Senior Associate, AI Deployment and Production - Data & Technology Solutions

stepstone.fr; San Diego (CA); On-site; USD 126,000 - 154,000; Full time

Job summary

StepStone is seeking a Senior Associate for AI Deployment & Production in San Diego. You will own the productionization framework for AI solutions, including a robust Python package API, async orchestration, and REST endpoints.

You’ll apply C/C++/Rust to optimize performance and lead migrations from PHP to faster implementations. You will mentor engineers, review code quality, and collaborate with QA and DevOps to ensure reliable, scalable systems.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent practical experience in CS/Engineering or quantitative field.
• 6+ years of software/data engineering experience with production ownership or leadership.
• Expert Python: idiomatic, well-structured code, testing and packaging discipline.
• Production experience with Celery, Flask services, and SQLAlchemy data modeling.
• Proficiency in a low-level language (C, C++, or Rust) for optimization.
• Experience leading code reviews and mentoring teams.
• Strong communication and Jira coordination.

Responsibilities

• Review AI research projects and improve Python code design.
• Build production framework for AI solutions with a clean API and REST endpoints.
• Translate research code to scalable, reliable production.
• Apply low-level languages to optimize performance-critical paths as needed.
• Lead optimization of PHP workloads where applicable.
• Coordinate testing and acceptance with QA and implement monitoring for AI pipelines.
• Contribute to shared frameworks and DevOps workflows.
• Mentor analysts and associates and review AI/engineering work.

Skills

Python

Production ownership

Technical leadership

C/C++/Rust

Flask

SQLAlchemy

Code review

JIRA coordination

Education

Bachelor’s degree in Computer science/Engineering or equivalent

Tools

Celery

Flask

SQLAlchemy

Kubernetes

GitHub Actions

Job description

We are global private markets specialists delivering tailored investment solutions, advisory services, and impactful, data driven insights to the world’s investors. Leveraging the power of our platform and our peerless intelligence across sectors, strategies, and geographies, we help identify the advantages and the answers our clients need to succeed.

Position Overview:

The Senior Associate, AI Deployment & Production will be a senior member of the Applied Engineering Solutions team within StepStone’s DATS department. This person is an expert Python engineer who helps the AI research team write better code and brings their work to robust production. They own the productionization framework around AI solutions — a clean, well-designed package API, async orchestrators (Celery or equivalent), sensible REST endpoints, and the data models the solution requires — and review AI projects to raise code quality. The role also carries low-level language depth (C, C++, or Rust) used for optimization, including rewriting performance-critical paths and migrating business logic out of the firm’s PHP systems into faster implementations. This role suits an engineer who is equally strong at software design, productionization, and performance work.

Essential Job Functions:

• Review AI research projects and raise the quality of their Python code design (module/class/function structure, typing, testing, packaging)
• Build out the production framework for AI solutions: a well-designed package/library API, async scalable orchestrators, coherent REST endpoints, and the data models the solution requires
• Take research and prototype AI code to scalable, reliable production, owning quality and standards before release
• Apply low-level language skills (C, C++, or Rust) to optimize performance-critical paths as needed
• Lead optimization of the firm’s PHP workloads: implement low-level alternatives where warranted, or re-architect so Python (or a low-level service) owns the business logic and PHP simply calls it
• Partner with QA to define and meet testing and acceptance goals; build monitoring and validation around AI pipelines
• Contribute to shared frameworks (private PyPI/polyrepo packaging) and DevOps (GitHub Actions, Helm-based deployment)
• Mentor analysts and associates and act as a senior reviewer for AI and engineering work

Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer science, Engineering, a quantitative field, or equivalent practical experience
• 6+ years of software/data engineering experience, including production ownership and demonstrable technical leadership or mentorship
• Expert Python: idiomatic, well-structured code (modules/classes/functions), strong testing and packaging discipline, and hands-on experience taking research/prototype code to scalable production
• Production experience with Celery (or comparable async/distributed task orchestration), Flask (or similar) services, and SQLAlchemy (or comparable ORM) data modeling
• Working proficiency in at least one low-level language (C, C++, or Rust) for performance optimization
• Demonstrated ability to lead code review and own quality for a team — not just individual deliverables
• Strong communication skills; comfortable partnering with research teams and owning JIRA coordination

Other Knowledge, Skills and Abilities:

• AI engineering experience: ETL and RAG pipelines, LLM API integration, document extraction
• Experience profiling and optimizing performance-critical code, and interfacing low-level code with Python (e.g., bindings/extensions)
• Familiarity with PHP
• Familiarity with Kubernetes and GitHub Actions (or comparable CI/CD)
• Familiarity with finance, private markets, or investment data domains

Salary Range: $140,000

The salary range is an estimate of pay for this position. Actual pay may vary depending on job-related factors that can include location, education, skill, and experience. The salary range does not include any benefits or other forms of possible compensation that may be available to employees.

#LI-Hybrid

At StepStone, we believe that our people are our most important asset and crucial to our success. We are an Equal Opportunity Employer that strives to create an environment that empowers our employees and allows them to be heard, regardless of title or tenure. Our organizational community features multiple Employment Resource Groups as well as mentorship programs to enhance the employee experience for all.

As an Equal Opportunity Employer, StepStone does not discriminate on the basis of race, creed, color, religion, sex, national origin, citizenship status, age, disability, marital status, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, genetic information or any other characteristic protected by law.

Candidates must be at least 18 years old to apply.