Senior AI Engineer

Appex Innovation

$120K — $160K *
Enterprise Technology
8 - 10 years of experience
Job Overview by Ladders

Qualifications

  • 8+ years in applied ML and AI, with 3-4 years in enterprise NLP or LLM/SLM design
  • Hands-on experience with SLMs, fine-tuning, and deploying models like Phi, Gamma, Llama
  • Strong understanding of frontier LLM APIs and their value over smaller models
  • Experience designing multi-task NLP pipelines for classification and document extraction
  • Ability to translate model architecture decisions into cost models and business cases
  • Experience in telecom, healthcare, or industrial/manufacturing B2B environments

Responsibilities

  • Advise on AI architecture decisions involving SLM and LLM across multiple tasks
  • Review model selection, benchmarking methodology, and fine-tuning strategies
  • Guide cost-versus-accuracy trade-off analysis for varying model types
  • Provide input on implementation approach, team structure, and make-vs-buy decisions
  • Review data strategy, labelling, evaluation harness design, and MLOps requirements
  • Advise on structuring the business case with executive-level comparisons
  • Flag risks related to vendor lock-in, model drift, and compliance requirements
  • Act as a trusted advisor to shape AI strategy and influence senior leadership

Benefits

  • Onsite work environment in Frisco, TX or Bellevue, WA
  • Opportunity to work on high-impact AI transformation projects
  • Engagement with senior leadership for strategic decision-making
  • Involvement in cutting-edge AI technologies and architectures
  • Potential for professional growth in a rapidly evolving field
Full Job Description
Job Description
We are hiring a Senior AI Engineer for our partner in Frisco, TX or Bellevue, WA for an onsite role.

Job Details:

Role: Senior AI Consultant

Location: Frisco TX or Bellevue WA - Onsite

Mandatory Areas:-
  • AI,ML
  • NLP
  • LLM/SLM
  • RAG

About the Role

We are looking for a Senior AI Consultant to serve as a strategic advisor and technical architect for our AI transformation program. The engagement spans multiple high-impact use cases in Telco Ops, along with a broader model selection and cost-governance framework. You will play a thought leadership role, guiding senior stakeholders on AI strategy, architecture decisions, and execution models-bringing both hands-on expertise in GenAI and traditional AI/ML as well as experience advising VP/Sr. Director-level leadership in large enterprises. You will help us make the right decisions on model architecture, tooling, implementation sequencing, and team structure, with a specific focus on when to use SLMs vs LLMs and how to build cost-efficient, production-grade AI pipelines.

What You Will Do
• Advise on architecture decisions for AI use cases involving SLM, LLM, hybrid AI pipelines across multiple AI tasks like classification, information extraction, document processing, correlation, and reasoning workloads.
• Review and challenge model selection choices, benchmarking methodology, and fine-tuning strategies for different AI tasks tasks
• Guide the cost-versus-accuracy trade-off analysis across model types (frontier LLM, LLM with fine-tuning, SLM instruct, SLM fine-tuned) and workload profiles.
• Provide practical input on implementation approach, team structure, sprint sequencing, and make-vs-buy decisions.
• Review data strategy, labelling effort sizing, evaluation harness design, and MLOps requirements for each workload.
• Advise on how to structure the business case and design the appropriate AI architecture including executive-level cost, latency, and accuracy comparisons.
• Flag risks including vendor lock-in, model drift, data governance gaps, and compliance requirements for use cases in regulated industries/domains
• Act as a trusted advisor to senior leadership (VP/Sr. Director level), shaping AI strategy and influencing key decision-making forums.

What You Must Have
• 8+ years of experience in applied ML and AI, with at least 3-4 years in enterprise NLP or LLM/SLM system design and deployment.
• Demonstrable hands-on experience with SLMs including fine-tuning and deployment using models such as Phi, Gamma, Llama, Mistral, or Qwen families.
• Strong understanding of frontier LLM APIs (OpenAI, Azure OpenAI, Anthropic) and when they add genuine value over smaller models.
• Experience designing multi-task NLP pipelines covering classification, named entity recognition, document extraction, RAG, and reasoning.
• Ability to translate model architecture decisions into cost models and business cases (implementation cost, run cost, savings, ROI).
• Experience with at least one of the following verticals: telecom, healthcare, or industrial/manufacturing B2B operations.

What is highly desirable
• Experience with automation or workflow orchestration in high-volume operational environments.
• Knowledge of LLMOps practices for SLM deployment including quantization, batching, model versioning, and latency benchmarking.

What success looks like in this role
• Clear, defensible architecture recommendation for each use case with rationale for model tier selection, estimated implementation cost, and projected run cost savings.
• A practical evaluation framework and scoring rubric that the internal team can use to benchmark models independently.
• A sequenced implementation roadmap that the delivery team can execute in 4-6 month phases.
• Executive-ready cost comparison across LLM-only, SLM-only, and hybrid approaches for each use case.

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