Applied AI/ML Engineer / Data Scientist

Vertage is seeking an Applied AI/ML Engineer / Data Scientist to develop and operationalize the intelligence layer of NextBrain. The role blends data science, machine learning, generative AI, and software engineering to deliver production-deployed AI capabilities with rigorous evaluation.

Role Focus

Develop AI/ML functionality for NextBrain that helps users understand operational information, diagnose issues, identify anomalies, retrieve knowledge, and make better decisions. This position emphasizes moving capabilities from experimentation into production deployment and evaluation, rather than focusing solely on research.

Responsibilities

• Design, develop, evaluate, and deploy AI/ML capabilities within NextBrain.
• Build analytical models for anomaly detection, asset health, forecasting, classification, and other operational use cases.
• Develop generative AI and agentic capabilities using enterprise-approved foundation models and AI platforms.
• Design prompts, tools, agents, workflows, and orchestration patterns for NextBrain.
• Develop Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) and knowledge-retrieval solutions when appropriate.
• Create rigorous evaluation frameworks for LLM and agent behavior.
• Define metrics for model accuracy, relevance, reliability, hallucination, latency, and cost.
• Implement guardrails and validation mechanisms for AI-generated responses.
• Collaborate with Data Engineering to define training, inference, retrieval, and feature-data requirements.
• Collaborate with Full Stack/Cloud Engineering to deploy AI services into production.
• Develop prototypes rapidly while designing solutions that can transition into production.
• Monitor model and agent performance and continuously improve deployed capabilities.
• Communicate model behavior and analytical findings to engineers, product stakeholders, and operational subject-matter experts.
• Stay current with emerging AI, agentic AI, ML, and data-science technologies and assess their applicability to NextBrain.

Requirements

• Master's degree or Bachelor's degree with equivalent experience in Computer Science, Data Science, Engineering, Statistics, Machine Learning, or a related discipline.
• 4+ years of experience developing machine-learning or advanced analytics solutions.
• Strong Python skills.
• Experience using common ML/data-science frameworks and libraries.
• Experience taking analytical or ML solutions from experimentation into production.
• Strong foundation in statistics, experimentation, model evaluation, and data analysis.
• Experience working with cloud-based data and compute environments.
• Experience with APIs, software-development practices, source control, and CI/CD.
• Demonstrated ability to translate business or operational problems into analytical approaches.
• English proficiency at a professional working level.

Technologies

• Python
• Language models
• Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG)
• LLM
• APIs
• CI/CD

Preferred Skills

• Hands-on experience developing applications using LLMs.
• Experience with agentic frameworks, tool calling, MCP, or similar AI orchestration technologies.
• Experience with RAG, embeddings, vector search, and knowledge-management architectures.
• Experience implementing systematic LLM evaluation and guardrails.
• Experience with AWS AI/ML services.
• Experience with time-series analytics and anomaly detection.
• Experience with industrial, energy, renewable-generation, BESS, or operational datasets.
• Familiarity with MLOps and model-monitoring practices.

Growth and Development

NextBrain should evolve from providing access to applications and data into an intelligent operational assistant. AI outputs should remain measurable, explainable where required, and secure and trustworthy for enterprise operational use.

Location, Term, and Compensation

• Location: United States (onsite)
• Start and End Date: 22 Oct 2026 – 21 Oct 2027
• Indicative Hourly Rate: USD 100 – 105 per hourly
• Respond By: 10 Oct 2026