ERCOT

Applied AI Engineer

ERCOT • $145K — $200K *
Information Technology
5 - 7 years of experience
Job Overview by Ladders

Qualifications

  • 5+ years experience in AI/ML or software engineering, beyond degree requirements.
  • Proven experience in building and deploying production-grade autonomous agents.
  • Familiarity with agent orchestration frameworks like LangGraph or Microsoft Agent Framework.
  • Experience with production RAG and vector search databases.
  • Strong Python skills with hands-on LLM API integration.
  • Knowledge of system design and maintaining scalable, reliable services.

Responsibilities

  • Translate complex business problems into clear technical roadmaps.
  • Design and build production-level agent systems using orchestration frameworks.
  • Implement production RAG pipelines focusing on evaluation and content freshness.
  • Develop connectors for secure access to enterprise tools and data.
  • Deploy applications on cloud platforms and integrate them with existing systems.
  • Create evaluation suites to ensure agents perform reliably in production environments.
  • Monitor and enhance deployed applications based on performance metrics.

Benefits

  • Hybrid work schedule with two days in the office.
  • Opportunities for professional development and continuous learning.
  • Work with cutting-edge AI technologies and frameworks.
  • Engage with a diverse range of business stakeholders.
  • Contribute to meaningful projects in a regulated environment.
Full Job Description
JOB SUMMARY

Applies knowledge of generative AI application development, agent orchestration, retrieval architecture, and evaluation methodology to deliver production AI solutions. Follows established AI governance, security review, and evaluation processes to deploy reliable, auditable systems. Operates in a regulated environment where delivery speed is balanced against required governance and review gates.

JOB DUTIES:
  • Translates ambiguous business problems into scoped technical roadmaps, and identifies constraints (data access, compliance, latency, cost) before development begins.
  • Designs and builds production agentic systems, covering planning, tool-calling, multi-step reasoning, memory, and error recovery, using modern orchestration frameworks such as LangGraph or Microsoft Agent Framework.
  • Implements production RAG pipelines, including chunking, embeddings, hybrid search, reranking, retrieval-quality evaluation, and content freshness.
  • Builds and extends connectors that give agents secure, standardized access to enterprise tools and data.
  • Deploys applications onto managed cloud platforms and integrates them with enterprise systems and collaboration tools.
  • Builds evaluation suites, tracing, and rollback paths so agents are reliable in production rather than demonstrations.
  • Monitors, debugs, and improves deployed applications against evaluation metrics.
  • Applies sound system-design principles. Defines application architecture, data flows, and integration boundaries, and designs for scalability, reliability, latency, and cost.
  • Codifies repeatable patterns, turning successful builds into reusable components and reference architecture the team can leverage.
  • Works directly with non-technical business owners to understand their workflows, and maintains current knowledge of evolving LLM capabilities, implementation patterns, and AI development stacks.


EXPERIENCE
  • Requires minimum 5 years job related work experience in AI/ML or software engineering in excess of degree requirements.


Required skills and knowledge:
  • Proven record of building and deploying production-grade autonomous agents, not prototypes.
  • Agent orchestration frameworks (LangGraph, Microsoft Agent Framework, or comparable).
  • Production RAG with vector search and vector databases (pgvector, Azure AI Search, Databricks Vector Search)
  • Strong Python and hands-on LLM API integration.
  • System-design fundamentals: scalable, reliable, maintainable services, API and integration-boundary design, and trade-offs across latency, throughput, and cost.
  • Building or extending tool and data connectors for LLM applications.
  • Deploying and operating applications on a managed cloud platform.
  • AI governance, model lifecycle, and evaluation methodology.
  • Stakeholder and discovery skills. Works directly with non-technical business owners, scopes ambiguity, and operates autonomously.


Preferred:
  • Solution and system architecture across multiple applications, with security-by-design and reference architecture.
  • Large-scale data platforms (Databricks) for retrieval, feature, or pipeline work.
  • Experience in a regulated industry (energy, finance, healthcare) or an audit-driven environment.
  • Multi-agent orchestration and context engineering.


EDUCATION
  • Bachelor's Degree: Computer Science, Data Science, Information Systems, Engineering, or related field (Required) or a combination of education and experience that provides equivalent knowledge to a major in such fields is required


TOOLS & TECHNOLOGY
  • Agent & LLM Frameworks: LangGraph, Microsoft Agent Framework, LangChain, LlamaIndex
  • LLM Platforms & APIs: Claude API, Azure OpenAI, OpenAI API, model routing and evaluation frameworks
  • AI Coding Assistants: Claude Code, OpenAI Codex, GitHub Copilot, Microsoft Copilot Studio
  • Retrieval & Vector Search: Azure AI Search, Databricks Vector Search, pgvector
  • Data & Analytics: Databricks, Power BI, SQL, Oracle DB, PostgreSQL
  • Connectors & Integration: MCP (Model Context Protocol), REST APIs, enterprise system connectors, Teams integration
  • Cloud & Deployment: Azure, OpenShift (Private Cloud / On-Premises), Docker, Kubernetes, Helm
  • CI/CD & Source Control: GitHub, GitHub Actions, Git and pull-request workflows
  • Observability & Evaluation: Tracing, evaluation harnesses, LLM observability, logging and monitoring
  • ITSM & Agile Tooling: ServiceNow, Jira
  • Scripting & Languages: Python, PowerShell


CERTIFICATION
  • Cloud or AI/ML certification (Azure AI Engineer, AWS Machine Learning, or Databricks) (Preferred)


WORK LOCATION:
  • Hybrid schedule in Taylor, TX 2 days per week.
  • #LI-DN


Expected Salary Range:
$145,000 - $200,000

About ERCOT

The Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) manages the flow of electric power to more than 26 million Texas customers, representing about 90 percent of the state's electric load. ERCOT is responsible for ensuring that the Texas power grid remains stable and reliable, and for managing the wholesale market for electricity in the state. ERCOT was founded in 1970 and is headquartered in Austin, Texas.
Learn more about ERCOT
Size
700 employees
Industry
Founded
1970

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