AI/ML Engineer - freelancer

OpenKrill; United States; On-site; USD 140,000 - 210,000; Full time

Job summary

Openkrill in the United States seeks a seasoned software engineer to build shared AI capabilities, scalable services, and AI-driven features across construction software products. You will design and implement production-grade AI systems, including LLM-based experiences, retrieval pipelines, and agentic workflows.

You will create human- and machine-executable artifacts, define evaluation-driven development loops, and collaborate with product teams to identify high-value cross-product

Qualifications

• 5+ years of hands-on software engineering experience in AI or data-intensive systems.
• Strong Python coding skills and cloud experience (Azure/AWS).
• Deep understanding of LLMs, retrieval, tool use, agents, and trade-offs.

Responsibilities

• Design and evolve shared AI capabilities and accelerators across products.
• Implement production-grade AI systems including LLM-based experiences and orchestration layers.
• Create artifacts (specs, evals, interface definitions) to improve clarity and delivery.
• Define evaluation-driven development loops for quality, latency, cost, and reliability.
• Collaborate with product teams to identify cross-product opportunities and patterns.
• Contribute to AI-native engineering practices like Spec-Driven Development and automated testing.
• Establish guardrails for reliability, observability, governance, and security.
• Prototype new approaches and turn AI capabilities into scalable building blocks.
• Mentor engineers and promote knowledge sharing in AI engineering.

Skills

Python

LLMs

Cloud platforms

Retrieval augmentation

Agent workflows

Education

Master's degree in Computer Science / Software Engineering / AI

Tools

APIs

Data pipelines

Retrieval pipelines

Job description

Tasks:

• Build and continuously evolve shared AI capabilities, reusable services, and engineering accelerators that can be adopted across multiple construction software products.
• Design and implement production-grade AI systems including LLM-based experiences, retrieval pipelines, tool use, orchestration layers, and agentic workflows.
• Create human- and machine-executable technical artifacts such as specs, evals, interface definitions, and workflow contracts that improve clarity, speed, and quality of delivery.
• Define and apply evaluation-driven development loops for AI systems, covering quality, reliability, latency, cost, grounding, and other relevant performance dimensions.
• Partner with product teams to identify high-value cross-product opportunities, support integration of shared capabilities, and recommend patterns without owning product-specific architecture decisions.
• Contribute to AI-native engineering practices inside the team through Spec-Driven Development, AI-assisted development workflows, automated testing, and intelligent engineering agents.
• Apply practical standards and guardrails for AI reliability, observability, governance, security, and responsible production use of AI solutions delivered by the central team.
• Prototype and validate new technical approaches quickly, turning emerging AI capabilities into scalable building blocks with clear business relevance.
• Support and guide other engineers through technical collaboration, peer review, and knowledge sharing in modern AI engineering and experimentation.
• Work closely with AI PM / PO, engineering, and business stakeholders to align implementation choices with customer value, delivery feasibility, and measurable outcomes.

What We're Looking For:

• At least 5+ years of hands-on software engineering experience, including significant work on production-grade AI or data-intensive systems in complex delivery environments.
• Excellent Python programming skills.
• Proficiency in Azure/AWS cloud platforms.
• Hands-on experience with Generative AI technologies and applications.
• Strong practical understanding of LLMs, retrieval-augmented generation, tool use, agents, and their real-world trade-offs, limitations, and failure modes.
• Experience designing and operating end-to-end AI systems across APIs, application services, data pipelines, retrieval layers, evaluation workflows, and cloud infrastructure.
• Ability to define measurable quality criteria and evaluation approaches for AI systems, balancing customer value with reliability, latency, cost, and maintainability.
• Practical experience with AI-assisted engineering, Spec-Driven Development, and modern developer tooling; able to improve how teams work by combining human judgment with automation and agent support.
• Strong architectural judgment with the ability to design reusable patterns and shared capabilities while collaborating effectively with product teams that own their local implementation decisions.
• Demonstrated track record of contributing to cross-functional work from early exploration and prototyping through production rollout and continuous improvement in agile environments.
• Ability to support and influence other engineers, raise technical standards through collaboration, and create clarity in ambiguous and fast-changing AI environments.
• Strong communication and collaboration skills, with the ability to translate technical complexity into decisions and actions for product, engineering, and business stakeholders.
• Adaptive mindset, high learning agility, and genuine openness to continuous change in a field shaped by rapid advances in AI.
• Master's degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Artificial Intelligence, or a related technical field; equivalent experience considered for exceptional candidates.

Missing one or two of these qualifications? We still want to hear from you! If you bring a positive mindset, we'll provide an environment where you feel valued and empowered to learn and grow.