Lead AI Engineer

Ladders; United States; Remote; USD 155,000 - 259,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health insurance

Retirement savings with company match

Professional development and learning

Flexible work arrangements

Job summary

Ladders is seeking a Lead AI Engineer to shape the technical direction for enterprise AI initiatives in a regulated environment. This remote role will own architecture decisions for LLM and agentic systems with cross-functional impact across the organization.

You will mentor engineers, set design standards, and drive high-complexity development from concept through production, ensuring security, observability, and privacy compliance. Collaboration with security and engineering teams is essential.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree or equivalent; 8+ years in software engineering with 3+ years in AI/ML, LLM, or NLP systems.
• Demonstrated leadership above a Senior AI Engineer level, owning architecture for a team or platform area.
• Hands-on experience building production LLM applications, including prompt engineering and agentic workflows.
• Experience with commercial large language model APIs and tool integration protocols.
• Strong software engineering fundamentals in Python/Java, REST APIs, and cloud-native design (Azure preferred).
• Familiarity with vector/graph retrieval systems and knowledge-base architectures at production scale.
• Working knowledge of LLMOps/MLOps practices.

Responsibilities

• Define the technical architecture and roadmap for LLM and agentic systems.
• Lead architecture reviews for new AI capabilities, ensuring security and privacy
• Drive the design of shared AI platform capabilities, including knowledge-retrieval systems.
• Architect and build high-complexity components for priority AI delivery initiatives.
• Set coding and architecture standards for Senior and Associate AI Engineers; conduct design reviews.
• Establish secure and observable AI operations for production LLM systems.
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams to align AI architecture with enterprise standards.

Skills

AI architecture leadership

Production LLM apps

Prompt engineering

Python/Java

REST APIs

Azure cloud-native design

Knowledge-base / vector retrieval

LLMOps

Education

Bachelor's degree or equivalent experience

Tools

Azure

APIs

Knowledge retrieval tools

Job description

For our client, we are seeking a Lead AI Engineer to join the team of a leader in the Pharmaceuticals & Biotech space.
This role will shape the technical direction for advanced LLM and agentic systems that support enterprise-wide AI initiatives in a highly regulated environment. You will own architecture decisions, guide platform capabilities, and help ensure new AI solutions are secure, observable, and aligned with privacy and compliance standards. The position partners closely with engineering, security, and cross-functional stakeholders to deliver scalable AI components that can be adopted across the organization.
You will also provide technical leadership to other engineers, establishing design and coding standards while driving high-complexity development work from concept through production.
Location: Remote
Compensation: $155,300 - $258,800 annually

Responsibilities

• Define the technical architecture and roadmap for LLM and agentic systems.
• Lead architecture reviews for new AI capabilities, ensuring compliance with security and privacy standards.
• Drive the technical design of shared AI platform capabilities, including knowledge-retrieval systems.
• Architect and build high-complexity components for priority AI delivery initiatives.
• Set coding and architecture standards for Senior and Associate AI Engineers; conduct design reviews.
• Establish secure and observable AI operations for production LLM systems.
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams to align AI architecture with enterprise standards.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree or equivalent experience; typically 8+ years in software engineering, with 3+ years in AI/ML, LLM, or NLP systems.
• Demonstrated technical leadership above a Senior AI Engineer level, owning architecture for a team or platform area.
• Hands-on expertise in building production LLM applications, including prompt engineering and agentic workflows.
• Experience with commercial large language model APIs and tool-integration protocols.
• Strong software engineering fundamentals in Python/Java, REST APIs, and cloud-native design (Azure preferred).
• Familiarity with vector/graph retrieval systems and knowledge-base architectures at production scale.
• Working knowledge of LLMOps/MLOps practices.

Benefits

• Comprehensive health and wellness programs.
• Retirement savings plans with company match.
• Professional development and continuous learning opportunities.
• Flexible work arrangements and work-life balance initiatives.

Our client is an equal opportunity employer. We encourage you to apply even if you don't meet every qualification-your background could be exactly what this team needs.