCP integrations (GPU/CUDA tuning & model quantization nice to have). Cloud & Infrastructure expertise covering Azure/AWS deployments, Docker containerization, Linux/Windows admin, and CI/CD automation (Azure DevOps, GitHub Actions, or GitLab CI), with Terraform, Kubernetes, Kafka, or systems languages (Go, Rust, C++) as a plus. DevOps, Security & Operations awareness, including Git workflows, scripting (Python, Bash, PowerShell), observability tools (Prometheus/Grafana), DevSecOps, and compliance frameworks (SOC 2, ISO 27001, Zero Trust). Strong problem‑solving & communication with a root‑cause troubleshooting mindset, self‑directed learning, strong ownership, and seamless remote/distributed team collaboration.