Senior AI Engineer

The Senior AI Engineer role at Photon is a hands-on position focused on designing, building, and operating Tulip and related AI platform capabilities. This contract role supports enterprise-grade deployments in a United States (hybrid) work model, with an emphasis on secure, reliable delivery and technical leadership through engineering standards, reviews, and design discussions.

Role focus

• Design, build, and operate Tulip and related AI platform capabilities.
• Contribute to Tulip architecture, patterns, and technical standards to scale securely and reliably across enterprise use cases.
• Deliver AI platform capabilities hands-on, including orchestration, RAG, agents, integrations, evaluation, observability, and production support patterns.
• Translate strategic AI objectives into technical outcomes that enable self-service solution delivery and measurable business value.

Technical collaboration and delivery

• Collaborate with engineers across workstreams to surface dependencies and risks early.
• Deliver assigned roadmap commitments predictably.
• Work as an individual contributor with no people management responsibility, while contributing to technical decisions and mentoring less experienced engineers through design and code review.

Engineering excellence and knowledge sharing

• Apply and help improve practices for secure, maintainable, testable, observable, and cost-conscious engineering execution.
• Contribute to documentation, design discussions, and knowledge sharing that strengthen how the team builds and operates AI solutions.
• Model practices that improve quality, velocity, and consistency, supported by clear communication across product, architecture, engineering, and business partners.

Key requirements

• 8+ years of professional software engineering experience with increasing responsibility for architecture, platform delivery, or complex enterprise systems.
• Hands-on experience designing and delivering production-grade applications, APIs, integrations, and distributed services.
• Strong proficiency in Python and modern software engineering practices such as automated testing, code review, and maintainable design.
• Experience with AI-enabled systems, including large language models, retrieval-augmented generation, agent or workflow orchestration patterns, model integration, evaluation, and responsible AI guardrails.
• Experience with cloud platforms such as Azure, AWS, or GCP, including containerization and infrastructure as code (Docker, Kubernetes, Terraform, Helm), CI/CD, observability, and operational support for production services.
• Demonstrated ability to contribute to technical design decisions, mentor less experienced engineers, and work effectively across multiple workstreams.
• Experience securing enterprise services and AI integrations, including OAuth 2.0 and OpenID Connect, secrets management, and automated security scanning in CI/CD.
• Strong communication skills to explain complex technical decisions to engineering, product, and business stakeholders.
• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Information Systems, or related field (preferred) or equivalent practical experience.

Technologies

• Python; large language models; retrieval-augmented generation; Docker; Kubernetes; Terraform; Helm; CI/CD
• Azure; AWS; GCP; OAuth 2.0; OpenID Connect; secrets management
• Azure AI; Azure OpenAI; Microsoft Fabric; Databricks; vector databases; semantic search
• Prompt orchestration; agentic AI frameworks; vector search; AI evaluation; multi-model integration; agent interoperability patterns
• SQL

Preferred qualifications

• Experience building internal developer platforms, enterprise AI platforms, automation frameworks, or reusable engineering accelerators.
• Experience with Azure AI, Azure OpenAI, Microsoft Fabric, Databricks, vector databases, semantic search, prompt orchestration, or agentic AI frameworks.
• Experience with enterprise AI governance, model and prompt auditability, and responsible AI controls in a compliance-sensitive environment.
• Experience enabling citizen development, self-service workflows, or governed low-code/no-code solution delivery.

Compensation and benefits

• Compensation range: USD 56,000 - 196,000 per year, based on actual experience and qualifications.
• Medical, vision, and dental benefits.
• 401k retirement plan.
• Variable pay/incentives.
• Paid time off and paid holidays.

Location and work environment

• Hybrid role in the United States; location expectations should be confirmed through the People and Talent process.
• Draft assumption: Tempe, Arizona / hybrid, aligned to current client in-office guidance.
• Primary work environment is a professional office or remote setting, using standard office equipment; reasonable accommodations may be made for individuals with disabilities.

Contract duration and submission timing

• This position is available for independent contractors.
• No applications will be considered if received more than 120 days after the date of this post.