Lead AI Engineer with agentic coding harnesses

EPAM Systems Inc; United States; On-site; USD 140,000 - 220,000; Full time

Job summary

EPAM Systems is seeking a Lead AI Engineer to build and evolve the software behind AI systems and lead their development toward agentic platforms. You will direct AI agent work, design workflows, and ensure production quality and accountability for outputs.

The role emphasizes hands-on Python development, cloud AI services, and leadership to guide teams implementing agentic workflows and evaluation frameworks in production environments.

Qualifications

• 5+ years of experience in AI Solution Engineering.
• At least 1 year of leadership experience.
• Proficiency in Python; production-quality code delivery.
• Experience with LLM patterns (prompting, retrieval-augmented generation, tool/function calling).
• Hands-on with agentic coding harnesses (Claude Code) and reviewing generated output.
• English proficiency at B2 or higher.

Responsibilities

• Maintain, refactor, and extend AI applications and services in production.
• Build agentic-friendly software: tools, services, and workflows used by LLM-based agents
• Design AI workflows combining models, prompts, tools, data, and business logic
• Validate model behavior from an engineering/production perspective
• Design and maintain evaluation frameworks for AI/LLM systems
• Write evaluations and quality checks for agent behavior; ensure grounding and assurance
• Ensure reliability, scalability, cost control, and latency optimization
• Help bring new agentic systems into production

Skills

AI Solution Eng

Leadership

English Proficiency (B2+)

Cloud AI

Tools

Python

TypeScript

Java/Kotlin

Claude Code

Azure AI

Palantir Foundry

Job description

We are seeking a Lead AI Engineer to build and evolve the software behind a line's AI systems and lead their development toward agentic systems — building the services and workflows that LLM-based agents use. You'll work day-to-day with agentic coding harnesses (e.g., Claude Code): break work into well-scoped tasks, direct AI agents to build and modify code, and review the output with calibrated scrutiny — spec-first, tested, and accountable for what your agents produce.

Responsibilities

• Maintain, refactor, and extend the line's AI applications and services in production
• Build agentic-friendly software: the tools, services, and workflows that LLM-based agents call
• Design AI workflows that combine models, prompts, tools, enterprise data, and business logic
• Validate model behavior, outputs, and assumptions from an engineering and production perspective
• Design and maintain evaluation frameworks for AI/LLM systems, including test suites and human evaluation workflows
• Write evaluations and quality checks for agent behavior; build in grounding and assurance
• Ensure reliability, scalability, cost control, and latency optimization
• Help bring new agentic systems into production

Requirements

• 5+ years of experience in AI Solution Engineering
• At least 1 year of relevant leadership experience
• Strong software engineering proficiency in Python as the primary language, with other modern languages such as TypeScript, Java/Kotlin acceptable where production-quality code delivery is demonstrated
• Forward Deployed Engineer mindset: desire to understand the business problem, the impact the solution makes, and drive pragmatic decisions toward realising it — including API, service, and integration engineering
• Hands-on experience with LLM application patterns (prompting, retrieval-augmented generation, tool/function calling) and proven agentic development practice
• Expert daily practitioner competency in agentic coding harnesses (e.g., Claude Code): spec-first decomposition, directing agents to build and modify production code, critically reviewing and owning generated output
• Capability to pick up and improve an existing codebase
• Skills in validating AI model behavior and outputs from an engineering and production standpoint
• Background in hands-on agentic/LLM application development: agent loops, evaluations, and tool design
• English proficiency at an Upper-Intermediate level (B2) or higher
• Nice to have Familiarity with Palantir Foundry / AIP Insurance or reinsurance domain exposure
• Knowledge of cloud AI services (e.g., Azure AI)