Lead AI Engineer

AtScale; United States; Remote; USD 180,000 - 240,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Competitive salary + equity

Unlimited PTO and comprehensive health

Remote-friendly culture

Job summary

AtScale is seeking a Lead AI Engineer to steer GenAI capabilities and mentor a growing team. You will translate product goals into technical roadmaps, design scalable architectures, and still ship production code every week.

You’ll collaborate with product, core engine, and DevOps to turn AI ideas into reliable features for customers, focusing on quality, observability, and governance in a fast-paced environment.

Qualifications

• 10+ years software engineering experience, including AI/ML
• 2+ years as tech lead or engineering manager of an AI/ML team
• Fluent in Python and GenAI stack (model APIs, embeddings, retrieval)
• Hands-on with semantic layers, BI, OLAP, or analytical SQL
• Experience with production GenAI features and governance for enterprise
• Strong communication with engineers, product managers, and executives

Responsibilities

• Lead AI engineering team; set technical direction and roadmap
• Plan and deliver GenAI features for AtScale’s semantic layer
• Write production code weekly and mentor others
• Define architecture for agent and tool-calling patterns
• Collaborate with DevOps, product, and platform teams
• Ensure quality, bias mitigation, latency, and cost controls

Skills

Team leadership

Python

GenAI stack

LLM APIs

Model evaluation

System design

Tools

Docker

Kubernetes

Git

CI/CD

Job description

The Mission

AtScale is the semantic layer for modern data and AI. We connect cloud data platforms like Snowflake, Databricks, and Google BigQuery with the business users, BI tools, and AI agents that need consistent, governed, AI-ready analytics. As GenAI moves from demos to production, the semantic layer is what makes an AI answer trustworthy. The AI team is where that work happens, and we’re looking for the engineer who will lead it.

The Role

We’re hiring a Lead AI Engineer to lead the team that builds AtScale’s GenAI capabilities.
This is a player-coach role: you’ll set the technical direction for how large language models
and agents work with the semantic layer, plan and deliver the roadmap with your team,
and still write production code every week.
You’ll work closely with product management, the core engine and platform teams, and
DevOps to turn AI ideas into features our customers rely on.

The Impact You’ll Make

• Lead the team. Hire, mentor, and grow a team of AI engineers. Set clear expectations,
  give timely feedback, and build a culture where quality, ownership, and curiosity are
  the norm.
• Own technical direction. Define the architecture and standards for AtScale’s GenAI
  work including agent and tool-calling patterns, and evaluation.
• Plan and deliver. Translate product goals into actionable plans, milestones, and sprint-
  level work. Scope projects realistically, manage risk and dependencies, and keep
  stakeholders informed on progress and trade-offs.
• Build, hands‑on. Design and productionize GenAI solutions using foundation model
  APIs, and frameworks. Lead by example in design reviews and code reviews.
• Raise the bar on quality. Establish how the team evaluates AI output for accuracy, bias,
  latency, cost, and compliance. Build the measurement and observability that turns
  model performance into numbers the team can improve.
• Collaborate and integrate. Partner with DevOps, product, and software engineering
  teams to integrate models into the AtScale platform, debug AI‑generated responses,
  and keep production running smoothly.
• Represent the work. Communicate the team’s direction and results to engineering
  leadership, product, and customers, and step into technical customer conversations
  when it helps.

Who You Are

• You’ve led engineers before, with 2+ years as a tech lead or engineering manager of an
  AI or ML team, and you still love to code.
• You have 10+ years of software engineering experience, including 7+ years developing
  AI algorithms or technologies, and you’ve shipped GenAI features to production at
  scale.
• You’re fluent in Python and the modern GenAI stack: foundation model APIs, retrieval-
  augmented generation, embeddings, prompt and context engineering, and systematic
  evaluation.
• You’re comfortable working with customers to debug their systems, with
  Docker/Kubernetes and Git/CI/CD experience.
• You turn ambiguous goals into plans people can execute, and you communicate clearly,
  in writing and in person, with engineers, product managers, and executives.
• You prefer quality over speed, keep current with AI tooling, and thrive in a fast‑paced
  environment where priorities shift.
• You’re based in, or can work, Eastern Time hours, overlapping with our core
  collaboration window of 10 AM to 5 PM ET. Candidates in EST or CST are preferred.
• Experience with semantic layers, BI, OLAP, or analytical SQL. You understand how
  analysts and business users actually query data.
• Hands‑on work with natural‑language‑to‑query systems, agent frameworks, or the
  Model Context Protocol (MCP).
• Familiarity with Scala or the JVM ecosystem, where AtScale’s core engine lives.
• Experience building LLM evaluation harnesses, red‑team‑ing, or AI governance
  programs for enterprise customers.
• Contributions to open‑source AI tooling, or talks and writing on applied GenAI.

Why You’ll Love It Here

• Ownership and autonomy. You’ll own the direction of a team, not just a backlog, and
  you’ll have the room to make decisions that matter.
• Innovation‑focused. We’re building at the intersection of semantic layers and AI, and
  we encourage experimentation and new ideas.
• Flexible, remote‑friendly culture. We’re built on trust and results, not hours at a desk.

The Perks

• Competitive salary plus equity.
• Unlimited PTO and comprehensive benefits.
• The chance to shape the future of a global leader in AI‑ready analytics.

Learn more at www.atscale.com.