Principal AI Developer

Energy Transfer; Houston (TX); On-site; USD 130,000 - 210,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

401k match

Profit sharing

PTO

Career opportunities

Job summary

Energy Transfer is seeking a Principal AI Developer to lead hands-on AI projects, prototyping, building, deploying, and refining production AI solutions in a fast-paced Enterprise AI team. The role emphasizes end-to-end ownership in a cloud-first environment, with emphasis on Python and/or .NET, Azure, Databricks, and cutting-edge AI tooling.

Ideal candidates bring 10+ years of experience, strong communication, and a startup mindset for ownership of technical work within a large, global

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent experience in a relevant field.
• Experience building production systems with Python or .NET (proficiency in both is a plus).
• Cloud services and architecture patterns; Azure preferred (AWS/GCP acceptable).
• Hands-on experience with Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) pipelines.

Responsibilities

• Design, develop, deploy, and maintain AI solutions using Python and/or .NET.
• Build AI agents with Copilot Studio, Semantic Kernel, or equivalent agent framework.
• Operate cloud-native apps on Azure and Databricks with large-scale data.
• Collaborate with AI engineers and business analysts to turn experiments into production systems.
• Evaluate model performance and optimize system efficiency.

Skills

Python

.NET

Azure

Databricks

RAG pipelines

Copilot Studio

Semantic Kernel

Education

Bachelor’s degree or equivalent

Tools

SQL

LangGraph

Job description

Job Description - Principal AI Developer (2610003824)

• We value all of our employees who make our growth and success possible.
• We are proud to offer industry leading compensation, comprehensive benefits,401(k) match with additional profit sharing,PTO and abundant career opportunities.

Come join our award winning over 12,000 strong organization as we fuel the world and each other!

Summary:

Energy Transfer is looking for a hands-on AI Developer with strong expertise in Python or .NET, cloud platforms, and modern data tooling to join our multidisciplinary Enterprise AI team. This developer will work alongside AI engineers/developers and business analysts to build, ship, and iterate on real production AI solutions.

This role is ideal for someone who thrives in a fast-paced environment where they own work end-to-end: prototyping, building, deploying, and refining. Candidates who have come up through a smaller company or startup environment — wearing multiple hats and shipping real systems — will feel right at home.

Technical Environment

Essential Duties and Responsibilities

• Design, develop, deploy, and maintain AI solutions using Python and/or .NET.
• Build AI agents using Microsoft Copilot Studio or the Semantic Kernel Agent Framework.
• Build and optimize cloud-native applications on Azure.
• Work with large-scale data in Databricks.
• Partner with AI engineers/developers and business analysts to turn ideas and experiments into production systems.
• Apply critical thinking to evaluate model performance, troubleshoot complex issues, and improve system efficiency.
• Communicate clearly with both technical and non-technical stakeholders.
• Prototype quickly, test rigorously, and iterate often.

Required Skills

Requirements: Education and/or Experience, Knowledge, Skills & Abilities

To perform this job successfully, an individual must be able to perform each essential job duty satisfactorily. The requirements for this position are listed below:

• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent experience, with relevant job experience commensurate with the selected job level (see below).
• Professional experience building production systems with Python or .NET (proficiency in both is a strong plus).
• Strong working knowledge of cloud services and architecture patterns — Azure preferred (or equivalent experience in AWS or GCP, with willingness to ramp on Azure).
• Hands-on experience building RAG (Retrieval-Augmented Generation) pipelines.
• Hands-on experience building AI agents with Microsoft Copilot Studio, Semantic Kernel Agent Framework, or an equivalent agent framework (e.g., LangGraph, AutoGen, CrewAI).
• Hands-on experience with at least two of the following:
  • Azure AI Search (or equivalent vector/semantic search platform — Pinecone, Weaviate, pgvector, Elasticsearch with vector, AWS Kendra/OpenSearch)
• Comfort working with SQL and large-scale data platforms (Databricks experience is a plus, but the syntax is approachable if you know SQL).
• Excellent communication and critical-thinking skills.
• Background in a smaller company or startup environment with significant ownership of technical work.

Required experience is commensurate with the selected job level:

• The Senior Specialist level requires a Bachelor’s degree or equivalent experience and 5-8 years of relevant job related experience.
• The Lead Specialist level requires a Bachelor’s degree or equivalent experience and 8+ years of relevant job related experience.
• The Principal Specialist level requires a Bachelor’s degree or equivalent experience and 10+ years of relevant job related experience.

Preferred Qualifications

• Proficiency in both Python and .NET.
• Direct hands-on experience with Microsoft Copilot Studio and/or Semantic Kernel specifically.
• Hands-on experience with Databricks specifically.
• Practical ML experience (model training, evaluation, deployment).
• Familiarity with Azure AI Foundry (or equivalent — AWS Bedrock, Google Vertex AI) and Azure OpenAI (or equivalent managed LLM service) in production.
• Experience with MCP (Model Context Protocol) or similar agent-tooling standards.
• Natural Gas Pipeline or Energy Industry work experience is a plus.

Working Conditions

• Usually, normal office working conditions.
• This is an on-site role, worked in person at the office 5 days per week during business hours.
• Must be able to remain in a stationary position 50% of the time due to prolonged periods of sitting or standing.
• Occasional overnight travel may be required to other business locations within the company.

Primary Location

United States-TX-HOUSTON

Work Locations

Houston TX 1300 Main (100000189) 1300 Main Street Houston 77002

Job

Information Technology

Schedule

Regular

Full-time

Travel

Yes, 10 % of the Time

Energy Transfer is an equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate against qualified applicants on the basis of any actual or perceived legally protected characteristics under federal, state, or local law. To view a notice describing federal equal opportunity laws . click here

If, because of a medical condition or disability, you need a reasonable accommodation for any part of the application process, please contact the EEO Coordinator at 713-989-2247. This number is for reasonable accommodation requests only.