Lead AI Engineer

Lead AI Engineer

A high-growth technology company operating at the intersection of AI and mission-critical government operations is looking for a Lead AI Engineer to lead its Agentic AI team. The company’s AI-powered platform is used across multiple levels of the US government, and its flagship agent has achieved rapid adoption over the past year.

This is a leadership role. You’ll be responsible for the technical direction, architecture, and day-to-day leadership of a team of data scientists and ML engineers. The team is focused on making agents handle increasingly complex workflows — planning, long-horizon task execution, scaled tool use, memory, and multi-agent coordination.

What You’ll Do

• Lead the Agentic AI team technically and operationally, including architecture decisions, sprint planning, and Agile ceremonies
• Design and build multi-agent systems with tool use, memory, routing, and planning
• Develop modular, composable agent skills and tools that integrate with backend systems, models, and data processing
• Drive automated evaluation of agents, skills, and prompts across the product lifecycle
• Work cross-functionally with product and implementation teams to solve the most challenging customer problems with agentic technology

What We’re Looking For

• Experience leading agentic system development from ideation through production, including technical design, architecture, and team leadership
• Hands-on experience integrating and working with LLMs, with a deep understanding of their capabilities and limitations
• Familiarity with agent frameworks such as Claude Agent SDK or OpenAI Agent SDK
• Experience building observability, evaluation, and feedback loops for agent behavior
• Comfort operating in highly ambiguous environments with urgency

What Skills Do You Need?

• You must be a US Citizen (hard requirement)
• 3+ years building and deploying ML or LLM-powered systems in production
• 2+ years leading or mentoring engineering teams in production environments
• Advanced Python skills
• Hands-on AWS / cloud infrastructure experience
• Familiarity with Git and modern development practices
• Active or obtainable US security clearance is a plus

Compensation:

• Base Salary based upon experience but expect around $200,000
• 20-30% bonus - paid quarterly
• Equity - between $125,000 - $175,000 with 4 year vest
• Unlimited PTO
• 401(k) with 4% immediate vesting
• Professional development reimbursement

Please note:

This is a Full-time, on-site (5 days) position located in Pittsburgh, PA. The role may require up to 10% travel (mainly to the Washington DC area). We offer relocation assistance if you are not currently local to the Pittsburgh area.