Remote Principal AI Orchestration & Retrieval Architect

Vertex Inc.; United States; Hybrid; USD 160,000 - 208,000; Full time

Job summary

Vertex Inc. is seeking a Principal AI Engineer focused on orchestration and retrieval for its central AI system. You will define how LLMs connect to tools, data, and sub-agents, and establish standards for MCP servers, tool exposure, and retrieval strategies.

You will guide architecture, implement scalable tooling, and mentor engineers to raise maturity across teams, balancing performance, safety, and cost.

Qualifications

• Hands-on experience building LLM orchestration and retrieval systems.
• Additive architecture that scales with multiple teams and tools.
• Strong understanding of context-window management, prompt design, and cost/latency optimization.
• Experience with evaluation, observability, and performance metrics for AI systems.

Responsibilities

• Design orchestration/abstraction layers connecting LLMs to tools, data, and sub-agents.
• Build MCP servers and define tool surfaces, APIs, and versioning.
• Define retrieval/ chunking strategies, embeddings, vector stores, and re-ranking.
• Establish when to use specialized sub-agents versus direct tool exposure.
• Mentor engineers and raise orchestration maturity across teams.

Skills

LLM orchestration

Agentic patterns

Retrieval/RAG

Context/window management

Performance optimization

Education

Bachelor’s degree in CS/Engineering

Advanced degree preferred

Tools

MCP servers

Tool/function-calling integrations

Job description

Vertex Inc. is seeking a Principal AI Engineer focused on orchestration and retrieval for its central AI system. You will define how LLMs connect to tools, data, and sub-agents, and establish standards for MCP servers, tool exposure, and retrieval strategies.

You will guide architecture, implement scalable tooling, and mentor engineers to raise maturity across teams, balancing performance, safety, and cost.