Senior AI Engineer

Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP; New York (NY); On-site; USD 175,000 - 200,000; Full time

Job summary

Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP is seeking a Senior AI Engineer to join the Infrastructure Automation & Orchestration team in New York. You will design, build, and operationalize enterprise-scale Generative AI solutions, agents, and AI-powered applications, leveraging LLMs, RAG, MCP frameworks, and custom integrations.

The role requires hands-on experience with AI applications, enterprise systems, autonomous agents, and governance best practices in an enterprise environment.

Qualifications

• 5–8 years of software/cloud/AI engineering experience.
• 2+ years designing and deploying Generative AI/LLM solutions in enterprise settings.
• Strong Python and modern software development practices.
• Experience building AI agents and automation solutions.
• Experience integrating AI with enterprise APIs, databases, and SaaS.
• Knowledge of prompt engineering, context management, and governance.

Responsibilities

• Design, develop, and deploy enterprise Generative AI solutions using foundation models.
• Build and maintain AI agents and multi-agent orchestration frameworks.
• Develop RAG architectures leveraging knowledge repositories and data sources.
• Create custom AI tools, hooks, skills, and integrations to extend agents.
• Develop MCP servers to securely integrate AI with enterprise apps.
• Build AI-powered applications using Python and cloud services.
• Monitor and scale data workflows for performance and cost efficiency.
• Collaborate with security and infrastructure teams on governance and security.

Skills

Generative AI

LLMs

Python

AI agents

AI security

Governance

Enterprise integration

Problem solving

Education

Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science or related field

Tools

Azure AI Foundry

Azure OpenAI Service

Azure AI Search

Claude Code

Anthropic APIs

MCP servers

Job description

Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP is looking for a Senior AI Engineer to join the Infrastructure Automation & Orchestration team. The Senior AI Engineer is responsible for designing, building, and operationalizing enterprise-scale Generative AI solutions, agents, and AI-powered applications. This role develops scalable AI systems leveraging Large Language Models (LLMs), retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), agentic workflows, Model Context Protocol (MCP) frameworks, tools, hooks, and custom integrations.

The Senior AI Engineer will partner closely with business stakeholders, software engineers, architects, and data teams to identify high-value AI opportunities and translate them into production-ready solutions. This role requires hands-on experience building AI applications, integrating enterprise systems, developing autonomous and semi-autonomous agents, and implementing governance, security, and operational best practices in an enterprise environment.

Essential Job Duties & Responsibilities

• Design, develop, and deploy enterprise Generative AI solutions using commercial and open-source foundation models.
• Build and maintain AI agents, agent orchestration frameworks, and multi-agent systems to automate complex business processes.
• Develop and implement Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) architectures leveraging enterprise knowledge repositories and structured/unstructured data sources.
• Design and develop custom AI tools, hooks, skills, and integrations to extend agent capabilities and improve business outcomes.
• Build and maintain MCP (Model Context Protocol) servers and related infrastructure to securely integrate AI systems with enterprise applications and services.
• Develop AI-powered applications using Python, APIs, cloud-native services, etc.
• Monitor, optimize, and scale data workflows to improve performance and cost-efficiency.
• Develop best practices for data engineering processes, documentation, and governance.
• Partner with infrastructure and security teams to implement scalable, secure, and compliant AI solutions.
• Collaborate with stakeholders to identify, prioritize, and deliver high-impact AI use cases.
• Provide technical guidance on AI architecture, implementation patterns, and emerging industry capabilities.

EDUCATION

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, or a related field, or equivalent practical experience in lieu of formal education.
• Legal IT experience a plus but not required.

REQUIRED

SKILLS AND EXPERIENCE

• 5 - 8 years of experience in software engineering, cloud engineering, or AI engineering.
• 2+ years of experience designing and deploying Generative AI or LLM-based solutions in enterprise environments.
• Strong experience with Python and modern software development practices.
• Experience building AI agents/frameworks and AI-powered automation solutions.
• Experience developing custom AI tools, skills, functions, and integrations.
• Experience integrating AI solutions with enterprise APIs, databases, and SaaS platforms.
• Strong understanding of prompt engineering, context management, model evaluation, and AI application architecture.
• Knowledge of vector databases, semantic search, and document retrieval techniques.
• Strong understanding of AI security, governance, and data privacy practices.
• Exceptional analytical, troubleshooting, and problem-solving abilities.
• Excellent communication skills and experience working with both technical and non-technical stakeholders.

PREFERRED

• Experience with Claude Code, Anthropic APIs, MCP servers, and agentic development frameworks.
• Experience with Azure AI Foundry, Azure OpenAI Service, Azure AI Search, and related Azure AI services.

Salary Information

NY Only: The estimated base salary range for this position is $175,000 to $200,000 at the time of posting. The actual salary offered will depend on a variety of factors, including without limitation, the qualifications of the individual applicant for the position, years of relevant experience, level of education attained, certifications or other professional licenses held, and if applicable, the location in which the applicant lives and/or from which they will be performing the job. This role is exempt meaning it is not overtime pay eligible.

Simpson Thacher will not sponsor applicants for work visas for this position.

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