Principal AI Engineer

Socket.dev; New York (NY); On-site; USD 265,000 - 285,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Competitive compensation

401(k) match

Full insurance coverage

Wellness reimbursement

Personal development allowance

Generous PTO

Job summary

DriveWealth is seeking a Principal AI Engineer to lead the development of AI-powered analytics and solutions within our data platform. The role involves working closely with data engineers and product teams to enhance data workflows and decision-making through AI integration.

Candidates should have 5+ years of experience in data engineering or ML engineering, strong skills in Python and SQL, and familiarity with AI orchestration frameworks. The position offers a competitive salary ranging from $265,000 to $285,000.

Qualifications

• 5+ years of experience in data engineering or ML engineering.
• Strong proficiency in Python and SQL.
• Hands-on experience with LLMs and AI orchestration.

Responsibilities

• Design and deploy AI/ML-powered solutions.
• Build data infrastructure supporting AI use cases.
• Contribute to AI-powered data products for end users.

Skills

Python

SQL

AI orchestration frameworks (e.g., LangChain)

Vector databases

Databricks

AWS ML services (e.g., SageMaker)

Data transformation tools (e.g., dbt)

MLOps practices (e.g., Terraform)

Education

BS in Computer Science or Data Science

Job description

About the Role

We are looking for a Principal AI Engineer who thrives at the intersection of data platform engineering and applied artificial intelligence. You will bring AI‑native thinking to our data ecosystem and lead building intelligent pipelines, embedding models into data workflows and creating AI‑powered analytics capabilities that transform how the business consumes and acts on data.

The Data & Analytics organization at DriveWealth powers the company's data ecosystem end‑to‑end. This role sits within the Data Platform Engineering team and introduces a third critical pillar alongside Data Ingestion and the Semantic Data Layer:

• Applied AI & Intelligence Layer—Focused on designing and deploying AI/ML‑powered capabilities that sit on top of our data platform, enabling smarter analytics, automation and insight generation at scale.

What You’ll Do

• Design, build and deploy AI and ML‑powered solutions that operate on top of our data platform, including LLM integrations, RAG pipelines, embedding workflows and intelligent agents.
• Build and maintain the data infrastructure that supports AI use cases: feature stores, vector databases, model input/output pipelines and evaluation datasets.
• Partner with data engineers, analysts and product teams to identify where AI can automate, augment or accelerate data workflows and analytical decision‑making.
• Develop AI‑assisted data quality, anomaly detection and observability capabilities that improve the reliability and trustworthiness of our data products.
• Establish best practices for responsible AI development on data systems, including prompt engineering standards, model evaluation frameworks, versioning and documentation.
• Contribute to self‑service AI‑powered data products that make data more accessible to all consumers like natural language interfaces, intelligent semantic search, automated insight surfacing.
• Mentor and support other engineers in building AI literacy and integrating AI‑first approaches into data platform work.

What You’ll Need

• 5+ years of professional experience in data engineering, ML engineering or a related field, with a demonstrated track record of taking AI/ML solutions from concept to production.
• Technical Skills:
  • Strong proficiency in Python and SQL.
  • Hands‑on experience with LLMs, prompt engineering, RAG architectures and AI orchestration frameworks (e.g., LangChain or equivalent).
  • Familiarity with vector databases and embedding pipelines.
  • Proficiency with Databricks and AWS, including ML‑oriented services (e.g., SageMaker, MLflow, Databricks Model Serving).
  • Experience with data transformation and orchestration tools (e.g., dbt, Airflow).
  • Familiarity with infrastructure as code and MLOps practices (e.g., Terraform, CI/CD for model deployment).
  • Solid understanding of data platform fundamentals—pipeline design, data modeling, semantic layers—and how AI capabilities integrate with and depend on them.
  • Proven ability to work cross‑functionally with product, engineering, analytics and business stakeholders to translate AI opportunities into shipped solutions.
  • Curiosity, accountability and a drive to apply AI thoughtfully with attention to data quality, model reliability and real‑world usability.
  • BS in Computer Science, Data Science or equivalent.

Nice to Have, But Not Required

• Fintech or capital markets experience and awareness of compliance constraints relevant to AI (e.g., model explainability, auditability).
• Experience with agentic AI systems and multi‑step reasoning workflows.
• Familiarity with AI evaluation frameworks and dataset curation for fine‑tuning or RLHF.
• Prior experience mentoring engineers or contributing to AI/ML best practice development within a team.

Pay Range

$265,000 USD – $285,000 USD.

Working at DriveWealth

We do our best work when we’re in the same room. To maintain the speed our partners expect, our New York, Chicago, and Lithuania teams work in‑office 4 days a week. We’ve found that being physically side‑by‑side is the only way to solve complex problems in real‑time and stay truly accountable to the products we ship. When you’re here, you’re working directly with the people making the decisions. To support that work, we provide competitive compensation, equity, and a 401(k) match. We also offer full insurance coverage, a wellness reimbursement, a company‑provided phone, and a personal development allowance. Finally, we value the time you spend away from the office with generous PTO, observed holidays and extended leave.

Equal Employment Opportunity

To build technology and products that are used and loved by people and solve real‑world problems, we need to build a team with many different perspectives and experiences. We are an equal‑opportunity employer. We do not discriminate based on race, religion, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status. We encourage candidates from all backgrounds to apply.

Agency Disclaimer

DriveWealth does not accept agency resumes. Do not forward resumes to our jobs alias, employees, or any other organization location. DriveWealth is not responsible for any fees related to unsolicited resumes.