Senior AI Software Engineer

Kiewit is seeking a Senior AI Software Engineer (hybrid) to build and run components of its enterprise AI platform. This role will own production features and services spanning AI workflows, backend systems, user-facing experiences, and Kubernetes-hosted workloads.

Key Responsibilities

• Own features and services through production, clarifying requirements and acceptance criteria, designing and implementing changes across AI, backend, data, and UI components, and supporting releases after deployment.
• Build and evaluate AI workflows by integrating language models, retrieval, and enterprise tools. Partner with domain experts to define task success and use representative evaluations to measure quality, failure behavior, latency, and cost.
• Enable domain experts to deliver ideas by joining early in design, pairing on implementation, and guiding prototypes through architecture review, hardening, integration, and delivery while explaining tradeoffs and strengthening software practices.
• Work directly with Kubernetes, deploying and troubleshooting containerized workloads and improving configuration, networking, storage, resource usage, observability, and rollout and recovery behavior. Coordinate with platform teams on shared infrastructure.
• Review and improve implementation quality by examining human-written and AI-generated code for correctness, security, reliability, and maintainability, tracing changes across components, challenging assumptions, and addressing defect root causes.
• Protect company data and user access by building integrations that respect user permissions, preserve data integrity, and handle AI-driven actions and failures safely in partnership with security and data owners.
• Strengthen engineering practices through automated testing, code review, error handling, CI/CD improvements, documentation, and operational visibility, keeping solutions understandable and appropriately scoped.
• Make capabilities clear and usable by carrying features through UI integration and documentation, maintaining visibility into ownership, dependencies, readiness, rollout status, and known limitations.

Required Qualifications

• 5+ years of professional software engineering experience designing, building, and maintaining production applications or services, including independent ownership of substantial features or services from design through deployment and ongoing support.
• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Computer Engineering, or a related technical field, or equivalent practical software engineering experience.
• Hands-on Kubernetes experience deploying, operating, and troubleshooting containerized applications.
• Strong programming and debugging skills, with depth in Python or TypeScript and the ability to contribute across Python services and TypeScript/React web applications.
• Ability to read unfamiliar code, identify consequential defects and architectural weaknesses, and clearly explain why proposed changes are sound.
• Practical experience integrating LLMs or agent workflows into applications, including evaluating behavior and limitations.
• Experience using AI-assisted development tools while independently reviewing, debugging, and validating generated code.
• Strong foundations in API design, data modeling, distributed systems, authentication and authorization, testing, version control, and CI/CD.
• Experience moving prototypes into maintained production systems with attention to security, failure handling, performance, and operability.
• Clear communication and comfort supporting contributors with different technical backgrounds, including questioning assumptions and adjusting based on evidence.

Technologies

• Python, TypeScript, React
• Kubernetes, CI/CD
• Language models, Retrieval, LLMs
• API design, authentication and authorization
• PostgreSQL
• Azure, Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS)
• Helm, FastAPI
• Graph or vector retrieval, Model Context Protocol (MCP)

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with Azure and Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS), Helm, FastAPI, PostgreSQL, graph or vector retrieval, Model Context Protocol (MCP), and enterprise integrations would be especially relevant. Kiewit values depth in relevant areas and the ability to learn across the stack; familiarity with every listed technology is not required.

Benefits

• Comprehensive benefits package including top-tier medical, dental and vision plans covering eligible employees and dependents
• Voluntary wellness and employee assistance programs
• Life insurance
• Disability
• Retirement plans with matching
• Generous paid time off

What Success Looks Like

• Independently delivering and supporting useful capabilities within ownership areas, demonstrating quality through software tests and AI evaluations, reducing recurring failures, and helping other contributors become more effective.
• Building a product the team can confidently understand, operate, and extend, supported by reusable practices that enable additional use cases.

Role Details

• Location: Lone Tree, CO (hybrid)
• Compensation: USD 130,000 - 150,000 per year
• Experience: Minimum 5 years

Other Requirements

• Regular, reliable attendance
• Work productively and meet deadlines timely
• Communicate and interact effectively and professionally with supervisors, employees, and others in a team environment
• Perform work safely and follow oral and written instructions, including warning signs, equipment use, and other policies
• Work during normal operating hours to organize and complete work within deadlines; overtime and weekends as required
• May work at various different locations, with conditions varying