AI Engineer II

McCarthy Holdings, Inc.; St. Louis (MO); On-site; USD 110,000 - 150,000; Full time

Job summary

McCarthy Holdings, Inc. is seeking an AI Engineer II to design, build, and support AI-powered applications and workflows across the enterprise.

You will work closely with the AI Manager and stakeholders to deliver production-grade AI solutions, including generative AI and enterprise integrations in a hands-on engineering role. The ideal candidate blends strong software fundamentals with AI/data experience and has familiarity with Palantir Foundry, ontology-driven development, and data products.

Qualifications

• Minimum 3 years of experience in software/AI engineering or related field.
• Bachelor’s degree in CS, Engineering, Data Science, IS, or related field.
• Experience deploying AI-enabled applications in production.
• Strong Python programming skills.
• Data pipelines, ETL/ELT, and API-based integrations.
• SQL and relational data modeling.
• Cloud platforms such as Azure, AWS, or GCP.
• Experience with Palantir Foundry is strongly preferred.
• Knowledge of responsible AI concepts and governance.

Responsibilities

• Design, develop, test, and maintain AI-powered applications and workflows for enterprise processes.
• Build and support generative AI and agentic solutions with modern AI practices.
• Develop and maintain data pipelines and reusable data products for AI and analytics.
• Contribute to data models and ontologies supporting workflows.
• Develop prompts, retrieval strategies, and agent workflows to improve effectiveness.
• Leverage AI development tools to accelerate delivery with quality, security, and maintainability.
• Participate in MLOps and PromptOps processes including deployment and monitoring.
• Collaborate with stakeholders to translate requirements into technical solutions.
• Support production AI solutions through troubleshooting and optimization.
• Contribute to documentation and best practices for team efficiency.
• Follow AI governance, security, and Responsible AI standards.

Skills

Python

AI/ML engineering

Data pipelines

SQL

Cloud platforms

Prompt engineering

API integrations

DevOps practices

Education

Bachelor's degree in CS/Engineering/Data Science

Tools

Palantir Foundry

Azure

AWS

GCP

LangChain

LlamaIndex

Hugging Face

Dataiku

Job description

McCarthy Holdings, Inc. (McCarthy), is the holding entity for McCarthy Building Companies, Inc., the oldest privately-held national construction company in America, and Castle Contracting. McCarthy provides the crucial business infrastructure for these entities and connects the day-to-day operations to ensure seamless operations across the business. Repeatedly honored as a great place to work and healthiest employer, McCarthy is a 100 percent employee-owned company.

At McCarthy, we are committed to sustaining a culture that delivers great experiences for everyone. This begins with developing high-performing individuals and teams through our award-winning learning and development programs, best-in-class Total Rewards benefits, and our inclusive culture aligned with our core values: Genuine. We, Not I. All In.

How do McCarthy partners define our culture?

• We Live Our Core Values: We do whatever it takes to deliver on our promises with honesty and integrity.
• We are Employee Owned: We are personally invested in building the things people need in our communities.
• We Feel Like a Family: We value genuine connections and help each other succeed in an inclusive environment.
• We are Builders: We respect the work we do and everyone who helps make it happen safely.

Position Summary

McCarthy is seeking a full-time AI Engineer II who will be part of the Engineering and Intelligence team. In this role, you will design, build, and support AI-powered applications and workflows that help drive business value across the enterprise.

Working closely with the AI Manager, business stakeholders, and fellow engineers, you will contribute to the development of production-grade AI solutions, including generative AI, agentic workflows, advanced analytics, and enterprise integrations. This is a hands‑on engineering role focused on implementation, experimentation, deployment, and continuous improvement of AI capabilities.

The ideal candidate combines strong software engineering fundamentals with experience in AI and data-driven applications. Experience working within Palantir Foundry, including ontology‑driven development, data products, operational workflows, and AI‑enabled solutions, is strongly preferred.

RESPONSIBILITES

• Design, develop, test, and maintain AI-powered applications, services, and workflows that support enterprise business processes.
• Build and support generative AI and agentic solutions using modern AI engineering practices and frameworks.
• Develop and maintain data pipelines, integrations, and reusable data products that enable AI and analytics use cases.
• Contribute to the design and evolution of data models and ontologies that support operational and analytical workflows.
• Develop and optimize prompts, retrieval strategies, and agent workflows to improve solution effectiveness, reliability, and user experience.
• Leverage AI-assisted development tools and coding copilots to accelerate delivery while maintaining high standards for code quality, testing, security, and maintainability.
• Participate in MLOps and PromptOps processes, including deployment, monitoring, evaluation, versioning, and continuous improvement of AI systems.
• Collaborate with business and technical stakeholders to translate business requirements into practical technical solutions.
• Support production AI solutions through troubleshooting, performance tuning, monitoring, and ongoing enhancement activities.
• Contribute to documentation, reusable patterns, and engineering best practices that improve team effectiveness and solution consistency.
• Follow established AI governance, security, and Responsible AI standards throughout the solution lifecycle.

Qualifications

• Minimum 3 years of experience in software engineering, AI engineering, machine learning, data engineering, or a related technical discipline.
• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Data Science, Information Systems, or a related field (or equivalent practical experience).
• Experience building and deploying AI-enabled applications or machine learning solutions in production environments.
• Strong programming skills in Python and experience with modern software engineering practices.
• Data pipelines, ETL/ELT processes, and API-based integrations
• SQL and relational data modeling
• Cloud platforms such as Azure, AWS, or GCP
• Containerized and serverless application deployment patterns
• Building solutions on enterprise AI and data platforms such as Palantir Foundry, Azure AI, AWS, GCP, or Dataiku.
• Generative AI platforms and frameworks such as OpenAI, Anthropic, LangChain, LlamaIndex, Hugging Face, or similar technologies.
• Prompt engineering, evaluation methodologies, and retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) patterns.
• Experience with Palantir Foundry is strongly preferred, including familiarity with:
• Ontology-driven application development
• AIP and AI-enabled workflows
• Data products and pipeline development
• Workshop applications and operational workflows
• Code Repositories and software delivery within Foundry environments
• Understanding of responsible AI concepts, including transparency, human oversight, security, and governance practices.

CHARACTERISTICS

• Strong problem-solving and analytical skills with the ability to work through ambiguity and deliver practical solutions.
• Effective communication skills and the ability to collaborate with technical and non-technical stakeholders.
• Curiosity and enthusiasm for emerging AI technologies and software engineering practices.
• Strong attention to quality, maintainability, and user experience.
• Ability to learn new technologies quickly and apply them effectively in a business environment.
• High degree of accountability, ownership, and commitment to delivering results.

McCarthy is proud to be an equal opportunity employer, including disability and protected veteran status.