AI Engineer

About the role

At Avathon, we are building cutting-edge AI solutions that transform operations across asset-intensive industries such as Supply Chain, Logistics, Energy, Mining, Aerospace, and Industrial Manufacturing. As an AI Engineer, you will play a critical role in designing, developing, and deploying scalable AI systems with a strong focus on Generative AI and Large Language Models (LLMs).

Responsibilities

• Design, build, and deploy production-grade AI/ML systems with strong emphasis on Generative AI and LLM-powered applications
• Develop and optimize end-to-end LLM pipelines including RAG architectures, fine-tuning, prompt orchestration, evaluation, and observability
• Build scalable backend services and APIs for AI applications using modern engineering best practices
• Implement and productionize transformer-based models and GenAI workflows for enterprise use cases
• Design vector search systems, embedding pipelines, and retrieval frameworks for knowledge-intensive applications
• Partner closely with Product, Engineering, and Business teams to translate operational challenges into scalable AI solutions
• Drive experimentation, benchmarking, model evaluation, and performance optimization with scientific rigor
• Improve inference efficiency, latency optimization, cost management, and reliability of deployed AI systems
• Establish guardrails, hallucination detection, monitoring, and responsible AI practices for production deployments
• Contribute to MLOps workflows including CI/CD, model lifecycle management, observability, and cloud deployment
• Stay current with the latest advancements in LLMs, agentic systems, foundation models, and applied AI engineering

Requirements

• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Computer Science, Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Data Science, or a related technical field
• 3–5 years of hands-on industry experience in AI Engineering, Machine Learning Engineering, Applied AI, or related roles
• Strong experience building and deploying LLM-based applications in production environments
• Solid expertise with Python and modern AI/ML frameworks such as PyTorch, TensorFlow, Hugging Face, LangChain, LlamaIndex, or similar
• Strong understanding of transformer architectures, LLM fine-tuning, prompt engineering, RAG systems, and vector databases
• Experience building scalable APIs and backend systems supporting AI workflows
• Familiarity with cloud platforms such as AWS, GCP, or Azure
• Strong software engineering fundamentals including system design, debugging, performance optimization, and production reliability
• Experience with containerization, deployment pipelines, and collaborative engineering environments
• Strong analytical thinking, ownership mindset, and ability to work in ambiguous, fast-moving startup environments
• Excellent communication skills and ability to work cross-functionally with technical and business stakeholders

Preferred Qualifications

• Exposure to Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG), vector databases, or embedding-based search systems
• Familiarity with LLM observability and evaluation tools (e.g., Langfuse, LangSmith, Arize Phoenix, Weights & Biases)
• Hands-on experience with practical LLM deployment -- prompt versioning, cost/latency tracking, guardrails, or hallucination detection
• Exposure to LLM evaluation frameworks (e.g., RAGAS, DeepEval) or LLM-as-judge evaluation patterns
• Basic understanding of MLOps practices and model lifecycle management
• Experience working on applied AI projects in academic, internship, or startup settings
• Interest in industrial AI and asset-intensive environments
• Industry exposure in one or more of the following domains: Mining, Oil & Gas, Aerospace, Supply Chain, Logistics, or Renewable Energy

Benefits & Perks

• Evolving culture with the opportunity to drive new ideas and technology
• Stock Option Grants
• Medical Coverage and Parental Leave Plans
• 401k with Employer Match
• Monthly Technology Allowance
• Newly renovated office space located near Pleasanton, CA -- including fully stocked beverage and snack areas

Pay Range

$110k - $130k salary annually. Pay for this position is based on a number of factors including geographic location and may vary depending on job-related knowledge, skills, and experience.

Location

This role is not remote. Candidates must be based in the Bay Area, CA and are expected to report to our Pleasanton office 5 days a week.

Equal Opportunity Employer

Avathon is an Equal Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, pregnancy, genetic information, disability, status as a protected veteran, or any other protected category under applicable federal, state, and local laws.