Principal Engineer, AI Engagement Lead

vibehackers; St. Louis (MO); Hybrid; USD 180,000 - 270,000; Full time

Job summary

vibehackers is seeking a Principal Engineer / AI Engagement Lead to drive AI-first client engagements from discovery to production. This hands-on architect-and-builder role uses GenAI to prototype and ship business applications while guaranteeing production stability, testing, and security.

You will own discovery, POC development, architecture, and production rollouts, coaching client and OCI teams to deliver scalable AI solutions.

Qualifications

• Extensive practical experience building with GenAI and LLMs in production (retrieval, evaluation, agents, tool use).
• Deep technical expertise in at least one area: application development, data engineering, or cloud; strong architectural capability across all three.
• Proven track record as a technical lead on multiple systems that went live and remained production-stable, ideally in regulated industries.
• Ability to read and evaluate Python and TypeScript code and to judge AI-generated outputs.
• Business fluency to run discovery and create executive-funded plans.
• Strong communication skills and experience leading engineers and mentoring without formal authority.

Responsibilities

• Run lightweight discovery across core business processes and underlying data (finance, HR, customer, productivity).
• Shape company-wide AI rollout plans with client executives and prioritize initial work.
• Rapidly build proofs of concept using GenAI to demonstrate value.
• Lead follow-on builds: define architecture, enforce testing and security, implement infrastructure as code, and deploy to client cloud environments.
• Unblock and coach the engagement team; serve as technical point of contact for the client sponsor.
• Capture learnings and contribute reusable accelerators for OCI engagements.
• Staffed on one or two client engagements at a time.
• Scoping new work, mentoring OCI engineers, and building shared accelerators between engagements.

Skills

GenAI development

LLM integration

System architecture

Application development

Data engineering

Cloud architecture

DevOps / IaC

Security

Leadership & coaching

Client-facing communication

Tools

Python

TypeScript

Databricks

Snowflake

MCP

Job description

Explicitly requires vibe coding skills—daily GenAI-driven development and rapid prototyping with LLMs.

About the Role

Lead end-to-end AI engagements as a hands-on Principal Engineer, using GenAI to rapidly prototype and deliver production-grade applications. Own discovery, POC build, architecture, and production rollouts while coaching client and OCI teams.

Job Description

Role

Principal Engineer / AI Engagement Lead responsible for running AI-first client engagements from discovery through production. This is a hands-on architect-and-builder role that uses generative AI tools to prototype and ship business applications while ensuring production stability, testing, and security.

Key Responsibilities

• Run lightweight discovery across core business processes and underlying data (finance, HR, customer, productivity).
• Shape company-wide AI rollout plans with client executives and prioritize initial work.
• Rapidly build proofs of concept using GenAI to demonstrate value.
• Lead follow-on builds: define architecture, enforce testing and security, implement infrastructure as code, and deploy to client cloud environments.
• Unblock and coach the engagement team; serve as technical point of contact for the client sponsor.
• Capture learnings and contribute reusable accelerators for OCI engagements.

Typical Stack

• MCP
• Python, TypeScript
• Databricks, Snowflake

Requirements

• Extensive practical experience building with GenAI and LLMs in production (retrieval, evaluation, agents, tool use).
• Deep technical expertise in at least one area: application development, data engineering, or cloud; strong architectural capability across all three.
• Proven track record as a technical lead on multiple systems that went live and remained production-stable, ideally in regulated industries.
• Ability to read and evaluate Python and TypeScript code and to judge AI-generated outputs.
• Business fluency to run discovery and create executive-funded plans.
• Strong communication skills and experience leading engineers and mentoring without formal authority.

How You’ll Spend Your Time

• Staffed on one or two client engagements at a time.
• Scoping new work, mentoring OCI engineers, and building shared accelerators between engagements.

Skills

GenAI development LLM integration System Architecture Application Development Data Engineering Cloud Architecture DevOps / Infrastructure as Code Testing & Quality Security Discovery & Requirements Gathering Client-facing Communication Leadership & Coaching Project Scoping