Senior AI Engineer (Java)

Zohorecruit; St. Louis (MO); On-site; USD 140,000 - 190,000; Full time

Job summary

ITTConnect seeks a Senior AI Engineer (JAVA) to architect and deliver scalable LLM and NLP solutions for high-volume customer interactions. You will drive backend design, architecture reviews, and engineering best practices within a global telecom-focused client context.

The role emphasizes production-grade AI integration, cross-functional collaboration, and mentoring of junior offshore engineers, with a focus on scalable, secure, and observable Java services.

Qualifications

• 10+ years of software/engineering experience.
• Backend development in Java.
• Spring Boot, REST APIs, and microservices experience.
• Experience with Kafka or similar messaging tech.
• Practical AI/ML capabilities in production apps.
• NLP use cases such as text classification or clustering.
• Experience integrating ML/LLM capabilities with enterprise apps.
• Strong SQL and relational database experience.
• CI/CD, security, monitoring, and production support.
• Strong communication and cross-functional collaboration skills.

Responsibilities

• Design and develop scalable backend applications and services using Java and Spring Boot.
• Build event-driven and distributed services using Kafka, REST APIs, and microservices architecture.
• Integrate NLP, machine learning, and LLM capabilities into Java-based applications.
• Build or integrate NLP solutions for text classification, clustering, and intent detection.
• Perform data analysis and data validation using SQL.
• Design and deploy LLM workflows including prompt engineering and RAG.
• Develop integrations between Java and Python AI/ML components.
• Contribute to agentic AI workflows supporting multistep interactions and tool execution.
• Apply production engineering practices for scalability, resiliency, security, testing and monitoring.
• Contribute to LLMOps and MLOps practices across deployment and lifecycle.

Skills

Java backend

Spring Boot

REST APIs

Microservices

Kafka

NLP

LLM

SQL

AI/ML in production

CI/CD

Security

Monitoring

Cross-functional collaboration

Tools

Docker

Kubernetes

Kafka

Job description

Saint Louis, United States | Posted on 09/01/2026

• Industry 11 - IT Services / Consulting / Technology / Telecom

ITTConnect is seeking an experienced Senior AI Engineer (JAVA) to work for a client that is a global leader in consulting, digital transformation, technology and engineering services present in nearly 50 countries. End client is in the telecom industry.

Job location : Saint Louis, MO.

We are seeking a highly experienced senior AI Engineer, designing scalable LLM and NLP solutions for high-volume customer interactions. This role will drive architecture, best practices, and innovation across voice AI systems.

Key Responsibilities:

Design and develop scalable backend applications and services using Java and Spring Boot.

Build event-driven and distributed services using Kafka, REST APIs, and microservices architecture.

Integrate NLP, machine learning, and LLM capabilities into Java-based enterprise applications.

Build or integrate NLP solutions for text classification, clustering, intent detection, and related use cases.

Perform data analysis and data validation using SQL.

Design and deploy LLM workflows involving prompt engineering, evaluation, and Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG).

Develop integrations between Java applications and Python-based AI/ML or model-serving services when appropriate.

Contribute to agentic AI workflows supporting multistep interactions, tool execution, validation, and workflow orchestration.

Apply production engineering practices covering scalability, resiliency, security, testing, monitoring, and performance optimization.

Contribute to LLMOps and MLOps practices, including evaluation, monitoring, versioning, deployment, and lifecycle management.

Collaborate with AI/ML, product, platform, data, and DevOps teams.

Participate in architecture reviews, code reviews, technical planning, and production support.

Mentor junior and offshore engineers and promote engineering best practices.

Requirements

10+ years of total technology or software-engineering experience.

Strong hands-on backend development experience using Java.

Strong experience with Spring Boot, REST APIs, and microservices.

Experience with Kafka or comparable event-driven messaging technologies.

Practical experience implementing or integrating AI/ML capabilities in production applications.

Experience with NLP use cases such as text classification or clustering.

Experience integrating machine learning models, NLP services, or LLM-based capabilities with enterprise applications.

Hands-on experience with LLM concepts and solutions, including:

LLM evaluation

Retrieval-Augmented Generation

Strong SQL and relational-database experience.

Experience with software testing, CI/CD, security, monitoring, and production support.

Strong communication and cross-functional collaboration skills.

Preferred Qualifications

Experience with agentic AI or multi-agent orchestration.

Experience with LLMOps or MLOps in production environments.

Cloud experience with AWS, Azure, or Google Cloud Platform.

Experience with Docker and Kubernetes.

Experience integrating Java services with Python-based AI/ML components.

Experience with vector databases and semantic search.

Familiarity with voice AI, IVR, conversational AI, intent detection, or call-routing systems. Voice and IVR experience are preferred but not required.

Experience mentoring distributed, offshore, or junior engineering teams.