AI Engineer - Azure

Cognizant; Washington (District of Columbia); On-site; USD 110,000 - 135,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical Insurance

Dental Insurance

Vision Insurance

Life Insurance

Paid Holidays

401(k) plan

Employee Stock Purchase Plan

Job summary

Cognizant in Washington, DC seeks a hands-on AI engineer to build and run production-grade generative AI solutions on Microsoft Azure. You will own RAG pipelines, embeddings, vector search, and API orchestration to deliver scalable AI applications.

You will work with LangChain, LangGraph, Semantic Kernel, Azure OpenAI, and be responsible for observability, cost-aware tuning, CI/CD, containerization, and building web services with Python, Node.js, and React.

Qualifications

• Hands-on Python for backend services and automation.
• Hands-on experience with LangChain and/or LangGraph.
• Experience with RAG, embeddings, and vector search.
• Hands-on experience with Azure OpenAI and Azure AI Search.
• Proficiency with REST APIs, JSON, and Git.

Responsibilities

• Design and implement end-to-end RAG pipelines: data ingestion, embedding generation, vector database management, and retrieval optimization
• Develop and maintain APIs to orchestrate RAG workflows, including retrieval, prompt handling, and model interaction
• Build orchestration and multi-step reasoning workflows using Semantic Kernel, LangChain, or LangGraph, including tool use and memory
• Integrate LLMs such as Azure OpenAI, and tune prompts for accuracy, performance, and cost
• Implement observability, monitoring, and evaluation using LangSmith and Azure monitoring tools to track output quality, latency, and hallucination rates
• Troubleshoot and improve retrieval quality, grounding accuracy, and response relevance
• Deploy and manage AI services on Azure using CI/CD pipelines and containerization
• Build and maintain scalable web applications using Python, Node.js, and React
• Apply responsible AI practices, including guardrails, security controls, and compliance standards

Skills

Python

LangChain

LangGraph

RAG

Embeddings

Vector search

Azure OpenAI

Azure AI Search

REST APIs

JSON

Git

CI/CD

Containerization

Node.js

React

Tools

Semantic Kernel

LangChain

LangGraph

Azure Container Apps

AKS

Job description

Build and run production-grade generative AI solutions on Microsoft Azure, with ownership of RAG and agentic workflows.

Responsibilities

• Design and implement end-to-end RAG pipelines: data ingestion, embedding generation, vector database management, and retrieval optimization
• Develop and maintain APIs to orchestrate RAG workflows, including retrieval, prompt handling, and model interaction
• Build orchestration and multi-step reasoning workflows using Semantic Kernel, LangChain, or LangGraph, including tool use and memory
• Integrate LLMs such as Azure OpenAI, and tune prompts for accuracy, performance, and cost
• Implement observability, monitoring, and evaluation using LangSmith and Azure monitoring tools to track output quality, latency, and hallucination rates
• Troubleshoot and improve retrieval quality, grounding accuracy, and response relevance
• Deploy and manage AI services on Azure using CI/CD pipelines and containerization
• Build and maintain scalable web applications using Python, Node.js, and React
• Apply responsible AI practices, including guardrails, security controls, and compliance standards

Requirements

• Hands-on Python experience for backend services and automation
• Hands-on experience with LangChain and/or LangGraph
• Experience with RAG, embeddings, and vector search
• Hands-on experience with Azure OpenAI and Azure AI Search
• Proficiency with REST APIs, JSON, and Git

Technologies

• Microsoft Azure
• Python
• Semantic Kernel
• LangChain
• LangGraph
• Azure OpenAI
• Azure AI Search
• REST APIs, JSON, Git
• LangSmith and Azure monitoring tools
• CI/CD pipelines and containerization
• Node.js and React
• Embeddings, vector search, vector database
• Tool use and memory
• Guardrails, security controls, compliance standards

Benefits

• Medical, Dental, Vision, and Life Insurance
• Paid holidays plus Paid Time Off
• 401(k) plan and contributions
• Long-term and Short-term Disability
• Paid Parental Leave
• Employee Stock Purchase Plan

Nice to Have

• JavaScript experience (React, Node.js)
• Docker and container-based deployments
• Experience with Azure services such as Azure Container Apps or AKS, Azure Functions, Azure Monitor/Application Insights, and Key Vault

Location: Washington, DC (onsite)

Salary: USD 110,000 to 135,000 per year, depending on experience and other qualifications of the successful candidate.

Incentive: Eligible for Cognizant’s discretionary annual incentive program based on performance and subject to the terms of Cognizant’s applicable plans.