AI Engineering Tech Lead / Architect

Faros AI, Inc.; San Mateo (CA); On-site; USD 210,000 - 250,000; Full time

Job summary

Faros AI, Inc. is seeking an experienced AI Engineer to join their team in San Mateo, CA. This role involves building Lighthouse AI, helping improve engineering performance, and working with natural language interfaces and ML-driven insights for leading companies.

The ideal candidate will possess over 5 years of software engineering experience focusing on Machine Learning, strong Python skills, and familiarity with libraries such as NumPy and Pandas. The salary range is $210,000–$250,000 annually.

Qualifications

• 5+ years of professional experience in software engineering with a focus on Machine Learning or AI.
• Strong proficiency in Python.
• Experience designing/consuming REST/GraphQL APIs and deploying applications using containerization.

Responsibilities

• Collaborate with product, data, and engineering teams to define, design, and integrate AI features.
• Build and maintain scalable ML pipelines and infrastructure.
• Build and optimize LLM‑powered features, including data summarization.

Skills

Python

Machine Learning

NumPy

Pandas

Scikit-learn

Prompt engineering

REST APIs

GraphQL APIs

Docker

Kubernetes

Education

Degree in Computer Science, Mathematics or related field

Job description

Mission

At Faros, we are building the engineering intelligence platform for the AI era. We help engineering organizations understand the impact of AI on software delivery while providing the operational context that enables AI agents to operate with greater accuracy, relevance, and trust in complex enterprise environments. Our platform is used by some of the most sophisticated engineering teams in the world, ranging from fast-growing technology companies to F500 enterprises. We believe the future of software development will be built by humans and AI working together, and we're building the foundation that makes that possible.

About the Role

Join our AI team to build Lighthouse AI - the intelligence engine that helps engineering leaders understand organizational bottlenecks and improve performance in an age where AI is redefining the engineering craft. You'll work on natural language interfaces, causal analysis models, and ML-driven insights that impact how thousands of engineers work at companies like Autodesk, Discord, and Vimeo.

Beyond generating insights, you will help pioneer how AI agents operate safely and effectively inside complex enterprise engineering environments. This includes designing the operational context, evaluation frameworks, and feedback loops that allow agents to reason over real engineering workflows, measure the quality and impact of their actions, and continuously improve over time. You will work at the intersection of data infrastructure, AI systems, and engineering operations, helping define how humans and AI collaborate to build software together.

Responsibilities

• Collaborate with product, data, and engineering teams to define, design, and integrate AI features seamlessly into the user experience.
• Build and maintain scalable ML pipelines and infrastructure balancing speed, flexibility, security, and scalability.
• Build and optimize LLM‑powered features including natural language query generation, data summarization, and data exploration tools.
• Design and implement prompt engineering strategies, evaluation frameworks, and iterate on model performance.
• Fine‑tune Large Language Models (LLMs) or custom architectures for performance, latency, and cost‑efficiency.
• Stay up‑to‑date with the latest research (e.g., papers from NeurIPS, ICML) and identify opportunities to apply state‑of‑the‑art techniques to business problems.

What We Value

• Living by our values over avoiding conflict. We favor transparency and honest debate because strong decisions depend on saying the hard things out loud.
• Transformation over predictability. We dedicate our efforts to work that produces monumental outcomes for our customers, even if it means trading short‑term predictability for long‑term impact.
• Intensity over comfort. We move with urgency and focus, especially when the work is messy or unstructured.
• Craftsmanship over throughput. We take pride in how things are built. Quality, coherence, and care matter. We would rather ship fewer things done right than many things done carelessly.
• Ownership over process. We act like founders. If we see something broken, we fix it. We don’t wait for permission, committees, or perfect instructions. Process exists to help us move faster, not to give us an excuse to stand still.

Required Qualifications

• 5+ years of professional experience in software engineering with a focus on Machine Learning or AI.
• Strong proficiency in Python.
• Strong familiarity with libraries such as NumPy, Pandas, and Scikit‑learn.
• Prompt engineering and evaluation frameworks.
• LLM/GenAI: experience hardening and productionalizing applications based on GenAI.
• Experience designing/consuming REST/GraphQL APIs and deploying applications using containerization ecosystems (Docker, Kubernetes).
• English C1: able to participate in technical calls and write clear communication.
• Degree in Computer Science, Mathematics, related field, or equivalent real‑world experience.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with building & integrating with SaaS platforms.
• Experience with engineering analytics or developer‑productivity tooling.
• Experience with development pipelines for ML and AI (e.g., MLflow, Weights & Biases, Evaluations, etc).
• Hands‑on experience using coding agents (AI‑assisted development).

Work Details

Our team meets in‑person several days a week in San Mateo, CA.

Full‑Time – $210,000–$250,000 On Target Earnings Annually.