Lead AI/ML Data Engineer & Platform Architect

Kalepa; Cincinnati, Northern (OH, KY); Hybrid; USD 140,000 - 210,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical insurance

Dental insurance

Vision insurance

Life insurance

Short-term disability

Long-term disability

Company match 401(k)

Job summary

Kalepa is seeking a Lead AI Engineer to shape AI/ML enablement across the organization. You will start hands-on contributing to data platforms and pipelines, then lead the definition of AI/ML frameworks, governance, and MLOps, partnering with governance, engineering, and product teams in Cincinnati.

You will own complex projects end-to-end, drive architecture, and ensure scalable, responsible AI adoption across the business.”

Qualifications

• Minimum 7+ years of experience in data engineering, with large-scale data platforms.
• 3+ years delivering ML/AI deliverables to production environments.
• Bachelor's degree or equivalent experience; working knowledge of Agentic Workflows preferred.
• Experience partnering with governance/compliance teams to align practices.

Responsibilities

• Design, build, and optimize data pipelines, ingestion frameworks, and platform components.
• Own complex engineering initiatives from design through rollout with minimal oversight.
• Resolve performance, scalability, and reliability issues across the data platform.
• Define AI/ML frameworks and MLOps strategy with governance alignment.
• Develop prototypes delivering immediate value to engineering teams; document standards.

Skills

Python

LLM APIs

Data pipelines

Airflow

Spark

dbt

MLOps

Cloud platforms

System design

API design

Education

Bachelor's degree in related field

Tools

Snowflake

Databricks

Azure Synapse Analytics

Kafka

Weaviate / vector databases

Job description

Kalepa is seeking a Lead AI Engineer to shape AI/ML enablement across the organization. You will start hands-on contributing to data platforms and pipelines, then lead the definition of AI/ML frameworks, governance, and MLOps, partnering with governance, engineering, and product teams in Cincinnati.

You will own complex projects end-to-end, drive architecture, and ensure scalable, responsible AI adoption across the business.”