Staff AI Engineer

This position is listed on behalf of a partner company, who manages all applications and next steps. Our partner is looking for a Staff AI Engineer based in Canada.

This role offers the opportunity to lead the development of advanced AI and machine learning systems that solve complex business challenges.
You will act as a technical leader, shaping architecture decisions and driving AI solutions from concept through production.
The position combines hands-on engineering, system design, and strategic influence across cross-functional teams.
You will help define best practices for scalable, secure, and reliable AI applications while mentoring other engineers.
Working in a fast-paced environment, you will contribute to production-ready AI systems that create measurable impact for users and clients.
This is an ideal opportunity for an experienced AI engineer who enjoys ownership, innovation, and solving challenging technical problems.

As a Staff AI Engineer, you will lead the design, implementation, and evolution of AI/ML systems while establishing technical standards and guiding engineering practices. You will work closely with product, engineering, and leadership teams to deliver reliable AI solutions and influence the future direction of AI development.

• Lead the architecture, development, and deployment of complex AI and machine learning systems from research through production.
• Design and evolve scalable ML platforms, pipelines, and infrastructure that support reliable model development and deployment.
• Define AI engineering standards, technical patterns, and best practices for building secure, maintainable, and high-performing systems.
• Drive the development of generative AI and agentic systems, ensuring solutions are practical, reliable, and aligned with real-world workflows.
• Partner with product, engineering, and business stakeholders to shape AI strategies and align technical decisions with organizational goals.
• Translate complex AI concepts, technical trade-offs, risks, and opportunities into clear recommendations for technical and non-technical audiences.
• Lead architecture reviews, technical discussions, and engineering decisions while promoting a culture of quality and collaboration.
• Mentor engineers through coaching, code reviews, knowledge sharing, and support on complex technical challenges.
• Take ownership of ambiguous and high-impact projects, ensuring delivery with attention to reliability, cost efficiency, scalability, and safety.
• Continuously improve AI development processes, tooling, and engineering practices across teams.

Requirements:

The ideal candidate is a highly experienced AI engineer with a strong background in production ML systems, software architecture, and modern generative AI technologies. You should combine deep technical expertise with leadership skills and the ability to drive impactful engineering decisions.

• 7+ years of professional software engineering experience, including 4+ years focused on building AI/ML systems in production environments.
• Strong software engineering expertise, particularly with Python or similar programming languages, and experience designing scalable, maintainable systems.
• Extensive experience designing and deploying generative AI applications, including agentic systems used in production.
• Deep knowledge of cloud platforms, especially AWS services and AWS-based generative AI solutions.
• Strong expertise with AI frameworks, orchestration tools, and evaluation frameworks for LLM applications.
• Experience building observability and monitoring capabilities for AI systems.
• Advanced understanding of AI safety, responsible AI practices, prompt injection prevention, and privacy considerations such as PII protection.
• Hands-on experience building Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) systems, including chunking strategies, embeddings, vector databases, and advanced retrieval techniques.
• Strong API design experience and ability to integrate internal and external services at scale.
• Experience optimizing AI system costs through techniques such as token management, caching, routing strategies, and model optimization.
• Strong knowledge of Docker and Kubernetes for containerized deployments.
• Advanced daily experience using AI-powered engineering tools such as Claude Code, Cursor, or similar solutions.
• Strong communication skills, technical leadership abilities, and a passion for mentoring and improving engineering practices.

Benefits:

• Competitive salary range of $176,612 - $243,680 CAD.
• Remote work opportunity.
• Opportunity to lead innovative AI projects with significant technical impact.
• Work on challenging production AI systems involving generative AI and modern engineering practices.
• Strong focus on professional growth, technical leadership, and continuous learning.
• Collaborative environment with opportunities to influence engineering standards and best practices.
• Opportunity to mentor engineers and contribute to the growth of AI capabilities across teams.