Lead AI Engineer

Lead AI Engineer

Location: Remote (US, excluding California) or Hybrid in Brentwood, TN

Compensation: $210,000 - $230,000 (Base Salary) + Discretionary Incentive

We are a stable, growing enterprise software company providing integrated risk management and compliance solutions to over 5,000 financial institutions nationwide. As the First AI Hire, you will partner directly with the CEO and CTO to define and deliver an ambitious AI roadmap, focusing on shipping agentic AI solutions that accelerate product development and deliver extraordinary outcomes for our customers.

This is a career-defining opportunity with a serious commitment to AI transformation, backed by a significant budget and Private Equity funding. You will lead cross-functional initiatives and mentor teams to continuously innovate at the boundaries of enterprise AI.

Key Responsibilities:

• AI Product Development: Define the AI-first vision and technical roadmap. Own the technical design and architecture of best-in-class AI features and drive the adoption of AI-powered products.
• Agentic Solutions: Leverage deep expertise in modern AI architectures (e.g., RAG, vector databases) to ship intelligent, agentic solutions to a large, established customer base.
• Team Leadership: Lead various AI initiatives across multiple teams. Mentor engineers on AI technologies and mindset, and document outcomes to create repeatable processes.
• Process Implementation: Work with cross-functional teams to implement best-practice AI-first development processes and drive build-measure-learn cycles with clear success metrics.
• Stakeholder Partnership: Partner effectively with product, operations, and engineering leadership to remove blockers and enable rapid, quality feature shipping.

Requirements

• Experience:8+ years of experience in software engineering, with 3+ years in a lead role.
• AI Expertise: Deep expertise in LLM operations, prompt engineering, and modern AI architectures (RAG, vector databases).
• Technical Stack: Advanced Python programming skills with web framework experience.
• LLM Platforms: Experience with LLM platforms (e.g., OpenAI, LiteLLM, AWS Bedrock).
• Fundamentals: Strong software engineering fundamentals and system design skills.
• Leadership: Proven track record of shipping products and successfully leading cross-functional technical teams.
• Communication: Strong communication skills for both technical and non-technical audiences.

Benefits

• Impact:First AI hire with direct CEO/CTO access and board visibility. Immediate, measurable impact on products used by thousands of financial institutions.
• Compensation: Competitive salary ($210,000 - $230,000) plus an annual discretionary incentive.
• Stability: Join a proven, stable company (7x Inc. 5000 winner, 420 employees) that is profitable and growing—past the risky startup phase.
• Health & Wellness: Medical, Dental, and Vision insurance eligibility on Day 1 of employment. Includes mental health benefits and company-paid life/disability insurance.
• Retirement:401(k) with company match with eligibility on Day 1.
• Work Policy:Fully Remote within the US (excluding California), with preference for Central time zone candidates, or hybrid in Brentwood, TN.
• Visa Support:Visa sponsorship is not available.

Due to the high volume of applications we anticipate, we regret that we are unable to provide individual feedback to all candidates. If you do not hear back from us within 4 weeks of your application, please assume that you have not been successful on this occasion. We genuinely appreciate your interest and wish you the best in your job search.

Commitment to Equality and Accessibility:

At MLabs, we are committed to offer equal opportunities to all candidates. We ensure no discrimination, accessible job adverts, and providing information in accessible formats. Our goal is to foster a diverse, inclusive workplace with equal opportunities for all. If you need any reasonable adjustments during any part of the hiring process or you would like to see the job-advert in an accessible format please let us know at the earliest opportunity by emailing human-resources@mlabs.city.

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