Lead AI Engineer - Production LLM Systems (Remote)

Appian; Tysons (VA); Remote; USD 200,000 - 350,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

401(k) match

Flexible time off

Parental leave

Medical insurance

Dental insurance

Vision insurance

Life insurance

Disability insurance

Wellness programs

HSA contributions

Employee referral bonus

Learning & development

Equity awards

Job summary

Appian is seeking a Principal Applied AI Engineer to lead the design and operation of production LLM systems, driving AI automation for large enterprises. You will guide architecture, tooling, and cross-team collaboration to deliver enterprise-grade orchestration of AI-powered processes.

You will mentor engineers, influence engineering practices, and contribute to high-quality documentation while advancing platform modernization and performance.

Qualifications

• 10+ years software development with CS degree or 8+ years with MS.
• Deep hands-on experience designing/operating production LLM systems.
• Expertise across code generation, agents, retrieval, tool use, routing, evaluation and observability.
• Able to coach others and influence engineering practices beyond one team.

Responsibilities

• Architect and build high-performance production LLM systems.
• Lead platform modernization and code refactoring for AI systems.
• Use AI tooling to generate, review, and evaluate AI-assisted code.
• Define architecture, acceptance criteria, and drive multi-tier AI apps.
• Ensure reliability, latency, scalability, and performance at scale.
• Mentor engineers and drive technical excellence across teams.
• Document domain knowledge and contribute to engineering docs.

Skills

LLM systems

AI systems

AI coding

Distributed systems

Cross-team influence

Production mastery

Technical communication

Education

BS in Computer Science

Job description

Appian is seeking a Principal Applied AI Engineer to lead the design and operation of production LLM systems, driving AI automation for large enterprises. You will guide architecture, tooling, and cross-team collaboration to deliver enterprise-grade orchestration of AI-powered processes.

You will mentor engineers, influence engineering practices, and contribute to high-quality documentation while advancing platform modernization and performance.