Lead AI Platform Engineer

ZipStaff Inc.; St. Louis (MO); On-site; USD 165,000 - 276,000; Full time

Job summary

ZipStaff Inc. is seeking a Lead AI Platform Engineer in St. Louis, MO to design, build, and operate production AI solutions for a major energy and utilities client.

This hands-on technical leadership role will focus on agentic workflows, RAG architectures, evaluation frameworks, and AI observability, delivering enterprise-grade AI systems integrated with existing APIs and data sources. You will establish reusable AI patterns, raise engineering standards, and collaborate with stakeholders to

Qualifications

• 7-8+ years of software engineering delivering enterprise-grade production software.
• Strong Python development skills.
• Experience building, deploying, and operating production AI systems.
• Experience designing and implementing RAG solutions.
• Hands-on experience with Databricks.
• Hands-on experience with LangGraph or similar agent orchestration frameworks.

Responsibilities

• Design, build, deploy, and support production AI solutions.
• Develop agentic workflows, tool integrations, and orchestration pipelines.
• Build and evolve RAG and agent-based architectures.
• Create evaluation frameworks to improve quality, groundedness, and reliability.
• Implement AI observability, tracing, and monitoring capabilities.
• Develop automated testing and regression validation processes.
• Integrate AI solutions with APIs, enterprise applications, and data sources.
• Design reusable AI patterns, frameworks, and components for scalability.
• Establish engineering best practices and participate in code reviews.
• Research and adopt emerging AI technologies to deliver business value.

Skills

Python

Production AI systems

RAG

REST APIs

Git

CI/CD

Secure coding

Agile

Tools

Databricks

LangGraph

LangChain

OpenTelemetry

Grafana

Job description

Job Title: Lead AI Platform Engineer
Location: St. Louis, MO (On-site)
Employment Type: Contract (Only W2 through ZipStaff)

About the Opportunity

ZipStaff is seeking a Lead AI Platform Engineer to design, build, and operate production AI solutions for a major energy and utilities organization.

This is a hands-on technical leadership role focused on agentic workflows, RAG architectures, evaluation frameworks, and AI observability. You will establish reusable AI patterns, raise engineering standards, and deliver enterprise-grade AI systems that are reliable, measurable, and integrated with existing APIs, applications, and data sources.

What You'll Do:

• Design, build, deploy, and support production AI solutions.


• Develop agentic workflows, tool integrations, and orchestration pipelines.


• Build and evolve RAG and agent-based architectures.


• Create evaluation frameworks to improve quality, groundedness, and reliability.


• Implement AI observability, tracing, and monitoring capabilities.


• Develop automated testing and regression validation processes.


• Integrate AI solutions with APIs, enterprise applications, and data sources.


• Design reusable AI patterns, frameworks, and components that increase platform scalability and team productivity.


• Establish engineering best practices and contribute to code reviews.


• Research and adopt emerging AI technologies where they provide business value.


• Partner with stakeholders to translate business problems into AI solutions.

Required Qualifications:

• 7-8+ years of software engineering experience with a proven track record of delivering enterprise-grade production software.


• Strong Python development skills.


• Experience building, deploying, and operating production AI systems.


• Experience designing and implementing RAG solutions.


• Hands-on experience with Databricks.


• Hands-on experience with LangGraph or similar agent orchestration frameworks.


• Experience building AI workflows that leverage tools, APIs, and external systems.


• Experience with AI evaluation frameworks and quality measurement.


• Experience implementing AI observability and tracing solutions.


• Understanding of agent architecture patterns, prompt engineering, and LLM evaluation techniques.


• Experience with AWS in production environments.


• Experience designing and consuming REST APIs.


• Experience with Git, CI/CD, and modern software engineering practices


• Knowledge of secure coding principles and responsible AI practices.


• Experience collaborating within Agile software development teams.


• Ability to work on-site in St. Louis, MO.


• Must be legally authorized to work in the United States without sponsorship now or in the future.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Experience with AgentBricks.


• Experience with Microsoft Copilot extensibility and agent development.


• Experience with LangChain and related frameworks.


• Experience with MCP integrations.


• Experience with vector databases and semantic search.


• Experience with AWS Bedrock.


• Experience with OpenTelemetry, LangSmith, Grafana, MLflow, DeepEval, or similar tooling.


• Experience deploying multi-agent systems.


• Experience with Terraform.


• AWS, Databricks, Microsoft, or AI-related certifications.

About ZipStaff:

ZipStaff partners with leading organizations to connect skilled technology professionals with high-impact contract opportunities. We focus on quality matches and long-term success.