Senior ML Platform Engineer — AI Automation Leader

Appian; Illinois; On-site; USD 175,000 - 325,000; Full time

Job summary

Appian is seeking a Principal ML Platform Engineer to lead the engineering of AI-enabled automation for large enterprises. This role sits at our McLean, VA headquarters, with an in-office expectation five days a week to foster collaboration and sustain our culture of excellence.

You’ll guide cloud-native architecture, drive AI-assisted development, and raise the technical bar across multi-tier platforms, ensuring reliability and performance at scale.

Qualifications

• Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science or related technical field; equivalent experience not accepted.
• 10+ years of software development experience (8+ with MS in CS).
• Expert coding, scripting, and debugging in Java, Python, or Go.
• Deep knowledge of distributed systems and cloud infrastructure.
• Ability to influence engineering practices beyond a single team.
• Experience with AI coding tools and applying AI-generated code in production.
• Proven experience in high-volume, mission-critical production services.
• Excellent communication of complex architectures to diverse audiences.

Responsibilities

• Develop and lead architecture for cloud-native software with AI tooling.
• Drive platform modernization and refactor core codebase.
• Coach engineers and lead technical delivery across multi-tier systems.
• Ensure reliability, performance, and scale of enterprise-grade services.
• Publish high-quality technical content and contribute to documentation.
• Collaborate across teams to shape engineering practices and standards.
• Architect and deliver complex features from scoping to implementation.

Skills

Java

Python

Go

Distributed systems

Cloud infrastructure

AI-Augmented Development

Production mastery

Cross-team influence

Code reviews

Education

Bachelor of Science in Computer Science

Tools

Docker

Kubernetes

CI/CD

AWS

Azure

GCP

Job description

Appian is seeking a Principal ML Platform Engineer to lead the engineering of AI-enabled automation for large enterprises. This role sits at our McLean, VA headquarters, with an in-office expectation five days a week to foster collaboration and sustain our culture of excellence.

You’ll guide cloud-native architecture, drive AI-assisted development, and raise the technical bar across multi-tier platforms, ensuring reliability and performance at scale.