Senior Software Engineer / Senior AI Engineer

Elsevier; New York (NY); On-site; USD 87,000 - 144,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Comprehensive Pension Plan

Generous vacation entitlement and sabb

Maternity, Paternity, Adoption and  -F

Employee Assistance Program (global)

Job summary

Elsevier is seeking a Senior AI Engineer to build AI-powered features within our Embedded Innovation Teams, delivering production-grade agentic solutions aligned with real-world workflows.

You will set technical direction, implement retrieval pipelines and agent workflows, and ensure observability, guardrails, and reusable patterns across functions. Collaboration with host-function stakeholders is essential since the work is embedded in business functions.

Qualifications

• 3+ years in software engineering with hands-on, production experience building LLM-powered applications.
• Experience building RAG pipelines, tool-augmented agents, and agentic workflows.
• Proficiency in Python, Java, TypeScript/JavaScript, SQL and relevant AI SDKs.

Responsibilities

• Build prototypes and ship AI-powered features to production standards within a defined technical approach.
• Implement and test tool use, retrieval pipelines, and agent workflows.
• Contribute to evaluation, observability, and guardrails for agentic systems.
• Integrate AI capabilities into existing enterprise workflows and systems.
• Maintain high code quality and documentation for reuse across functions.

Skills

LLM development

RAG pipelines

Tool-augmented agents

Prompt engineering

Observability

APIs

Python

JavaScript/TypeScript

SQL

Tools

AWS

Azure

GCP

CI/CD

TDD

Job description

Are you excited about building intelligent systems powered by cutting‑edge AI technologies? Do you enjoy designing models that turn complex data into impactful solutions?

About the team:

Embedded Innovation Teams are cross‑functional squads embedded within our segments to rapidly turn internal AI experimentation into validated, reusable solutions, building the capabilities we need to deliver customer value and growth. We work problem-first rather than tool-first, directly inside segment and function teams, improving the internal workflows that help our people deliver better outcomes for customers, faster.

About the role:

As a Senior AI Engineer, you will build and ship AI‑powered features as part of a cross‑functional Innovation Squad, working inside a business function. You will deliver the set technical direction to production standard, working autonomously within a defined problem, building and testing tool use, retrieval pipelines, and agent workflows, integrating AI capabilities into enterprise systems, and contributing to evaluation, observability, and guardrails. You will hold a high bar on code quality, flag risks and blockers early, and work alongside host‑function stakeholders to make sure what you build fits real workflows, not assumed ones. You'll also support handover and capability building so the solution is owned and operable after the squad moves on.

Key Responsibilities:

• Building prototypes and proofs of concept and ship agentic AI solutions to production standards within a defined technical approach.
• Implementing and testing tool use, retrieval pipelines, and agent workflows.
• Contributing to evaluation, observability, and guardrails for agentic systems.
• Integrating AI capabilities into existing enterprise workflows and systems.
• Maintaining high code quality and documentation so patterns can be reused.
• Flagging technical risks and blockers early.
• Interface with technical peers to finalize requirements and complete moderately complex bug fixes.
• Building solutions for reuse, contributing to patterns, reference implementations and starter kits so work done in one function can be picked up by another.
• Implementing solutions to capture outcome data against baselines.
• Work alongside host‑function stakeholders to ensure the build fits real workflows, not assumed ones.
• Supporting handover and capability‑building in the host function so the solution is owned and operable after the squad moves on.

Requirements:

• 3+ years in software engineering, with hands‑on experience building LLM‑powered applications in production (RAG, tool‑augmented agents, or agentic workflows).
• Comfortable working autonomously within a defined problem and pushing back when something doesn't make sense, and delivering in short, time‑boxed cycles where validated outcomes matter more than perfect solutions.
• Building RAG pipelines, tool‑augmented agents, and agentic workflows; familiar with prompt engineering, context management, evaluation, and observability.
• Understands how agents use memory, tools, and retrieval to complete multi‑step tasks.
• Integrating AI into existing systems via APIs and data pipelines.
• AWS, Azure or GCP.
• CI/CD, modern SDLC, TDD and code review.
• Working with relational, columnar and vector stores, grounded in sound data‑modelling principles.
• Python, Java, TypeScript/JavaScript, SQL and relevant AI SDKs.
• Clear written and verbal communication with technical peers and stakeholders.
• Instrumenting solutions to capture usage, productivity and quality metrics against established baselines.

Why Join Us?

Join our team and contribute to a culture of innovation, collaboration, and excellence. If you are ready to advance your career and make a significant impact, we encourage you to apply.

Work in a way that works for you

We promote a healthy work/life balance across the organization. We offer an appealing working prospect for our people. With numerous wellbeing initiatives, shared parental leave, study assistance and sabbaticals, we will help you meet your immediate responsibilities and your long‑term goals. Working flexible hours - flexing the times when you work in the day to help you fit everything in and work when you are the most productive. Working for you. We know that your well‑being and happiness are key to a long and successful career.

Benefits:

• Comprehensive Pension Plan
• Generous vacation entitlement and option for sabbatical leave
• Maternity, Paternity, Adoption and Family Care leave
• Personal Choice budget
• Internal communities and networks
• Various employee discounts
• Recruitment introduction reward
• Employee Assistance Program (global)

U.S. National Base Pay Range: $86,600 - $144,400. Geographic differentials may apply in some locations to better reflect local market rates.

This job is eligible for an annual incentive bonus.

We are committed to providing a fair and accessible hiring process. If you have a disability or other need that requires accommodation or adjustment, please let us know by completing our Applicant Request Support Form or please contact .

We are an equal opportunity employer: qualified applicants are considered for and treated during employment without regard to race, color, creed, religion, sex, national origin, citizenship status, disability status, protected veteran status, age, marital status, sexual orientation, gender identity, genetic information, or any other characteristic protected by law.

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