Role description

AI Application Engineer / Lead

Lead I - ML Engineering

UST is searching for an experienced AI Application Engineer / Lead to design, build, and deploy enterprise-grade AI applications that transform engineering, R&D, manufacturing, and knowledge management processes.

The opportunity:
• AI Application Development

o Design, develop, and deploy enterprise AI applications powered by Large Language Models (LLMs) and foundation models.

o Build scalable Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) solutions leveraging enterprise knowledge repositories.

o Develop AI-powered copilots, assistants, and intelligent automation solutions.

o Design REST APIs and backend services for AI model integration.
• Agentic AI & AI Engineering

o Build autonomous and human-in-the-loop AI agent architectures.

o Design planning, reasoning, tool-calling, memory management, and workflow orchestration capabilities.

o Develop multi-agent systems for complex enterprise workflows.

o Fine-tune, evaluate, optimize, and monitor AI models for production use.

o Implement prompt engineering, evaluation frameworks, and AI observability.
• Platform & Cloud Engineering

o Build reusable AI platform components and enterprise AI frameworks.

o Deploy AI applications on Microsoft Azure (preferred) or AWS.

o Integrate vector databases, enterprise search platforms, and cloud AI services.

o Ensure scalability, reliability, security, and performance of AI solutions.
• Technical Leadership

o Lead solution architecture and technical design discussions.

o Mentor junior engineers and establish AI engineering best practices.

o Collaborate with Product, Engineering, R&D, and business stakeholders to deliver AI-driven business solutions.

o Drive adoption of reusable AI frameworks across multiple teams.

This position description identifies the responsibilities and tasks typically associated with the performance of the position. Other relevant essential functions may be required.

What you need:
• Bachelor's or Master's degree in Computer Science, Artificial Intelligence, Software Engineering, or a related field.
• 5-8 years of software engineering experience.
• 3+ years of AI/ML engineering experience.
• 1-2+ years of hands-on experience building production Generative AI applications.
• Strong Python programming and software development skills.
• Experience designing and deploying production-grade AI applications.
• Required Technical Skills
• Programming
• Python (Mandatory)
• SQL
• TypeScript / JavaScript (Preferred)
• C++ (Preferred)
• AI / Machine Learning
• Large Language Models (GPT, Claude, Llama, Gemini, Mistral)
• Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG)
• Prompt Engineering
• AI Model Evaluation
• PyTorch or TensorFlow
• Hugging Face Transformers
• MLflow
• Agentic AI
• LangGraph
• LangChain
• Semantic Kernel
• AutoGen
• CrewAI
• Multi-Agent Systems
• Tool Calling & Function Calling
• Workflow Orchestration
• Memory Management
• Backend & APIs
• FastAPI
• REST APIs
• gRPC (Preferred)
• Vector Databases
• Azure AI Search
• Elasticsearch / OpenSearch
• Chroma
• PGVector
• Data Platforms
• Databricks
• Microsoft Fabric
• PostgreSQL
• Cloud Platforms
• Microsoft Azure (Preferred)
• Azure OpenAI
• Azure AI Foundry
• Azure AI Search
• Azure Functions
• Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS)
• ADLS Gen2
• AWS (Preferred)
• GCP (Nice to Have)
• Security & Governance
• Enterprise security best practices
• Secure API development
• RBAC and Identity Management
• Data governance and Responsible AI
• Model monitoring and observability
• AI governance and guardrails
• PII protection and data privacy

Compensation can differ depending on factors including but not limited to the specific office location, role, skill set, education, and level of experience. UST provides a reasonable range of compensation for roles that may be hired in various U.S. markets as set forth below.

Role Location: California

Compensation Range: $94,000-$141,000

Benefits

Full-time, regular employees accrue a minimum of 10 days of paid vacation per year, receive 6 days of paid sick leave each year (pro-rated for new hires throughout the year), 10 paid holidays, and are eligible for paid bereavement leave and jury duty. They are eligible to participate in the Company's 401(k) Retirement Plan with employer matching. They and their dependents residing in the US are eligible for medical, dental, and vision insurance, as well as the following Company-paid Employee Only benefits: basic life insurance, accidental death and disability insurance, and short- and long-term disability benefits. Regular employees may purchase additional voluntary short-term disability benefits, and participate in a Health Savings Account (HSA) as well as a Flexible Spending Account (FSA) for healthcare, dependent child care, and/or commuting expenses as allowable under IRS guidelines. Benefits offerings vary in Puerto Rico.

Part-time employees receive 6 days of paid sick leave each year (pro-rated for new hires throughout the year) and are eligible to participate in the Company's 401(k) Retirement Plan with employer matching.

Full-time temporary employees receive 6 days of paid sick leave each year (pro-rated for new hires throughout the year) and are eligible to participate in the Company's 401(k) program with employer matching. They and their dependents residing in the US are eligible for medical, dental, and vision insurance.

Part-time temporary employees receive 6 days of paid sick leave each year (pro-rated for new hires throughout the year).

All US employees who work in a state or locality with more generous paid sick leave benefits than specified here will receive the benefit of those sick leave laws.