Associate Director, Engineering

Starcom; New York (NY); On-site; USD 112,290 - 161,280; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Tuition Assistance

Flexible working arrangements

Paid Family Care

Job summary

Starcom, based in New York, is searching for a Senior AI & Cloud Engineer to lead the design and operation of intelligent data and AI systems on Azure. The role involves developing scalable AI pipelines, collaborating with product teams, and mentoring junior engineers.

Ideal candidates will have extensive experience in AI/ML systems and Azure services. This position includes comprehensive benefits such as tuition assistance, flexible working arrangements, and generous paid time off.

Qualifications

• 3+ years of hands-on software engineering experience, with at least 1 year focused on AI/ML systems in production.
• Solid experience with Azure cloud services related tooling.
• Practical experience with vector databases and embedding models.

Responsibilities

• Design and deploy scalable data and AI pipelines on Azure.
• Develop and maintain Python-based applications and microservices.
• Collaborate closely with data scientists and product managers.

Skills

Python proficiency

Azure cloud services

Databricks

RAG architectures

Git-based version control

Tools

Azure Data Factory

Azure OpenAI Service

CI/CD pipelines

Job description

Overview

We are looking for a Senior AI & Cloud Engineer to design, build, and operate intelligent data and AI systems on Azure. You will bridge the gap between cloud infrastructure, data engineering, and applied AI — developing production-grade pipelines and AI-assisted applications that create measurable business value.

You will be a go-to voice on responsible AI practices, model selection, and evaluation within the team.

Responsibilities

• Design and deploy scalable data and AI pipelines on Azure using Databricks, Azure Data Factory, and related services
• Build Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) systems and AI-assisted workflows that integrate with internal data sources and APIs
• Develop and maintain Python-based applications, microservices, and Azure Container Apps
• Apply prompt engineering techniques and work with LLM APIs (OpenAI, Anthropic, Azure OpenAI) to deliver reliable, production-ready AI features
• Implement and maintain MCP (Model Context Protocol) integrations to connect AI models with enterprise tools and data sources
• Participate in fine-tuning and evaluation of models; contribute to model training workflows where applicable
• Establish best practices for AI observability, evaluation, safety guardrails, and responsible deployment
• Collaborate closely with data scientists, product managers, and business stakeholders to translate requirements into engineering solutions
• Mentor junior engineers and contribute to architectural decisions

Qualifications

• 3+ years of hands-on software engineering experience, with at least 1 year focused on AI/ML systems in production
• Strong Python proficiency — data manipulation, API development, async patterns, testing
• Solid experience with Azure cloud services: Azure Data Lake, Azure Container Apps, Azure Blob Storage, Azure OpenAI Service, and related tooling
• Experience with Databricks for large-scale data processing and ML workflows (Delta Lake, Spark, MLflow)
• Practical experience with RAG architectures, vector databases (e.g. Azure AI Search, Chroma, Weaviate, pgvector), and embedding models
• Working knowledge of prompt engineering — few-shot prompting, chain-of-thought, system prompt design, output parsing
• Familiarity with Model Context Protocol (MCP) or equivalent tool-use / function-calling patterns in LLM applications
• Experience with Git-based version control and CI/CD pipelines (GitHub Actions, Azure DevOps)

Additional Information

Starcom is an Equal Opportunity Employer. Our employment decisions are made without regard to actual or perceived race, color, ethnicity, religion, creed, sex, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, gender expression, pregnancy, childbirth and related medical conditions, national origin, ancestry, citizenship status, age, disability, medical condition as defined by applicable state law, genetic information, marital status, military service and veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by applicable federal, state or local laws and ordinances.

Benefits

The Power of One starts with our people! To do powerful things, we offer powerful resources. Our best-in-class wellness and benefits offerings include:

• Paid Family Care for parents and caregivers for 12 weeks or more
• Monetary assistance and support for Adoption, Surrogacy and Fertility
• Monetary assistance and support for pet adoption
• Employee Assistance Programs and Health/Wellness/Comfort reimbursements to help you invest in your future and work/life balance
• Tuition Assistance
• Paid time off that includes Flexible Time off Vacation, Annual Sick Days, Volunteer Days, Holiday and Identity days, and more
• Matching Gifts programs
• Flexible working arrangements
• Work Your World Program encouraging employees to work from anywhere Publicis Groupe has an office for up to 6 weeks a year (based upon eligibility)
• Business Resource Groups that support multiple affinities and alliances

The benefits offerings listed are available to U.S. based employees, are reviewed on an annual basis, and are governed by the terms of the applicable plan documents.

If you require accommodation or assistance with the application or onboarding process specifically, please contact [e-mail].

All your information will be kept confidential according to EEO guidelines.

Compensation Range: USD $112,290.00 - USD $161,280.00/Annually. This is the pay range the Company believes it will pay for this position at the time of this posting. Consistent with applicable law, compensation will be determined based on the skills, qualifications, and experience of the applicant along with the requirements of the position, and the Company reserves the right to modify this pay range at any time. Temporary roles may be eligible to participate in our freelancer/temporary employee medical plan through a third-party benefits administration system once certain criteria have been met. Temporary roles may also qualify for participation in our 401(k) plan after eligibility criteria have been met. For regular roles, the Company will offer medical coverage, dental, vision, disability, 401k, and paid time off. The Company anticipates the application deadline for this job posting will be 7/28/2026.