Senior AI Engineer_Tempe, AZ

Photon; United States; Hybrid; USD 56,000 - 196,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical, vision, dental benefits

401k retirement plan

Paid time off

Job summary

Photon seeks a Senior AI Engineer to design, build, and operate Tulip and related AI platform capabilities. You will contribute to architecture, standards, and mentor peers through design discussions and code reviews.

The ideal candidate has deep technical execution experience with AI-enabled systems, cloud platforms, and secure, scalable production services, working across multiple workstreams in a hybrid Tempe environment.

Qualifications

• 8+ years of professional software engineering experience with increasing responsibility for architecture, platform delivery, or complex enterprise systems.
• Hands-on experience designing and delivering production-grade applications, APIs, integrations, and distributed services.
• Strong proficiency in Python and modern software engineering practices such as automated testing, code review, and maintainable design.
• Experience with AI-enabled systems, including large language models, retrieval-augmented generation, agent or workflow orchestration patterns, model integration, evaluation, and responsible AI guardrails.
• Experience with cloud platforms such as Azure, AWS, or GCP, including containerization and infrastructure as code (Docker, Kubernetes, Terraform, Helm), CI/CD, observability, and operational support for production services.
• Experience translating business and product objectives into technical designs and executable engineering work.
• Demonstrated ability to contribute to technical design decisions, mentor less experienced engineers, and work effectively across multiple workstreams.
• Experience securing enterprise services and AI integrations, including OAuth 2.0 and OpenID Connect, secrets management, and automated security scanning in CI/CD.
• Strong communication skills with the ability to explain complex technical decisions to engineering, product, and business stakeholders.
• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Information Systems, or related field preferred, or equivalent practical experience.

Responsibilities

• Design, build, and operate Tulip and related AI platform capabilities.
• Drive architecture decisions and contribute to engineering standards.
• Mentor peers through design discussions and code reviews.
• Translate business objectives into technical designs and executable work.
• Collaborate across workstreams to deliver secure, scalable AI solutions.

Skills

AI platform architecture

LLM & RAG workflows

API & data integration

Containers & Kubernetes

Python & cloud-native engineering

Security & AI governance

Mentorship & collaboration

Production readiness & SLOs

Code reviews & testing

Education

Bachelor's degree in CS/Engineering or related field

Tools

Azure

AWS

GCP

Docker

Kubernetes

Terraform

Helm

Job description

Position Overview

Client is investing in enterprise AI capabilities to accelerate delivery, enable self-service technology, and help teams solve meaningful business problems faster. Tulip is a strategic AI platform that provides reusable patterns, tools, and services to make AI-enabled solution delivery easier, safer, and more scalable across the organization.

The Senior AI Engineer - Tulip Platform is a hands‑on role responsible for designing, building, and operating Tulip and related AI platform capabilities. The focus is deep technical execution: contributing to architecture and engineering standards, and mentoring peers through design discussion and code review.

The ideal candidate is a pragmatic builder and strong technical partner who can navigate ambiguity, uphold clear technical standards, and consistently deliver high‑quality AI solutions aligned to business priorities.

Job Qualifications

• 8+ years of professional software engineering experience with increasing responsibility for architecture, platform delivery, or complex enterprise systems.


• Hands‑on experience designing and delivering production‑grade applications, APIs, integrations, and distributed services.


• Strong proficiency in Python and modern software engineering practices such as automated testing, code review, and maintainable design.


• Experience with AI‑enabled systems, including large language models, retrieval‑augmented generation, agent or workflow orchestration patterns, model integration, evaluation, and responsible AI guardrails.


• Experience with cloud platforms such as Azure, AWS, or GCP, including containerization and infrastructure as code (Docker, Kubernetes, Terraform, Helm), CI/CD, observability, and operational support for production services.


• Experience translating business and product objectives into technical designs and executable engineering work.


• Demonstrated ability to contribute to technical design decisions, mentor less experienced engineers, and work effectively across multiple workstreams.


• Experience securing enterprise services and AI integrations, including OAuth 2.0 and OpenID Connect, secrets management, and automated security scanning in CI/CD.


• Strong communication skills with the ability to explain complex technical decisions to engineering, product, and business stakeholders.


• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Information Systems, or related field preferred, or equivalent practical experience.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience building internal developer platforms, enterprise AI platforms, automation frameworks, or reusable engineering accelerators.


• Experience with Azure AI, Azure OpenAI, Microsoft Fabric, Databricks, vector databases, semantic search, prompt orchestration, or agentic AI frameworks.


• Experience with enterprise AI governance, model and prompt auditability, and responsible AI controls in a compliance‑sensitive environment.


• Experience enabling citizen development, self‑service workflows, or governed low‑code/no‑code solution delivery.


• Experience working in retail, restaurant, ecommerce, loyalty, finance, supply chain, or high‑volume enterprise environments.


• Experience partnering with product managers, business analysts, forward deployed engineers, and enterprise architects to move ideas from discovery to delivery.

Skills

• AI platform architecture and engineering execution


• LLM, RAG, agentic workflows, vector search, AI evaluation, multi‑model integration, and agent interoperability patterns


• API, integration, eventing, and data architecture


• Containers, Kubernetes, and infrastructure as code


• Python, SQL, cloud‑native engineering, and secure service design


• Spec‑driven development and AI‑augmented engineering workflows


• Technical sequencing, dependency awareness, and predictable delivery


• Engineering standards, design reviews, and code quality


• Production readiness, service reliability, SLOs, incident response, and cost awareness


• Peer mentorship, cross‑team collaboration, and stakeholder communication

Key Result Areas (KRAs)

These KRAs describe the primary outcomes expected from this role and how success will be evaluated.

Platform Architecture and Engineering

Expected Outcomes:Contribute to Tulip architecture, patterns, and technical standards so the platform can scale securely and reliably across enterprise use cases.

Example Measures:Architecture decisions, reusable patterns, design quality, platform stability

AI Capability Delivery

Expected Outcomes:Deliver AI platform capabilities hands‑on, including orchestration, RAG, agents, integrations, evaluation, observability, and production support patterns.

Example Measures:Delivered capabilities, production readiness, adoption by solution teams

Technical Collaboration and Roadmap Contribution

Expected Outcomes:Collaborate with engineers across workstreams, surface dependencies and risks early, and deliver assigned roadmap commitments predictably.

Example Measures:Roadmap visibility, delivery predictability, blocker resolution

Engineering Excellence

Expected Outcomes:Apply and help improve practices for secure, maintainable, testable, observable, and cost‑conscious engineering execution.

Example Measures:Code quality, testing coverage, operational health, defect reduction

Engineering Practices and Knowledge Sharing

Expected Outcomes:Contribute to documentation, design discussions, and knowledge sharing that strengthen how the team builds and operates AI solutions.

Example Measures:Improved team clarity, stronger handoffs, repeatable delivery practices

Business Alignment and Value Realization

Expected Outcomes:Translate strategic AI objectives into technical outcomes that enable self‑service solution delivery and measurable business value.

Example Measures:Stakeholder alignment, use case enablement, business impact tracking

Ways of Working

This role is a hands‑on individual contributor with no people management responsibility. The Senior AI Engineer contributes to technical decisions, supports roadmap execution through their own delivery, mentors less experienced engineers, and models practices that improve quality, velocity, and consistency. Success requires deep technical execution paired with clear communication across product, architecture, engineering, and business partners.

Location Requirement

Location expectations should be confirmed through the People and Talent process. Draft assumption: Tempe, Arizona / hybrid, aligned to currentClientin‑office guidance.

Physical Requirements / Work Environment

This position primarily operates in a professional office or remote work environment and routinely uses standard office equipment. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

Compensation, Benefits and Duration

Minimum Compensation: USD 56,000
Maximum Compensation: USD 196,000
Compensation is based on actual experience and qualifications of the candidate. The above is a reasonable and a good faith estimate for the role.
Medical, vision, and dental benefits, 401k retirement plan, variable pay/incentives, paid time off, and paid holidays are available for full time employees.
This position is available for independent contractors
No applications will be considered if received more than 120 days after the date of this post