Principal AI Engineer

Pearlsoft Solutions Inc.; Columbus (OH); Hybrid; USD 180,000 - 240,000; Part time

Job summary

Pearlsoft Solutions Inc. is seeking a founding engineer to build and operate our AI platform and first production applications end to end, from infrastructure and orchestration through evaluation and monitoring.

This principal-scope, hands-on role requires shipping code weekly and owning it in production. You will lead the governance of the MCP gateway, Azure AI environments, and CI/CD for AI assets, driving retrieval, grounding, and agentic workflows.

Qualifications

• 10+ years of software engineering experience.
• Strong Python and/or TypeScript skills.
• Azure expertise including infrastructure-as-code (Bicep or Terraform), networking, identity, container platforms, and Azure AI services.
• Production experience building and running LLM or agentic systems end to end.
• Experience with evaluation engineering, including datasets, metrics, regression tests, and CI release gates.
• Experience owning CI/CD pipelines using GitHub Actions, Azure DevOps, or equivalent.
• Strong identity-aware API and integration design experience.
• Experience partnering with vendors while keeping core capabilities in-house.
• AI-augmented development using tools such as Claude and Microsoft Copilot.

Responsibilities

• Build and operate the governed enterprise MCP gateway and Azure AI environments.
• Implement SAP identity passthrough in partnership with IT/SAP teams.
• Own CI/CD for AI assets, evaluation, observability, and cost/usage telemetry.
• Ship the first production AI use case and prioritized portfolio including retrieval, grounding, and agentic workflows.
• Co-build with an enterprise integration partner while keeping core capabilities in-house.
• Define engineering standards, tooling, and practices and serve as technical lead as the team grows.

Skills

Python

TypeScript

Azure

LLM systems

Evaluation engineering

CI/CD pipelines

Identity-aware API design

Vendor partnerships

AI-augmented development

GitHub Actions

Tools

Azure

Terraform

GitHub Actions

Azure DevOps

Bicep

Claude

Microsoft Copilot

SAP Identity Passthrough

Job description

Work Location: Columbus, Ohio Remote with periodic onsite visits in Columbus, OH

Contract Duration: 6-12 Months

Work Arrangement: Remote with periodic onsite visits in Columbus, OH (~10%, quarterly)

Job Description:

You’ll be the founding engineer, building and operating the AI platform and the first production applications on it - end to end, from infrastructure and orchestration through evaluation and monitoring.

This is a principal-scope, hands-on role where you will ship code every week and own it in production.

What You’ll Do:

• Build and operate the governed enterprise MCP gateway and Azure AI environments.
• Implement SAP identity passthrough in partnership with the IT/SAP organization.
• Own CI/CD for AI assets, evaluation, observability, and cost/usage telemetry.
• Ship the first production AI use case and prioritized portfolio including retrieval, grounding, and agentic workflows.
• Co-build with an enterprise integration partner while keeping core capabilities in-house.
• Define engineering standards, tooling, and practices and serve as a technical lead as the team grows.

Required Qualifications:

• 10+ years of software engineering experience.
• Strong Python and/or TypeScript skills.
• Deep Azure expertise including infrastructure-as-code (Bicep or Terraform), networking, identity, container platforms, and Azure AI services.
• Production experience building and running LLM or agentic systems end to end.
• Experience with evaluation engineering, including datasets, metrics, regression tests, and CI release gates.
• Experience owning CI/CD pipelines using GitHub Actions, Azure DevOps, or equivalent.
• Strong identity-aware API and integration design experience.
• Experience partnering with vendors while keeping core capabilities in-house.
• AI-augmented development using tools such as Claude and Microsoft Copilot.

Preferred Qualifications:

• SAP or enterprise ERP integration experience.
• Technical leadership or mentoring experience.
• Experience in regulated or industrial-sector environments.