Senior AI Engineer I

RWE Gruppe; Chicago (IL); On-site; USD 127,000 - 171,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical insurance

Dental insurance

Vision insurance

401(k) match

Education assistance

Parental leave

Paid time off

Job summary

RWE Americas, LLC in Illinois seeks a Senior AI Engineer I to own end-to-end AI capabilities within a product or across multiple products, from design to production. You will work on retrieval and context assembly, model logic, API integrations, and monitoring, with emphasis on trustworthy AI and responsible controls.

The role requires hands-on experience with Python, SQL, cloud platforms, containers, and CI/CD for AI projects, plus the ability to manage costs and latency in production, and

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in CS, data science, or related STEM field.
• Minimum 5 years in software or AI/ML engineering roles with end-to-end ownership of AI/ML capabilities.
• Depth in two or three capability areas listed under Basic Function with familiarity across the rest.
• Production experience with Python and SQL, a major cloud platform, version control and code review, containerized deployment, and CI/CD for AI products and services.
• Hands-on experience with orchestration, agent, and retrieval frameworks.
• Practical experience developing ML models for supervised and unsupervised problems.
• Experience building and maintaining evaluation and regression testing for AI/ML systems.
• Working knowledge of AI-specific security and responsible AI controls.

Responsibilities

• Design, build, operate, and own end-to-end AI capabilities within a product or across multiple products, spanning retrieval and context assembly; model and agentic logic; integration with source systems and consuming applications (APIs, MCPs, authentication); monitoring and evaluation; and operational runbook maintenance
• Train and evaluate machine learning models for well-scoped problems such as classification, regression, anomaly detection, clustering, and forecasting, using operational and commercial data. Determine when and how to use ML models versus simpler statistical baselines
• Build retrieval and context pipelines against enterprise content using chunking, tagging, and a metadata strategy. Measure and report retrieval quality against a defined standard
• Design and maintain evaluation for these capabilities, including offline evals, automated scoring such as LLM-as-judge, and regression tests that run on every prompt or pipeline change to ensure quality before release. Monitor quality and drift signals in production
• Own inference cost and latency in production, tracking cost per transaction and end‑to‑end response time, and profiling where that time is spent. Make tradeoffs where needed to stay within agreed targets
• Implement human‑in‑the‑loop and AI‑specific security controls, including shadow and assisted modes, confidence and citation surfaces, override capture, audit trails, identity-scoped retrieval, input and output guardrails, tool permissions, and prompt injection resistance
• Take handover of application components built by technical delivery partners: read the code, close operational gaps, update the runbook, and maintain them in production
• Improve team efficiency by establishing reusable components and reference examples, reviewing code, and onboarding new engineers

Skills

Python

SQL

Cloud platform

Version control

CI/CD for AI

AI/ML engineering

Retrieval frameworks

Production monitoring

Security controls

Education

Bachelor’s degree in CS/DS

Tools

Docker

Kubernetes

Git

CI/CD tools

Job description

RWE Americas, LLC To start as soon as possible, full time, permanent

Functional area: IT / Digital Remuneration: Exempt

The Senior AI Engineer I is a hands‑on engineer accountable for end‑to‑end AI capabilities within a product or across multiple products, from design and build through operation in production. Scope includes retrieval and context assembly, model and agentic logic, integration with source systems and consuming applications, monitoring and evaluation, and operational runbook maintenance. Depth is expected in two or three of these capability areas, with working familiarity across the rest.

The role also covers the engineering that makes these capabilities trustworthy in business use. This includes evaluation and regression testing, human‑in‑the‑loop and other AI‑specific security controls, and accountability for inference cost and latency.

The role builds on the shared platform services and reference implementations set by the Principal AI Engineer, within the target‑state architecture set by the Data/AI Platform Architect. It also takes handover of capabilities built by technical delivery partners and maintains them in production.

Role Responsibilities

• Design, build, operate, and own end‑to‑end AI capabilities within a product or across multiple products, spanning retrieval and context assembly; model and agentic logic; integration with source systems and consuming applications (APIs, MCPs, authentication); monitoring and evaluation; and operational runbook maintenance
• Train and evaluate machine learning models for well‑scoped problems such as classification, regression, anomaly detection, clustering, and forecasting, using operational and commercial data. Determine when and how to use ML models versus simpler statistical baselines
• Build retrieval and context pipelines against enterprise content using chunking, tagging, and a metadata strategy. Measure and report retrieval quality against a defined standard
• Design and maintain evaluation for these capabilities, including offline evals, automated scoring such as LLM-as-judge, and regression tests that run on every prompt or pipeline change to ensure quality before release. Monitor quality and drift signals in production
• Own inference cost and latency in production, tracking cost per transaction and end‑to‑end response time, and profiling where that time is spent. Make tradeoffs where needed to stay within agreed targets
• Implement human‑in‑the‑loop and AI‑specific security controls, including shadow and assisted modes, confidence and citation surfaces, override capture, audit trails, identity-scoped retrieval, input and output guardrails, tool permissions, and prompt injection resistance
• Take handover of application components built by technical delivery partners: read the code, close operational gaps, update the runbook, and maintain them in production
• Improve team efficiency by establishing reusable components and reference examples, reviewing code, and onboarding new engineers

Job Requirements and Experiences

• Bachelor’s degree in computer science, data science, another STEM field, or a related discipline required
• Minimum 5 years of relevant experience in software or AI/ML engineering roles, including demonstrated ownership of AI or ML capabilities end to end, from design through operation in a production environment
• Depth in two or three of the capability areas listed under Basic Function, with working familiarity across the rest
• Production experience with Python and SQL, a major cloud platform, version control and code review, containerized deployment, and CI/CD for AI products and services
• Hands‑on experience with current orchestration, agent, and retrieval frameworks
• Practical experience developing ML models for supervised and unsupervised problems
• Experience building and maintaining evaluation and regression testing for AI and ML systems
• Working knowledge of AI‑specific security and responsible AI controls
• Competent use of coding agents and other AI-assisted tooling, including scoping the right tasks for them, reviewing generated code, and recognizing which tasks are a poor fit for delegation
• Experience with IT/OT environments, industrial data sources, or operational technology systems is preferred
• Experience in the power, utilities, or clean energy sector, including knowledge of U.S. power markets, renewable project development, and clean energy technologies, is preferred

Work Environment

This position is an office-based role with some travel and visits to other RWE Americas offices and field locations. The employee must be able to sit, walk, or stand for long durations of time

Applicants must be legally authorized to work in the United States. RWE Americas is unable to sponsor or take over sponsorship of employment visas at this time.

Pay range

The annual base salary range for this position in Illinois is $127,000 - $171,000. The listed salary range represents our good faith estimate for this position and represents the range for new hire salaries across all U.S locations. Please note that the salary information is a general guideline only. RWE considers factors such as (but not limited to) scope and responsibilities of the position, candidate’s education & work experience, training & certifications, and key skills as well as market and business considerations at the time of the offer.

Benefits offered

Medical, Dental, Vision, Life Insurance, Short-Term Disability, Long-Term Disability, 401(k) match, Flexible Spending Accounts, EAP, Education Assistance, Parental Leave, Paid time off, and Holidays. Eligible employees also participate in short-term incentives, in addition to salary.

All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, religion, national origin, disability, veteran status, or other legally protected status.

RWE Americas, a subsidiary of RWE, is a US-based energy company that is helping to meet the growing demand for energy across the United States. Backed by RWE’s 125-year global legacy of managing diverse power assets, RWE Americas operates approximately 13 GW of power projects across 27 states.With a talented workforce of 2,000 employees, RWE Americas develops, constructs and operateswind, solar and battery storage projects, along with natural gas-powered generation, that safely deliver affordable, reliable electricity to our customers. Committed to responsible development, RWE Americas invests in local and rural communities, creating jobs and partnering with stakeholders to support and strengthen the places where we live and work. Learn more about how RWE Americas is generating impact at americas.rwe.com.

At RWE Americas, we foster a culture defined by our Essential Behaviors - Have Courage, Create Impact and Actively Collaborate. We encourage bold thinking and continuous learning, and we value ownership, resilience and inclusion in everything we do. When you join us, you become part of a team that supports your development, respects your contributions and celebrates shared success. This is a place where you can grow your career and make a meaningful difference.