AI Engineer

ONEOK Services Company LLC; United States; On-site; USD 92,000 - 138,000; Full time

Job summary

ONEOK is seeking an AI Engineer to design, build, and operate AI systems powering Operations. You will own the most technically demanding work, delivering reusable infrastructure for the team and ensuring reliability, cost, and performance in production.

The role requires 5+ years in software engineering with AI/ML ownership, strong Python skills, and experience with LLM-based systems. Collaboration with IT and Security is essential for compliant production deployments.

Qualifications

• Minimum 5 years of software engineering experience, including demonstrated production ownership of AI or ML systems.
• Extensive experience with LLM-based systems, including agent frameworks, tool use, evaluations, prompt engineering, and retrieval.
• Strong Python engineering skills, with familiarity in at least one of optimization, forecasting, or computer vision.
• Experience designing APIs, SDKs, or frameworks consumed by other engineers.
• Proven track record operating systems in production, including monitoring, incident response, and cost management.

Responsibilities

• Develop, deploy, and maintain production AI systems, including agents, harnesses, tools, and evaluation pipelines, with reliability, latency, cost, and accuracy in mind.
• Develop numerical optimization, forecasting, computer vision, and anomaly detection capabilities for cases where off-the-shelf AI falls short.
• Develop the code templates, agent skills, and function-calling patterns reused across teams, enabling consistent delivery.
• Design, tune, and evaluate purpose-built tools, function calls, and prompt templates.
• Develop custom user interfaces for operations workflows based on user requirements.
• Mentor Forward Deployed Engineers and AI Analysts, establishing technical standards for the team.
• Ensure AI systems meet IT and security standards as they transition to production.

Education

Bachelor's degree in Engineering, MIS, Computer Sciences, Accounting, Finance, Business Administration, or related field

Job description

Overview

#WeAreONEOK – Fortune 500 company. 100+ years in business. Leading midstream service provider. Safety first. Sustainable operations. Environmentally responsible. Employee focused.

Job Summary

Design, build, and operate the AI systems that Operations relies on. The AI Engineer is responsible for the most technically demanding work — advanced algorithms, production agents, and shared frameworks — and delivers reusable infrastructure that enables the rest of the team to work efficiently.

Responsibilities

• Production AI systems: Develop, deploy, and maintain operations-critical AI systems, including agents, harnesses, tools, and evaluation pipelines. Accountable for reliability, latency, cost, and accuracy.
• Advanced algorithms: Develop numerical optimization, forecasting, computer vision, and anomaly detection capabilities in cases where off-the-shelf AI does not meet the operational requirement.
• Shared frameworks: Develop the code templates, agent skills, and function-calling patterns reused by Forward Deployed Engineers and AI Analysts, enabling consistent and efficient delivery across the team.
• Tooling and prompts: Design, tune, and evaluate purpose-built tools, function calls, and prompt templates.
• Operations-aware user experience: Develop custom user interfaces for operations workflows, designed from user requirements.
• Mentorship: Develop the capabilities of Forward Deployed Engineers and AI Analysts in AI engineering practices, code quality, and system design. Establish and maintain the technical standard for the team.
• Security and IT partnership: Ensure AI systems meet ONEOK IT and security standards as they are transitioned to production.

Education

• Bachelor's degree in Engineering, Management Information Systems, Computer Sciences, Accounting, Finance, Business Administration, or other related field with specific job-related experience as follows:

Experience

• Minimum 5 years of software engineering experience, including demonstrated production ownership of AI or ML systems.
• Extensive experience with LLM-based systems, including agent frameworks, tool use, evaluations, prompt engineering, and retrieval.
• Strong Python engineering skills, with familiarity in at least one of optimization, forecasting, or computer vision.
• Experience designing APIs, SDKs, or frameworks consumed by other engineers.
• Proven track record operating systems in production, including monitoring, incident response, and cost management.

How We Measure Success

• Reliability, latency, and unit cost of production AI systems.
• Adoption of shared frameworks and templates across Forward Deployed Engineers and AI Analysts, measured by active reuse.
• Evaluation coverage and regression detection rate on deployed systems.
• Quality of mentorship, reflected in the growth and independence of Forward Deployed Engineers and AI Analysts.

Team & Collaboration

• Engages across the full Operations Analytics team.
• Partners with Forward Deployed Engineers to advance proven prototypes into enterprise-grade products, supports AI Analysts with tooling and prompt optimization, and relies on the Data Steward for reliable, contextualized data.
• Maintains close working relationships with IT and Security.

Knowledge, Skills and Abilities

• Relational database design including table structures, indexes and primary/foreign key fields.
• Use and function of office equipment including computers and applicable software.
• Interacting, advising and communicating effectively.
• Developing solutions to complicated issues using abstract thinking in new or complex situations.
• Managing and prioritizing multiple assignments with competing deadlines.
• Reading and interpreting correspondence, reports, production statistics, cost analyses, contracts, accounting statements, income statements, ledgers, manuals and legal documents.
• Develop information, conduct meetings and present information to individuals and groups.
• Apply math, algebra, statistical and volumetric methods.
• Be self-motivated and self-directed.
• Influence and facilitate discussions across a wide range of teams and technologies.
• Mentor less experienced personnel on complex technologies.

Licenses and Certifications

• None required

Physical Demands / Working Conditions

Strength Factor Description - Physical Demands/Requirements: Sedentary work; occasional lifting and carrying; frequent movement, standing, and walking. See full description for details.

Equal Opportunity

ONEOK is an equal opportunity employer committed to diversity and inclusion. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, sex, pregnancy, sexual orientation, age, religion, creed, national origin, gender identity, disability, military/veteran status, genetic information or any other categories protected by applicable law.

Accommodations

The job description is not intended to be a complete list of all responsibilities, duties or skills required for the job and is subject to review and change at any time, with or without notice, in accordance with the needs of ONEOK. ONEOK is committed to making our workplace accessible to individuals with disabilities and will provide reasonable accommodations, upon request, for individuals to participate in the application and hiring process. To request an accommodation email [e-mail] or call 1-855-663-6547.

Salary

Expected Salary Range $92,000.00 - $138,000.00