AI Platform Lead — RAG, APIs & Distributed Systems

TrulyHired; Philadelphia (Philadelphia County); On-site; USD 115,000 - 192,000; Full time

Job summary

Elsevier is seeking a Software Engineering Lead to guide a small team of engineers, delivering complex systems and governing RAG workflows and API expansion. You will shape technical strategy while partnering with the CK AI Service to ensure scalable, resilient delivery.

The role emphasizes hands-on coding, leadership development, and collaboration with Data Science to drive product road maps and feature design in a mission-driven, global organization.

Qualifications

• Proven ability to lead engineering teams and mentor.
• Experience with microservices, API design and system integration.
• Hands-on experience with retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) workflows.
• Deep expertise in LLM integration, embeddings and vector search.

Responsibilities

• Manage and mentor six direct reports.
• Lead technical strategy and execution for the CK AI Service, including RAG workflows and API expansion.
• Improve delivery velocity, reduce bottlenecks and single points of failure; drive standardization and cross-functional alignment.
• Establish sustainable leadership model to support team growth.
• Collaborate with Data Science to drive product roadmap and feature design.

Skills

Team leadership

Mentoring

Blocker removal

Distributed systems

API design

RAG workflows

LLM integration

Embeddings

Vector search

Microservices

System resilience

Performance optimization

Hands-on coding

Tools

APIs

Job description

Elsevier is seeking a Software Engineering Lead to guide a small team of engineers, delivering complex systems and governing RAG workflows and API expansion. You will shape technical strategy while partnering with the CK AI Service to ensure scalable, resilient delivery.

The role emphasizes hands-on coding, leadership development, and collaboration with Data Science to drive product road maps and feature design in a mission-driven, global organization.