Senior Staff AI Engineer

Teradata Corporation (SE); Frankfort (KY); On-site; USD 200,000 - 299,000; Full time

Job summary

Teradata is seeking a Senior Staff AI Engineer to lead architecture decisions for Teradata's enterprise AI platform, shaping strategy across agentic AI, LLM platforms, RAG, and vector stores.

You will design and scale production-grade AI systems, partner with product and architecture leadership, and mentor engineers while driving reliability, security, and cost controls across multiple teams.

Qualifications

• 12+ years of backend services, distributed systems, or data/AI platform experience.
• Strong proficiency in Java, Go, or Python with large-scale services experience.
• Deep understanding of distributed system design, scalability, and cloud native architectures.
• Experience designing and operating production systems with SQL and NoSQL data stores.

Responsibilities

• Lead the design and evolution of large-scale, distributed AI systems powering Teradata’s AI platform.
• Own end-to-end architecture for agentic workflows, RAG pipelines, vector search, and AI orchestration.
• Drive technical strategy and architectural consistency across engineering teams.

Skills

Java

Go

Python

Education

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or equivalent practical experience

Tools

Kubernetes

Docker

CI/CD

Job description

About Teradata

At Teradata, we believe that people thrive when empowered with better information. That’s why we build the most complete cloud analytics and data platform for AI. By delivering harmonized data, trusted AI, and faster innovation, we empower the world’s leading enterprises to make confident, data driven decisions at scale.

Role Overview

As a Senior Staff AI Engineer , you will be a senior technical leader responsible for designing, evolving, and scaling Teradata’s enterprise AI platforms and capabilities. This role goes beyond feature delivery—you will own architecture level decisions , influence AI platform strategy , and lead complex initiatives spanning agentic AI, LLM platforms, retrieval augmented generation (RAG), vector stores, and developer facing AI systems.

You will operate with a high degree of autonomy, partner closely with product and architecture leadership, and raise the technical bar across multiple teams.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead the design and evolution of largescale, distributed AI systems that power Teradata’s AI platform and AI native products.
• Own end-to-end architecture for critical AI capabilities such as agentic workflows, RAG pipelines, vector search, semantic retrieval, and AI orchestration frameworks.
• Drive technical strategy and architectural consistency across multiple engineering teams.

AI Systems & Platform Development

• Design and implement production grade AI systems using LLMs, embeddings, vector databases, and agent based architectures.
• Build scalable, secure, and reusable platform services and APIs supporting AI workloads across the software development lifecycle.
• Define and implement guardrails for reliability, safety, governance, and cost control in enterprise AI systems.

Cross Functional Influence

• Partner with product management, architecture, research, and cloud platform teams to translate business requirements into scalable AI solutions.
• Influence roadmap decisions by providing deep technical insight, tradeoff analysis, and long-term platform thinking.
• Act as a technical escalation point for complex system design, performance, and reliability challenges.

Quality, Performance & Operational Excellence

• Drive best practices for testing, observability, evaluation, and production readiness of AI systems.
• Identify systemic performance bottlenecks and lead efforts to optimize distributed systems and AI pipelines.
• Establish engineering standards that improve development velocity, quality, and operational resilience.

Mentorship & Org Level Impact

• Mentor Senior and Staff level engineers, providing guidance on architecture, design reviews, and technical decision making.
• Raise the overall engineering bar through design forums, technical reviews, and knowledge sharing.
• Lead by example through hands on contributions to the most complex and business critical problems.

Required Qualifications (Non negotiable)

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or equivalent practical experience.
• 12+ years of experience building backend services, distributed systems, or data/AI platforms.
• Strong proficiency in Java, Go, or Python , with experience building largescale services.
• Deep understanding of distributed system design, scalability, fault tolerance, and cloud native architectures.
• Proven experience designing and operating production systems with SQL and NoSQL data stores .

Preferred / Differentiating Skills

• Experience with LLMs , embeddings, vector databases, and AI orchestration frameworks.
• Exposure to agentic AI patterns such as tool calling, planning, memory, and multi-step reasoning.
• Experience building or operating AI systems in cloud environments (AWS, Azure, or GCP).
• Familiarity with Kubernetes, Docker, CI/CD pipelines, and production-grade observability.

Why We Think You'll Love Teradata

We prioritize a people-first culture because we know our people are at the very heart of our success. We embrace a flexible work model because we trust our people to make decisions about how, when, and where they work. We focus on well-being because we care about our people and their ability to thrive both personally and professionally. We are committed to actively working to foster an inclusive environment that celebrates people for all of who they are.

#LI-SK1

Teradata is proud to be an equal opportunity employer. We do not discriminate based upon race, color, ancestry, religion, creed, sex (including pregnancy, childbirth, breastfeeding, or related conditions), national origin, sexual orientation, age, citizenship, marital status, disability, medical condition, genetic information, gender identity or expression, military and veteran status, or any other legally protected status. We welcome and encourage individuals from all backgrounds to apply and join our team, bringing their unique perspectives and experiences to help us innovate and grow. If you require accommodations during the interview process, please let your recruiter know and we will work with you to meet your needs.

Pay Rate: 199500.0000 - 249400.0000 - 299300.0000 Annually

Starting pay for the successful applicant will depend on geographic location, internal equity, job-related knowledge, skills, and candidate experience. Sales roles will be eligible for commission payments tied to quota achievement. All other permanent roles will be eligible for one of our annual incentive plans, which are based on company financial attainment and individual performance. Employees in this position are eligible to participate in the Company’s benefits programs, which generally include health care, life and disability insurance, retirement savings, and time-off programs. Benefit details vary by country and plan, including eligibility and available options, and will be shared during the hiring process. Additional information is available here: https://www.teradata.com/About-Us/Careers/Benefits

Employees in this position are also eligible to participate in the Company’s comprehensive benefits programs, which include healthcare, life and disability insurance plans, a 401(k)-retirement savings plan, and time-off programs. Specific details of these benefits, including eligibility criteria and plan options, will be provided during the hiring process and can be reviewed here: https://www.teradata.com/About-Us/Careers/Benefits