AI/ML Engineer Team Lead

Vizient, Inc.; Chicago (IL); On-site; USD 118,000 - 206,000; Full time

Job summary

Vizient, Inc. is seeking an experienced AI and ML systems leader to design, deploy, and operate enterprise-grade AI solutions for complex workflows.

You will work hands-on with architecture and implementation while guiding engineers and collaborating with domain experts, product, data, and platform teams. The role emphasizes responsible AI, observability, security, and scalable patterns across Azure, Databricks, and semantic retrieval.

Qualifications

• Relevant degree preferred.
• 7+ years of relevant experience required.
• Experience providing technical leadership for complex, production-grade software or AI systems.
• Hands-on design, build, deploy, and operate generative AI in enterprise environments.
• Strong Python experience and API/service development (FastAPI or similar).
• Experience with LLMs, prompt engineering and retrieval-augmented generation.
• Define evaluation strategies: test data, regression, grounding, quality metrics.
• Balance probabilistic AI with deterministic software, rules and data processing.
• Cloud-native architecture, async processing, APIs, queues, observability.
• Address security, privacy, reliability, auditability, cost requirements.
• Azure/Azure AI Foundry/Search preferred.
• Databricks, vector DBs, embeddings, semantic search preferred.
• Handling sensitive or high-consequence data experience preferred.
• Strong leadership, mentoring, communication, problem solving, architecture and collaboration skills.

Responsibilities

• Lead the architecture, development, deployment, and operation of enterprise-grade AI and ML solutions.
• Design solutions combining LLMs, agentic workflows, retrieval, structured data, APIs, and deterministic processing.
• Translate complex expert workflows into modular, testable software components.
• Determine where AI inference, deterministic logic, retrieval, rules, or data processing will produce the most reliable outcome.
• Establish evaluation strategies with test sets, expert-reviewed outcomes, regression testing, quality measurements, and stage-level analysis.
• Design observability capabilities that capture intermediate outputs, decision traces, evaluation results, performance measures, and failure modes.
• Lead investigations into grounding failures, hallucinations, retrieval quality, prompt behavior, model selection, orchestration, latency, accuracy, and cost.
• Evaluate architectural tradeoffs across performance, maintainability, security, reliability, supportability, and operating cost.
• Develop APIs, services, prototypes, and production components while contributing to design reviews, code reviews, and complex technical problem-solving.
• Implement security, privacy, auditability, monitoring, and production-readiness practices for AI-enabled applications.
• Partner with domain experts, product leaders, architects, data teams, and platform teams to convert specialized knowledge into scalable system behavior.
• Develop reusable AI capabilities, engineering patterns, evaluation frameworks, and platform components that support multiple solutions.
• Mentor engineers and strengthen team practices across AI engineering, software design, testing, observability, and production operations.
• Drive continuous improvement by incorporating production metrics, evaluation results, expert feedback, and real-world user outcomes.

Skills

Technical leadership

Mentoring

Communication

Problem-solving

Architecture

Cross-functional collaboration

Education

Relevant degree preferred

Tools

Python

FastAPI

Job description

When you're the best, we're the best. We instill an environment where employees feel engaged, satisfied and able to contribute their unique skills and talents while living and working as their authentic selves. We provide extensive opportunities for personal and professional development, building both employee competence and organizational capability to fuel exceptional performance through an inclusive environment both now and in the future.

Summary: In this role, you will lead the technical design, development, deployment, and operation of enterprise-grade AI solutions for complex, knowledge-intensive workflows. You will combine generative AI, agentic workflows, retrieval, structured and unstructured data, deterministic processing, and human expertise to create accurate, secure, explainable, and reliable production applications. You will remain hands-on with architecture and implementation while leading engineers, establishing evaluation and observability practices, and partnering with domain experts, product leaders, architects, data teams, and platform teams to translate ambiguous business challenges into scalable technical solutions.

Responsibilities:

• Lead the architecture, development, deployment, and operation of enterprise-grade AI and machine learning solutions.
• Design solutions that combine large language models, agentic workflows, retrieval, structured data, APIs, and deterministic processing.
• Translate complex expert workflows into modular, testable, and maintainable software components.
• Determine where AI inference, deterministic logic, retrieval, rules, or traditional data processing will produce the most reliable outcome.
• Establish evaluation strategies using representative test sets, expert-reviewed outcomes, regression testing, quality measurements, and stage-level analysis.
• Design observability capabilities that capture intermediate outputs, decision traces, evaluation results, performance measures, and failure modes.
• Lead investigations into grounding failures, hallucinations, retrieval quality, prompt behavior, model selection, orchestration, latency, accuracy, and cost.
• Evaluate architectural tradeoffs across performance, maintainability, extensibility, security, reliability, supportability, and operating cost.
• Develop APIs, services, prototypes, and production components while contributing to design reviews, code reviews, and complex technical problem-solving.
• Implement security, privacy, auditability, monitoring, and production-readiness practices for AI-enabled applications.
• Partner with domain experts, product leaders, architects, data teams, and platform teams to convert specialized knowledge into scalable system behavior.
• Develop reusable AI capabilities, engineering patterns, evaluation frameworks, and platform components that support multiple solutions.
• Mentor engineers and strengthen team practices across AI engineering, software design, testing, observability, and production operations.
• Drive continuous improvement by incorporating production metrics, evaluation results, expert feedback, and real-world user outcomes.

Qualifications:

• Relevant degree preferred.
• 7 or more years of relevant experience required.
• Experience providing technical leadership for complex, production-grade software or AI systems required.
• Demonstrated experience personally designing, building, deploying, and operating generative AI or machine learning applications in enterprise production environments required.
• Strong experience with Python and modern API and service development, including FastAPI or comparable frameworks required.
• Experience with large language models, prompt engineering, structured outputs, tool or function calling, retrieval-augmented generation, and agentic workflows required.
• Experience establishing evaluation strategies for nondeterministic AI systems, including test datasets, regression evaluation, grounding, quality measurement, and failure analysis required.
• Strong understanding of the appropriate boundaries between probabilistic AI behavior and deterministic software, rules, retrieval, and data processing required.
• Experience with cloud-native architecture, asynchronous processing, APIs, events or queues, persistence, monitoring, and production observability required.
• Experience addressing enterprise security, privacy, reliability, auditability, supportability, performance, and cost requirements required.
• Experience with Microsoft Azure, Azure AI Foundry, Azure AI Search, or comparable cloud AI and semantic-retrieval technologies preferred.
• Experience with Databricks, vector databases, embeddings, reranking, semantic search, or enterprise knowledge-retrieval platforms preferred.
• Experience developing AI solutions involving sensitive, regulated, or high-consequence data and decisions preferred.
• Strong technical leadership, mentoring, communication, problem-solving, architecture, and cross-functional collaboration skills.

Estimated Hiring Range: At Vizient, we consider skills, experience, and organizational needs in our compensation approach. Geographic factors may adjust the range estimate and hires typically fall below the top range. Compensation decisions are tailored to individual circumstances. The current salary range for this role is $117,600.00 to $206,000.00. This position is also incentive eligible. Vizient has a comprehensive benefits plan! Please view our benefits here: http://www.vizientinc.com/about-us/careers

Equal Opportunity Employer: Females/Minorities/Veterans/Individuals with Disabilities The Company is committed to equal employment opportunity to all employees and applicants without regard to race, religion, color, gender identity, ethnicity, age, national origin, sexual orientation, disability status, veteran status or any other category protected by applicable law.

Working at Vizient means shaping the future of healthcare, every day. Alongside our clients, we're building a healthier, more human healthcare system. We connect people, data, and solutions to enable healthcare organizations to improve financial sustainability, enhance system performance, and deliver better care.

Headquartered in Irving, Texas, with 11 offices across the United States, Vizient has more than 5,000 employees who bring deep expertise and a shared commitment to transforming healthcare. Together, we're solving some of the industry's most complex challenges while creating opportunities to learn, grow, and drive lasting change for healthcare organizations and the communities they serve.

Through our enterprise of companies, we deliver meaningful impact across the continuum of care: Apexus - The exclusive contractor for 340B Drug Pricing Program, managed by the Health Resources and Services Administration. aptitude - The industry's first online direct contracting market, supporting self-contracting activity between hospitals and suppliers. Kaufman Hall - Leading healthcare advisory services to support our clients in achieving financial, clinical, and operational excellence. Provista - Proven supply chain partner specializing in extended, diagnostic, and preventive care facilities, including surgery centers, home health, and senior living.