Principal Full Stack AI Engineer

Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc (US); United States; Hybrid; USD 167,000 - 250,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Hybrid work option

Annual bonus and equity awards

Job summary

Vertex seeks an AI Full-Stack Engineer to create AI-powered applications and agents across internal and user-focused experiences. You will own end-to-end delivery—from UX to orchestration, data access, and production operations—while improving quality via measurement and feedback.

The role emphasizes building scalable AI-enabled products, secure and reliable deployments, and collaboration with platform, data, and product teams to meet enterprise requirements.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent in a technical field.
• Hands-on experience building production AI-enabled apps and agents.
• Experience delivering end-to-end applications across front-end, back-end, APIs and data stores.
• Familiarity with AI-assisted coding and responsible AI practices.
• Ability to move from prototype to production balancing speed and quality.

Responsibilities

• Design, build, and productionize full-stack AI applications and agents.
• Collaborate with end users and stakeholders to solve real workflow problems.
• Develop reusable agent patterns, prompts, and orchestration logic.
• Ensure secure, reliable, and scalable AI solutions within enterprise guardrails.
• Support architecture, deployment, monitoring, and observability in production.

Skills

Full-stack software engineering

AI engineering

LLM workflows

Agent design & orchestration

Software architecture

Stakeholder collaboration

Education

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or related field

Tools

CI/CD pipelines

Cloud services

Job description

Job Description Position Summary

Vertex is seeking an AI Full-Stack Engineer to create the next generation of AI-powered applications and agents that deliver practical value across internal and user-facing experiences. This role will own solutions end to end—from user experience and application services to agent orchestration, data access, platform integration, deployment, and production operations. The ideal candidate combines strong full-stack software engineering fundamentals with hands-on experience building AI-enabled products. This individual will use a forward deployed engineering mindset to work closely with stakeholders, rapidly iterate on real-world use cases, connect applications and agents to enterprise systems, and continuously improve quality through measurement and feedback. The AI Full-Stack Engineer will help shape how secure, reliable, and scalable AI solutions are adopted across Vertex.

Key Responsibilities

• Design, build, and productionize full-stack AI applications, agents, and multi-step workflows for internal and user-facing use cases
• Apply a forward deployed engineering approach by working closely with end users, product teams, and business stakeholders to solve real workflow problems quickly and effectively
• Build agents that can reason across steps, invoke tools, call APIs, retrieve information, and take actions within defined enterprise guardrails
• Own end-to-end solution delivery across user interfaces, application services, APIs, data access, agent orchestration, and integrations with internal platforms, third-party applications, and business-critical systems
• Develop reusable agent patterns, components, prompts, tools, and orchestration logic that can be scaled across use cases
• Rapidly iterate on agent behavior based on usage data, qualitative feedback, evaluation results, and operational metrics
• Improve agent quality through testing, experimentation, benchmarking, and structured measurement of outcomes
• Partner with platform, integration, data, security, and product teams to ensure agents are secure, reliable, maintainable, and aligned with enterprise architecture
• Help define best practices for agent design, tool use, fallback behavior, escalation paths, and human-in-the-loop workflows
• Support the complete software lifecycle, including architecture, development, integration, deployment, monitoring, troubleshooting, and optimization in production environments
• Contribute to observability practices for agent execution, including logging, tracing, performance tracking, and issue analysis
• Ensure solutions are designed with security, compliance, and responsible AI principles in mind
• Stay current on emerging patterns, frameworks, and technologies in generative AI and agentic systems, and translate them into practical applications for Vertex

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Artificial Intelligence, Data Science, or a related technical field; equivalent practical experience may be considered
• Experience in full-stack software engineering, AI engineering, machine learning engineering, or intelligent application development
• Hands‑on experience building and operating production applications powered by large language models, AI workflows, or agentic systems
• Experience designing and delivering end-to-end applications across front-end, back-end, APIs, data stores, and enterprise systems
• Demonstrated experience using AI-assisted software development and autonomous coding agents to design, generate, test, review, debug, optimize, and refactor code across complex enterprise systems.
• Deep understanding of AI‑native software engineering practices and experience establishing standards, governance, and best practices for the responsible use of AI coding assistants and software engineering agents across engineering teams
• Demonstrated ability to move from prototype to production while balancing speed, quality, and operational rigor
• Experience working directly with users or stakeholders to iteratively refine technical solutions based on real-world needs
• Strong problem‑solving and systems‑thinking skills
• Strong written and verbal communication skills with the ability to work effectively across technical and non‑technical teams

Technical Skills Required

• Full-stack application development across modern front‑end and back‑end technologies
• Large language model application development
• Agentic workflow design and orchestration
• Prompt engineering and prompt iteration
• Tool use and API integration for AI agents
• Multi-step workflow automation
• Rapid prototyping and productionization
• Evaluation, testing, and quality measurement for AI systems
• Application logging, monitoring, and observability
• API design, service development, data modeling, and application architecture
• Distributed systems and service integration
• Secure software development practices
• Enterprise application integration
• Cloud-based application development
• Version control, CI/CD, and deployment practices

Preferred Skills

• Experience using a forward deployed engineering or similar embedded delivery model
• Experience building internal copilots, assistants, or task-oriented AI agents
• Familiarity with orchestration frameworks, agent runtimes, tool‑calling architectures, and retrieval patterns
• Experience integrating with enterprise collaboration tools, workflow systems, document platforms, or knowledge repositories
• Familiarity with evaluation frameworks for AI quality, groundedness, task completion, and reliability
• Experience designing human-in-the-loop workflows and safe failure or escalation mechanisms
• Exposure to AI observability, tracing, and operational analytics
• Experience in regulated industries such as biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, healthcare, or life sciences

Flex Designation: Hybrid-Eligible Or On-Site Eligible

• Hybrid: work remotely up to two days per week; or select
• On-Site: work five days per week on-site with ad hoc flexibility.

Note: The Flex status for this position is subject to Vertex’s Policy on Flex @ Vertex Program and may be changed at any time.

Pay Range

Pay Range: $166,640 - $250,000 Disclosure Statement: The range provided is based on what we believe is a reasonable estimate for the base salary pay range for this job at the time of posting. This role is eligible for an annual bonus and annual equity awards. Some roles may also be eligible for overtime pay, in accordance with federal and state requirements. Actual base salary pay will be based on a number of factors, including skills, competencies, experience, and other job-related factors permitted by law. At Vertex, our Total Rewards offerings also include inclusive market-leading benefits to meet our employees wherever they are in their career, financial, family and wellbeing journey while providing flexibility and resources to support their growth and aspirations. From medical, dental and vision benefits to generous paid time off (including a week-long company shutdown in the Summer and the Winter), educational assistance programs including student loan repayment, a generous commuting subsidy, matching charitable donations, 401(k) and so much more.

Company Information

Vertex is a global biotechnology company that invests in scientific innovation. Vertex is committed to equal employment opportunity and non-discrimination for all employees and qualified applicants without regard to a person's race, color, sex, gender identity or expression, age, religion, national origin, ancestry, ethnicity, disability, veteran status, genetic information, sexual orientation, marital status, or any characteristic protected under applicable law. Vertex is an E-Verify Employer in the United States. Vertex will make reasonable accommodations for qualified individuals with known disabilities, in accordance with applicable law. Any applicant requiring an accommodation in connection with the hiring process and/or to perform the essential functions of the position for which the applicant has applied should make a request to the recruiter or hiring manager, or contact Talent Acquisition at [e-mail].

Help Us Achieve Our Mission Vertex is a global biotechnology company that invests in scientific innovation to create transformative medicines for people with serious diseases and conditions. The company has approved therapies for cystic fibrosis, sickle cell disease, transfusion-dependent beta thalassemia, acute pain and acromegaly, and it continues to advance clinical and research programs in these areas. Vertex also has a robust clinical pipeline of investigational therapies across a range of modalities in other serious diseases where it has deep insight into causal human biology, including IgA nephropathy, neuropathic pain, APOL1-mediated kidney disease, primary membranous nephropathy, congenital adrenal hyperplasia, ACTH-dependent Cushing's syndrome, autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease, type 1 diabetes, generalized myasthenia gravis, and myotonic dystrophy type 1. Vertex was founded in 1989 and has its global headquarters in Boston, with international headquarters in London. Additionally, the company has research and development sites and commercial offices in North America, Europe, Australia, Latin America and the Middle East. Vertex is consistently recognized as one of the industry's top places to work, including 16 consecutive years on Science magazine’s Top Employers list and one of Fortune’s 100 Best Companies to Work For. For company updates and to learn more about Vertex’s history of innovation, visit www.vrtx.com or follow us on LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and X.

We believe our culture is one of Vertex’s greatest strengths and a key enabler of our ability to deliver transformative medicines for patients who need them. Rooted in innovation, purpose and collaboration, our culture empowers people to take smart risks, challenge conventional thinking and do their best work. The diversity of our people is central to that culture. By bringing together individuals with different backgrounds, experiences and perspectives, we foster an environment where new ideas thrive, better decisions are made and breakthrough innovation is possible. We are committed to creating a workplace where everyone feels valued, included, and connected to our shared mission, because we know that our unique culture and the collective strength of our people are what set Vertex apart.