Lead AI Engineer

Harnham; San Francisco (CA); Hybrid; USD 140,000 - 180,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading AI product company is seeking a skilled Lead AI Engineer to take charge of the model layer in its core product. The ideal candidate has over 5 years of software engineering experience and 2 years with LLMs in a production environment. Responsibilities include optimizing models, designing production-grade systems, and ensuring high performance for user interactions. This hybrid role requires real-world experience and strong programming skills, specifically in Python and TypeScript. Sponsorship is not available for this position.

Qualifications

• 5+ years software engineering experience.
• 2+ years working hands-on with LLMs in production.
• Proven experience fine-tuning and deploying models.

Responsibilities

• Own fine-tuning strategy.
• Decide on fine-tuning vs. system-level approaches.
• Optimize inference speed and throughput.

Skills

Software engineering experience

Experience with LLMs in production

Python

TypeScript

Node.js

Tools

WebSockets

Redis

ONNX Runtime

LLM evaluation tooling

LangChain

Job description

Hybrid – 3 days onsite

About the Role

An early-stage, AI-native product company is hiring a Lead AI Engineer to own the model layer of its core product. This is a senior individual contributor role focused on fine-tuning, model optimization, and custom small model development — not prompt engineering or research-only experimentation. This engineer will be responsible for designing, shipping, and iterating on production-grade LLM systems with real-time user impact.

• Own fine-tuning strategy (LoRA, adapters, distillation, full fine-tuning)
• Decide when to fine-tune vs. use system-level or prompt-based approaches
• Improve models based on production feedback
• Balance quality, latency, and cost

Model Performance & Optimization

• Optimize inference speed and throughput
• Improve reliability and consistency
• Define evaluation frameworks and benchmarking standards

Custom Small Model Development

• Design and deploy custom small language models (SLMs)
• Determine when smaller models outperform larger ones
• Maintain real-time performance for interactive UX workflows

What You’ll Build

• Fine-tuned models powering generation workflows
• Custom SLMs for narrow, high-precision tasks
• Real-time AI features embedded directly into product workflows
• Multi-step AI systems supporting contextual user interactions

Requirements

• 5+ years software engineering experience
• 2+ years working hands-on with LLMs in production
• Proven experience fine-tuning and deploying models to real users
• Strong applied production track record (not research-only)
• Python, TypeScript / Node.js
• Experience deploying custom models to production
• Deep understanding of inference and performance tradeoffs

Ideal Background / Nice to Have's

• WebSockets
• Redis
• ONNX Runtime
• LLM evaluation & observability tooling
• Orchestration frameworks (e.g., LangChain)
• Early-stage AI product companies (Seed – Series B/C)
• AI developer tools, automation, or code-generation platforms
• Fast-paced startup environments

*Please note - this role can not provide sponsorship of any kind. All candidates must be Green Card Holders or US Citizens.*