Principal AI Engineer

Innovaccer; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 240,000 - 340,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Generous PTO

Top-tier parental leave

Performance-based recognition

Comprehensive health insurance

Job summary

Innovaccer seeks a Principal AI Engineer to own the most complex backend services, data pipelines, and AI-powered features. You’ll write production code, shape architecture, and mentor engineers while partnering with product, clinical, and engineering teams to deliver scalable healthcare software.

You will ensure systems meet HIPAA/GDPR requirements, design for reliability, and lead by example in SDLC practices, security, and observability.

Qualifications

• Extensive hands-on coding experience in modern languages and building large-scale production systems.
• Strong design skills across distributed systems, APIs, and data-intensive architectures.
• Experience integrating AI/ML into products and operating production systems.
• Familiarity with healthcare data standards and regulatory compliance or ability to ramp quickly.

Responsibilities

• Design, build, and ship complex backend services, data pipelines, and AI/ML features.
• Own architecture decisions for scalable, secure, and cost-effective systems.
• Provide mentorship and lead by example through reviews and pairing.
• Collaborate with product, clinical, and engineering teams to translate needs into robust designs.
• Ensure compliance with HIPAA, GDPR, and other healthcare regulations in production.

Skills

Python/Java/Go

Distributed systems design

CI/CD / IaC

Cloud platforms (AWS/GCP/Azure)

Mentoring engineers

Education

Bachelor's/Master's/PhD in CS or related

Tools

Docker

Kubernetes

Git

Job description

As a Principal AI Engineer at Innovaccer, you will be one of our most senior engineers and you will stay deep in the code. You'll personally design and build the hardest, highest-impact parts of our platform - backend services, data pipelines, and the AI/ML-powered features that increasingly define our products - while setting the technical bar for how those systems are built. This is a builder's role first: you'll write production code, own complex components end to end, and lead by doing, while also guiding architecture and mentoring the engineers around you. You'll work closely with product, clinical, and engineering peers to turn ambitious healthcare goals into robust, scalable software that ships. If you want to operate at Principal scope without stepping away from the keyboard, this role is for you.

A Day in the Life

• Design, build, and ship the most complex and critical components of Innovaccer's platform - backend services, APIs, and data pipelines - writing high-quality production code yourself.
• Build AI/ML-powered product features end to end: integrating models, designing the systems and data flows around them, and ensuring they perform reliably in production.
• Own technical architecture for major systems, making hands‑on design decisions for scalability, performance, security, and cost, then implementing them.
• Lead by example on engineering best practices across the full SDLC - code quality, testing, security, observability, and operational excellence - and raise the bar through the code you write and review.
• Build resilient, well‑tested services that integrate cleanly across products and with external healthcare systems.
• Ensure the software you build complies with healthcare and data‑protection requirements, including HIPAA and GDPR, embedding compliance and security into the implementation.
• Debug, profile, and harden production systems, taking ownership of reliability and incident response for the systems you build.
• Provide hands‑on technical mentorship to senior and staff engineers through design reviews, pairing, and code review.
• Partner with product and clinical stakeholders to turn real‑world needs into well‑scoped,technically sound designs you can deliver.
• Evaluate and select technologies, frameworks, and tooling, balancing capability, cost, risk, and time‑to‑value.

What You Need

• Bachelor's, Master's, or Ph.D. in Computer Science, Software Engineering, or a related field, or equivalent practical experience.
• 10+ years of software engineering experience with a strong track record of personally building and shipping large‑scale production systems.
• Deep, current, hands‑on coding expertise in one or more modern languages (e.g.,Python, Java, Go, or similar) - this role writes code daily.
• Strong software design skills across distributed systems, backend services, APIs, and data‑intensive architectures.
• Experience building and integrating AI/ML into products - connecting models to real systems, handling data flows, and operationalizing them in production (you don't need to be a research scientist, but you should be comfortable building AI/ML‑powered features).
• Hands‑on experience operating production systems: CI/CD, infrastructure‑as‑code, monitoring, performance tuning, and incident response.
• Familiarity with healthcare data standards (e.g., FHIR, HL7) and regulatory compliance (HIPAA, GDPR), or the ability to ramp quickly on a regulated domain.
• Excellent problem‑solving skills and strong communication, with the ability to align engineers and stakeholders around a technical approach.
• Strong experience with cloud platforms (AWS, GCP, or Azure) and containerization/orchestration (Docker, Kubernetes).

We offer competitive benefits to set you up for success in and outside of work.

Here's What We Offer

• Generous Paid Time Off: Recharge and relax with 20 days of fixed time off per year, in addition to company holidays because we believe work‑life balance fuels performance.
• Best‑in‑Class Parental Leave: Spend quality time with your growing family. We offer one of the industry's most generous parental leave policies to support you during life's most important moments.
• Recognition & Rewards: We celebrate wins‑big and small. Get rewarded with monetary incentives and company‑wide recognition for your impact and dedication. Your hard work won't go unnoticed.
• Comprehensive Insurance Coverage: Stay covered with medical, dental, and vision insurance, plus 100% company‑paid short‑and‑long‑term disability and basic life insurance. Optional perks include discounted legal aid and pet insurance.

Innovaccer Inc. is an equal opportunity employer. We celebrate diversity and are committed to fostering an inclusive workplace where all employees feel valued and empowered regardless of any characteristic protected by federal, state or local law including, without limitation, race, color, religion, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, national origin, genetics, medical condition, disability, age, marital status, or veteran status. Innovaccer Inc. participates in the E‑Verify program to confirm employment eligibility of all newly hired employees based out of the U.S. and employed by Innovaccer Inc.

For any additional information, please visit the below websites:

E‑Verify

Right to Work (English)

Right to Work (Spanish)

About Innovaccer

Innovaccer activates the flow of healthcare data, empowering providers, payers, and government organizations to deliver intelligent and connected experiences that advance health outcomes. The Healthcare Intelligence Cloud equips every stakeholder in the patient journey to turn fragmented data into proactive, coordinated actions that elevate the quality of care and drive operational performance. Leading healthcare organizations like CommonSpirit Health, Atlantic Health, and Banner Health trust Innovaccer to integrate a system of intelligence into their existing infrastructure, extending the human touch in healthcare. For more information, visit www.innovaccer.com.

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