Senior AI/ML Engineer (Generative AI Specialist)

• You want to make tomorrow better than today. 
• You have a passion for high-speed security and you care about risk management over compliance.
• You believe the biggest vulnerability in any system is time. You live to securely reduce cycle time.
• You enjoy daily decision making and real product delivery.
• You help ensure project success and client satisfaction. 
• You enjoy collaborative teams, pairing with team members, and inviting your clients to participate. 
• You like to work alongside, and learn from, lean and agile leaders. 
• You are a creative problem solver who is comfortable with uncertainty.
• You’re a curious and keen learner who thrives on enhancing your (and our) practices and knowledge.

As a Senior AI/ML Engineer at Rise8, you will be the cornerstone of our client's push into applied Generative AI. This is not a research role; it is a deeply technical, hands-on engineering position focused on delivering "outcomes in prod." You will apply your deep experience in building secure, scalable enterprise systems to the new frontier of Large Language Models. You will lead the design and implementation of a production-grade AI platform, building the reusable processes and scalable architecture that will enable enterprise-wide adoption. The ideal candidate is a master engineer who sees documentation and guidelines not as a deliverable, but as a necessary artifact of building something that lasts.

• Architect and Build Production AI Systems: Lead the end-to-end design, build, and deployment of a secure, scalable Generative AI platform on enterprise container platforms like OpenShift, integrating open-source LLMs and internal data sources using Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) architecture.
• Implement an Evaluation-First MLOps Lifecycle: Engineer a robust, "reusable process" for deploying and managing LLMs. This includes building CI/CD-style pipelines for phased rollouts, creating "golden" datasets for benchmarking, and implementing an Evaluation-Driven Development (EDD) process to continuously measure model accuracy, safety, and performance.
• Codify and Scale Excellence: Develop the definitive prompt engineering guidelines and architectural patterns for the enterprise. You won't just write documents; you will codify the learnings from your production deployments into clear, actionable playbooks and templates that empower other teams.
• Drive Technical Innovation: Conduct hands-on research of open-source models (e.g., Llama, Mistral), vector databases, and frameworks (e.g., LangChain, LlamaIndex). You will provide expert recommendations based on practical, proof-of-concept evaluations to ensure we are using the best tools for the job.
• Embody Senior Engineering Leadership: As a Level 6 engineer, you will exemplify Rise8's core values. You will proactively solve complex problems, mentor other engineers, and communicate compelling technical narratives to both developers and stakeholders, ensuring your work aligns with business objectives and delivers tangible value.

• Core Experience: 7-10 years of professional experience designing, building, and deploying secure, scalable enterprise applications, including at least 2 years of recent, hands-on experience working directly with Large Language Models and MLOps principles.
• Expert-Level Engineering: Demonstrated mastery of Python and its production ecosystem (e.g., FastAPI, Flask). You have a history of building robust APIs and services.
• Hands-On LLM & RAG Experience: Proven, practical experience building applications with LLM orchestration frameworks (LangChain, LlamaIndex) and an understanding of the underlying architecture, including hands-on work with Vector Databases (e.g., Pinecone, ChromaDB, Weaviate).
• DevSecOps & MLOps Mindset: Strong familiarity with modern DevSecOps principles and experience adapting them to the Machine Learning lifecycle. You must have experience with containerization (Docker, Kubernetes) and CI/CD pipelines. Experience with enterprise container platforms (OpenShift, Tanzu, or similar) is a significant plus.
• An Evaluation-First Approach: You believe that testing is the foundation of quality. You have experience with Test-Driven Development (TDD) and a deep understanding of how to apply that mindset to AI through Evaluation-Driven Development (EDD).
• Problem-Solving and Communication: You are a natural systems thinker who can articulate the root cause of complex problems and translate insights into robust solutions. You can independently present complex technical ideas to diverse audiences.
• Clearance: Ability to obtain a security clearance for US Government work.

• Experience with MLOps tooling such as MLFlow, Kubeflow, or Weights & Biases.
• Experience working directly with government clients, especially within a DoD "Software Factory."
• A portfolio of personal AI projects (e.g., on GitHub) or contributions to open-source AI projects.
• Experience training, mentoring, or upskilling other engineers.

The annual salary range for this role as it is posted is $173,533 - $208,239 regardless of final candidate location within the United States. The final job level and annual salary will be determined based on the education, qualification, knowledge, skills, ability, and experience of the final candidate(s), and calibrated against relevant market data and internal team equity. 

• Flexible schedule in a 100% distributed workforce 
• Premium Insurance: We cover up to 100% of the employee premium and up to 80% of the combined dependent premium on our base health plan, depending on pay band. We also cover 100% of the premium for employee and dependent Dental and Vision as well as employee premiums for Life and Disability coverage.
• Retirement: 401k match at 10% gross pay.
• Paid time off (PTO): 4 weeks combined accrued vacation and sick leave, 11 Federal holidays, your birthday, jury duty, and bereavement.
• Education & Training: Accrued budget of up to $3,500 per year for classes, travel, events, and materials.
• Home Office and Merch: We offer $750 per year for home office technology and equipment as well as $100 per year for Rise8 merch from our Swag Store.
• Wellness Budget: To encourage and support a well-rounded healthy lifestyle, we cover 100% reimbursement on a variety of wellness activities and products, up to $500 per calendar year. Or Rise8 is part of the the Life Time Corporate Partner program. In lieu of your $500 annual wellness benefit, you can instead get a $75 monthly credit towards a Life Time membership ($900 annual benefit).
• Equipment: We offer a MacBook Pro