Remote Principal AI Automation Engineer (Temp-to-Perm)

Onward Search; Westlake (TX); Remote; USD 140,000 - 210,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical, Dental, and Vision Insurance.

Life Insurance.

401(k) Program.

Commuter Benefit.

eLearning and Ongoing Training.

Education Reimbursement.

Job summary

Onward Search is partnering with a defense-focused client to hire a Principal AI Solutions Engineer. This remote role (within the U.S. region) supports automation solutions, system integrations, and reusable tooling, enabling long-term ownership by internal teams.

The role emphasizes building production-grade Python solutions for LLMs, APIs, and data connectors, with a focus on cross-team collaboration and clear handoffs to empower non-technical stakeholders.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree plus 8 years of relevant experience, or Master's degree plus 5 years, or PhD plus 3 years.
• Practical experience with Python in shipping production software.
• Proven ability to build and deploy solutions involving large language models, retrieval, and tool calling.
• Experience creating MCP servers, API integrations, or comparable connectors in a production environment.
• Skilled at working directly with non-technical stakeholders, managing discovery, scoping projects, and delivering solutions, with effective communication skills.

Responsibilities

• Collaborate closely with knowledge workers and engineering teams to understand operational workflows and identify automation opportunities.
• Develop and implement agent-based and process automation solutions tailored to user needs.
• Conduct comprehensive handoffs, including documentation, training, and runbooks, to empower teams to independently manage solutions.
• Create servers and data connectors to enable secure and efficient access to internal systems and data streams.
• Develop templates, patterns, and internal tools to streamline future automation projects and facilitate self-service by teams.

Skills

Stakeholder communication

Discovery & scoping

Delivery of solutions

Effective communication

Education

Bachelor's degree + 8 years

Master's degree + 5 years

PhD + 3 years

Tools

Python

LLMs / tool calling

MCP servers

API integrations

connectors / data streams

Job description

Onward Search is partnering with a defense-focused client to hire a Principal AI Solutions Engineer. This remote role (within the U.S. region) supports automation solutions, system integrations, and reusable tooling, enabling long-term ownership by internal teams.

The role emphasizes building production-grade Python solutions for LLMs, APIs, and data connectors, with a focus on cross-team collaboration and clear handoffs to empower non-technical stakeholders.