Senior AI Operations Engineer (Senior Software Engineer)

Vizient, Inc.; Chicago (IL); On-site; USD 102,000 - 179,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Incentive eligible

Job summary

Vizient, Inc. is seeking an experienced backend/infra engineer to design, build, and operate scalable services and platform components for AI/ML applications. You’ll collaborate with AI/ML engineers and data scientists to productionize models, pipelines, and data workflows.

The role emphasizes IaC, cloud deployments, observability, and performance optimization across the AI/ML team. Strong Python skills and cloud tooling are essential for success.

Qualifications

• Strong Python development for production backend services.
• Hands-on IaC with Pulumi or Terraform on AWS/Azure/GCP.
• Experience with Docker, CI/CD, Kubernetes, and cloud deployment practices.

Responsibilities

• Design, develop, and maintain backend services, APIs, and platform components for AI/ML apps.
• Build scalable cloud infrastructure with Pulumi and CI/CD pipelines.
• Support production deployment of ML models, LLM apps, RAG pipelines, and agentic AI systems.

Skills

Python development

Analytical problem solving

Cross-functional collaboration

Ownership & adaptability

Education

Bachelor's degree or higher

Tools

Pulumi

Terraform

Docker

Kubernetes

CI/CD

Databricks

Azure AI Foundry

Job description

Summary:

In this role, you will design and build scalable backend systems, cloud infrastructure, and platform capabilities that power AI/ML products and applications. You will partner closely with AI/ML engineers, data scientists, and cross-functional teams to productionize LLM applications, RAG pipelines, and agentic AI workflows. You will leverage modern cloud technologies, infrastructure-as-code practices, and AI-assisted development tools to deliver reliable, secure, and maintainable solutions that accelerate innovation across the AI/ML team while helping establish engineering standards, reusable platform patterns, and operational best practices.

Responsibilities:

• Design, develop, and maintain backend services, APIs, and platform components that support AI/ML applications and distributed systems.
• Build scalable cloud infrastructure using Pulumi and modern infrastructure-as-code practices while developing CI/CD pipelines, deployment workflows, and containerized cloud environments.
• Support production deployment of ML models, LLM applications, RAG pipelines, and agentic AI systems while collaborating with AI/ML engineers to productionize model serving, inference pipelines, and data workflows.
• Enhance observability through monitoring, logging, tracing, alerting, and incident management practices to improve operational reliability and system performance.
• Implement engineering standards for testing, code quality, security, maintainability, scalability, latency optimization, and cost efficiency.
• Define reusable platform patterns, developer tooling, and engineering workflows that improve developer productivity and operational consistency across the AI/ML team.
• Evaluate emerging AI engineering trends, AI-assisted development tools, and modern software practices to drive continuous improvement and innovation.
• Partner with product, security, data, and platform teams to deliver production-ready AI solutions while contributing to architectural discussions and long-term platform strategy.
• Troubleshoot complex production issues, perform root cause analysis, and drive remediation efforts to improve system stability and reliability.
• Mentor engineers through technical collaboration, code reviews, knowledge sharing, and engineering best practices.

Qualifications:

• Relevant degree preferred.
• 5 or more years of relevant experience required.
• Strong Python development experience with expertise building production backend services, APIs, distributed systems, and cloud-based applications required.
• Hands-on experience with Pulumi, Terraform, or other infrastructure-as-code tools along with cloud platforms such as AWS, Azure, or GCP required.
• Experience with Docker, CI/CD pipelines, infrastructure automation, container orchestration, Kubernetes, serverless architectures, and cloud deployment practices preferred.
• Knowledge of observability tools, monitoring, logging, tracing, alerting frameworks, and production support practices.
• Familiarity with ML/AI systems, model serving, LLM applications, inference pipelines, RAG workflows, data pipelines, or related AI platform technologies.
• Experience with Databricks, Azure AI Foundry, or similar AI/ML platform technologies preferred.
• Strong analytical, troubleshooting, problem-solving, verbal communication, and written communication skills with the ability to collaborate across technical and business teams.
• Ability to operate effectively in fast-paced, evolving environments with a high level of ownership, accountability, and adaptability.

Estimated Hiring Range:

At Vizient, we consider skills, experience, and organizational needs in our compensation approach. Geographic factors may adjust the range estimate and hires typically fall below the top range. Compensation decisions are tailored to individual circumstances. The current salary range for this role is $102,400.00 to $179,000.00.

This position is also incentive eligible.

Equal Opportunity Employer: Females/Minorities/Veterans/Individuals with Disabilities

Vizient has a comprehensive benefits plan! Please view our benefits here:

about-us/careers

The Company is committed to equal employment opportunity to all employees and applicants without regard to race, religion, color, gender identity, ethnicity, age, national origin, sexual orientation, disability status, veteran status or any other category protected by applicable law.