Conversational AI Tech Lead

Foundever; Bartons Location (IN); On-site; USD 180,000 - 240,000; Full time

Job summary

Foundever is expanding its Conversational AI team and seeking a Tech Lead to balance hands-on engineering with mentoring a growing engineering group responsible for chatbots and voicebots. The role emphasizes architecture, prompt engineering, and seamless integrations using LLMs, Agentic AI, and NLU models.

The position requires leadership experience, deep AI engineering expertise, strong communication, and the ability to deliver high-quality, secure solutions across platforms.

Qualifications

• Degree in CS/Software Eng or equivalent experience.
• Proven leadership as Tech Lead or Engineering Manager.
• Deep expertise in AI engineering and production deployment.
• Strong API integration and prompt engineering skills.
• Fluent English with clear documentation.

Responsibilities

• Lead and mentor a team of Conversational AI Engineers.
• Conduct architecture reviews and code quality checks.
• Drive hands-on development of chatbots/voicebots and integrations.
• Design robust architectures for end-to-end automation.
• Govern AI safety and guardrails for production systems.
• Collaborate with design, product, and cross-functional teams.
• Document architectures, configurations, and deployment processes.

Skills

Conversational AI

Leadership

LLMs & NLU

API integration

Prompt engineering

English communication

Documentation

Education

Computer Science or Software Eng degree

Tools

Cognigy

LangChain

REST/Webhooks

Git / CI/CD

Job description

About The Team

Our Conversational AI team designs, builds, and optimizes a growing portfolio of chatbots and voicebots for global brands. We're expanding and looking for new people to join us on the delivery side.

Role purpose

The Conversational AI Tech Lead functions as a "player-coach," balancing hands-on software engineering with leading, mentoring, and managing the Conversational AI Engineering team responsible for developing and deploying Conversational AI solutions (chatbots and voicebots), using LLMs, Agentic AI, and NLU models.

About The Team

Our Conversational AI team designs, builds, and optimizes a growing portfolio of chatbots and voicebots for global brands. We're expanding and looking for new people to join us on the delivery side.

Role purpose

The Conversational AI Tech Lead functions as a "player-coach," balancing hands-on software engineering with leading, mentoring, and managing the Conversational AI Engineering team responsible for developing and deploying Conversational AI solutions (chatbots and voicebots), using LLMs, Agentic AI, and NLU models.

This role will drive technical architecture, prompt engineering, and API integrations for voice/chatbots, while implementing best practices and ensuring high-quality, secure deliverables. It combines expertise in prompt engineering, knowledge base structuring, and system integration to enable end-to-end automation and continuous improvement.

Job Responsibilities

• Lead and mentor a team of Conversational AI Engineers, promoting a collaborative, high-performance culture
• Conduct code reviews and architecture audits to ensure code quality and adherence to standards
• Manage sprint tasks, resolve technical blockers, and manage project risks
• Drive technical excellence by building reusable IP and elevating team capabilities
• Evaluate performance and map growth paths for engineers
• Execute hands‑on development of complex conversational AI voice/chatbots
• Engineer prompts and integrate with LLMs, APIs, and databases
• Design robust system architectures and optimize STT/TTS configurations
• Enforce AI governance and guardrails for production stability
• Collaborate with cross‑functional teams including design and product management
• Responsible for system integrations for seamless automation across platforms
• Technical Documentation Analysis and feasibility Check: assesses technical feasibility and architecture constraints
• Evaluates integrations, APIs, data sources, and platform capabilities. Defines initial system architecture and dependencies
• Apply LLM and Agentic AI knowledge technical best practices and recommendations for hybrid bots (NLU x LLM)
• Responsible for any development required to support the project’s user experience, as well as for implementing new integrations
• Documents architectures, configurations, and deployment processes to maintain transparency and reproducibility

Skills And Qualifications

Must have

• Strong experience in Conversational AI, including Agentic, LLMs and NLU
• Degree or background in Computer Science, Software Engineering or equivalent experience
• Proven leadership experience as a Tech Lead or Engineering Manager
• Deep expertise in AI Engineering, LLMs, Agentic AI, and production deployment
• Experience with Speech Tech (STT/TTS) and telephony
• Proficiency in API integration (REST, Webhooks) and prompt engineering
• Fluent English with strong communication skills
• Ability to clearly document architectures, configurations, and deployment procedures

Technical stack

• Python / JavaScript / Typescript
• JSON or YAML Used to configure nodes, inputs, outputs, and API payloads
• SQL / NoSQL queries For accessing databases when the bot needs external information
• API Integration: RESTful APIs, Webhooks, OAuth authentication
• Ideally previous experience with Cognigy, Sierra, Elevan Labs or similar

Nice to have

• Cognigy certification (or willingness to certify within the first weeks)
• Experience with RAG and vector databases
• Familiarity with MLOps / LLM Ops (model versioning, evaluation pipelines, drift monitoring, observability)
• DevOps fundamentals (Git workflows, CI/CD, environment promotion dev - UAT - prod)
• Working knowledge of a major cloud (AWS, Azure or GCP)
• Experience with agentic frameworks (LangChain, LlamaIndex, MCP, tool/function calling)
• Proficiency in German, French or another EU language would be considered a plus
• A proactive attitude and passion for emerging Conversational and Agentic AI trends

About Us

Foundever is a global leader in the customer experience (CX) industry. With 150,000 associates across the globe, we’re the team behind the best experiences for +750 of the world’s leading and digital-first brands. Our innovative CX solutions, technology and expertise are designed to support operational needs for our clients and deliver a seamless experience to customers.