Sr AI/ML Engineer

Vizient, Inc.; Chicago (IL); On-site; USD 102,400 - 179,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Incentive eligible

Benefits plan

Job summary

Vizient, Inc. is seeking an experienced AI/ML Engineer to design, build, and deploy scalable AI and ML solutions.

You will own the full AI lifecycle—from experimentation to production—developing traditional ML models and LLM-powered systems such as RAG pipelines and agentic workflows. You will lead cross-functional collaboration to translate complex problems into reliable, high-performing solutions aligned with client needs, with a strong emphasis on ownership, governance, and cutting-edge

Qualifications

• Advanced degree preferred.
• 5+ years of relevant experience required.
• Experience deploying ML models to production.
• Experience building LLM-powered apps such as RAG systems and agentic workflows.
• Strong Python production-grade software engineering practices.

Responsibilities

• Lead design, development, and deployment of ML models and LLM-based applications.
• Translate business challenges into scalable AI solutions with KPIs.
• Design and implement RAG pipelines, embedding strategies, and vector search.
• Build agentic workflows and prompt strategies for LLM systems.
• Own AI/ML solutions end-to-end from scoping to production.
• Evaluate model and LLM performance with automated and human-in-the-loop methods.
• Optimize AI systems for latency, cost, and scalability.
• Architect and maintain CI/CD, MLOps pipelines, and deployment strategies.
• Implement monitoring, drift detection, retraining pipelines, and model lifecycle management.
• Design and maintain production-grade data pipelines with validation and lineage.
• Mentor team members and promote responsible AI governance.
• Stay current with AI/ML advancements and integrate innovations.

Skills

Python

LLM

RAG

CI/CD

MLOps

Vector databases

API development

FastAPI

LangChain

LlamaIndex

Education

Advanced degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Data Science, or related field

5+ years of relevant experience

Tools

FastAPI

MLflow

Job description

Summary:

In this role, you will design, build, and deploy scalable AI and machine learning solutions that drive business impact. You will lead the full AI lifecycle from experimentation through production, developing both traditional ML models and Large Language Model (LLM)-powered systems such as Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) pipelines and agentic workflows. You will collaborate across teams to translate complex problems into reliable, high-performing solutions aligned with client needs. We are seeking engineers who are driven, curious, and energized by the pace of AI innovation, bringing emerging tools and techniques into practical, production-ready systems while taking ownership and helping shape the next generation of AI capabilities.

Responsibilities:

• Lead the design, development, and deployment of machine learning models and LLM-based applications.
• Translate business challenges into scalable AI solutions and define success metrics aligned with business KPIs.
• Design and implement RAG pipelines, embedding strategies, and vector search architectures.
• Build agentic workflows, prompt strategies, and orchestration patterns for LLM systems.
• Own AI/ML solutions end to end, from scoping and design through implementation, deployment, and operationalization, with a high degree of autonomy.
• Evaluate model and LLM performance using automated and human-in-the-loop methods while implementing guardrails and monitoring.
• Optimize AI systems for latency, cost, scalability, and reliability.
• Architect and maintain scalable deployment strategies, CI/CD pipelines, and MLOps workflows.
• Implement monitoring, drift detection, retraining pipelines, and model lifecycle management practices.
• Design and maintain production-grade data pipelines ensuring validation, lineage, and reproducibility.
• Mentor team members, influence AI architecture decisions, and promote responsible AI governance.
• Stay current with advancements in AI/ML, including LLMs, agentic systems, tooling, and applied best practices, and integrate relevant innovations into team solutions.

Qualifications:

• Relevant degree preferred. Advanced degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Data Science, or a related field is a plus.
• 5 or more years of relevant experience required.
• Experience in ML engineering, applied AI, or related fields preferred.
• Experience deploying machine learning models into production environments required.
• Experience building and deploying LLM-powered applications such as RAG systems, Agentic workflows required.
• Strong Python expertise and production-grade software engineering practices required.
• Experience with model serving frameworks and API development (e.g., FastAPI, MLflow, etc.) required.
• Experience with vector databases and embedding workflows required.
• Familiarity with orchestration frameworks such as LangChain, LlamaIndex, or similar tools required.
• Experience with CI/CD pipelines, containerization, and cloud-based deployment environments required.
• Strong understanding of evaluation methodologies for both predictive ML and LLM systems required.
• Experience building AI/ML systems in startup, high-growth, or large-scale enterprise environments, with a track record of applying learned best practices to improve team standards and delivery maturity, preferred.
• Experience designing AI platforms or reusable AI templates preferred.
• Familiarity with model monitoring frameworks and evaluation tooling for LLM systems preferred.
• Experience working in regulated or high-compliance environments preferred.
• Experience optimizing cost and performance for large-scale inference workloads preferred.
• Experience fine-tuning or adapting foundation models preferred.

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.

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

http://www.vizientinc.com/about-us/careers

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

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.