Principal AI Engineer

RWE; Chicago (IL); On-site; USD 178,000 - 240,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical benefits

401(k) match

Paid time off

Job summary

RWE Americas, LLC in Illinois seeks a Principal AI Engineer to lead the design, build, and operation of shared AI platform capabilities used by multiple squads and business units. You will own technical standards and ensure production readiness, reliability, and security across the enterprise AI stack.

This role focuses on responsible AI, model lifecycle, observability, and cost efficiency, while mentoring senior engineers and evolving platform standards.

Qualifications

• Master’s or PhD in computer science, data science, STEM, or related field.
• 11+ years of professional experience in software or AI/ML engineering roles with platform experience.
• Production experience with a major cloud platform, Python, containerized deployment and CI/CD for AI services.
• Experience with responsible AI, evaluation, guardrails, and audit infrastructure.
• Experience mentoring junior AI engineers; preferred in energy/industrial sectors.

Responsibilities

• Integrate and operate shared AI platform capabilities across squads and business units, ensuring production readiness and adoption.
• Address enterprise AI engineering challenges, including retrieval quality and safe operation in compliant workflows.
• Define reference implementations for AI development and drive adoption across the organization.
• Operationalize responsible AI with evaluation, guardrails, explainability, bias detection, and audit logging.
• Deliver platform cost efficiency through instrumentation and per-product economics, influencing routing, caching, and context management.
• Lead design reviews, mentor senior engineers, and evolve platform standards.

Skills

AI platform design

Production ML engineering

Mentoring engineers

Cost optimization

Regulatory compliance

Education

Master’s or PhD in CS/Data Science

Tools

Python

Kubernetes

CI/CD

LLM orchestration

Job description

RWE Americas, LLC

To start as soon as possible, full time, permanent

Functional area: IT / Digital

Remuneration: Exempt

The Principal AI Engineer is a platform level technical expert responsible for building and operating the shared AI capabilities that squads and business units build on, and for setting the engineering patterns and reference implementations that other engineers follow. This role owns the technical design, build, and operational decisions for those shared capabilities, working within the platform roadmap set by the head of AI Platform and Products, and the target-state architecture set by the Data/AI Platform Architect.

This role integrates and operates shared platform services including orchestration and agent frameworks, retrieval and knowledge services, evaluation tooling, model and prompt lifecycle management, observability, and guardrails.

The Principal AI Engineer operationalizes responsible AI at the platform level, delivers AI platform cost efficiency, and raises the output of the wider AI organization.

Role Responsibilities:

• Integrate and operate the shared AI platform capabilities squads and business units build on, including orchestration and agent frameworks, retrieval and knowledge services, evaluation tooling, model and prompt lifecycle management, observability, and guardrails. Ensure they are production-ready, supportable, and adopted across squads consistent with the enterprise target-state architecture and platform roadmap
• Solve the enterprise’s hardest AI engineering problems, including retrieval quality against a fragmented document and operational data estate, building useful models where labeled outcomes are scarce, enabling agents to operate safely in compliance-bound workflows, and resolving assets, sites, and other entities across systems with no common identifiers
• Define reference implementations for AI development across squads and drive their adoption, making the engineering standard visible, consistent, and teachable
• Operationalize responsible AI at the platform level through evaluation and guardrail infrastructure, explainability and citation, bias and drift detection, override and audit logging, prompt and model versioning, and the evidence trail required for compliance and audit
• Deliver AI platform cost efficiency through instrumentation and per-product economics, leading structural changes across routing, caching, context management, and model tiering that keep spend proportional to the value delivered, within the enterprise AI FinOps framework
• Multiply the output of the engineering organization by leading design reviews, coaching senior engineers, and evolving platform standards

Job Requirements and Experiences:

• Master’s or PhD degree in computer science, data science, STEM, or related field required
• Minimum 11 years of relevant professional experience in software or AI/ML engineering roles, including demonstrated experience building and operating shared platform capabilities used by multiple engineering teams and setting technical patterns that other engineers follow
• Deep expertise in enterprise-scale AI development, with the ability to set engineering standards that other engineers follow within an established platform architecture
• Production experience with a major cloud platform, Python, containerized deployment and CI/CD for AI services, and current LLM orchestration and agent frameworks
• Extensive experience integrating and operating the shared AI platform services described above in a production enterprise environment, with personal accountability for their reliability and supportability
• Depth in responsible AI engineering, with hands-on ownership of the evaluation, guardrail, and audit infrastructure described above
• Demonstrated ability to drive AI platform cost efficiency using the structural levers described above
• Proven ability to mentor and professionally develop junior AI engineers
• Experience with IT/OT environments, industrial data sources, or operational technology systems preferred
• Experience in the power, utilities, or clean energy sector, including knowledge of U.S. power markets, renewable project development, and clean energy technologies preferred
• This position is an office-based role with some travel and visits to other RWE Americas offices and field locations. The employee must be able to sit, walk, or stand for long durations of time

Applicants must be legally authorized to work in the United States. RWE Americas is unable to sponsor or take over sponsorship of employment visas at this time.

Pay range:

The annual base salary range for this position in Illinois is $178,000 - $240,000. The listed salary range represents our good faith estimate for this position and represents the range for new hire salaries across all U.S locations. Please note that the salary information is a general guideline only. RWE considers factors such as (but not limited to) scope and responsibilities of the position, candidate’s education & work experience, training & certifications, and key skills as well as market and business considerations at the time of the offer.

Benefits offered:

Medical, Dental, Vision, Life Insurance, Short-Term Disability, Long-Term Disability, 401(k) match, Flexible Spending Accounts, EAP, Education Assistance, Parental Leave, Paid time off, and Holidays. Eligible employees also participate in short-term incentives, in addition to salary.

We look forward to meeting you. Of course, you can find us on LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube and Xing, too.

All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, religion, national origin, disability, veteran status, or other legally protected status.

RWE Americas, a subsidiary of RWE, is a US-based energy company that is helping to meet the growing demand for energy across the United States. Backed by RWE’s 125-year global legacy of managing diverse power assets, RWE Americas operates approximately 13 GW of power projects across 27 states. With a talented workforce of 2,000 employees, RWE Americas develops, constructs and operates wind, solar and battery storage projects, along with natural gas-powered generation, that safely deliver affordable, reliable electricity to our customers. Committed to responsible development, RWE Americas invests in local and rural communities, creating jobs and partnering with stakeholders to support and strengthen the places where we live and work. Learn more about how RWE Americas is generating impact at americas.rwe.com.

At RWE Americas, we foster a culture defined by our Essential Behaviors - Have Courage, Create Impact and Actively Collaborate. We encourage bold thinking and continuous learning, and we value ownership, resilience and inclusion in everything we do. When you join us, you become part of a team that supports your development, respects your contributions and celebrates shared success. This is a place where you can grow your career and make a meaningful difference.