LLM Engineer (Remote)

About the role

As an LLM Engineer, you will design, build, optimize, and deploy Large Language Model (LLM) and Small Language Model (SLM) solutions that power the enterprise Agent Factory. You will be a valued member of the AI Engineering team and work collaboratively with data scientists, platform engineers, product teams, and business stakeholders to deliver scalable, production-ready generative AI capabilities.

Responsibilities

• Design, build, fine-tune, deploy, and optimize LLM and SLM solutions for enterprise-scale use cases.
• Develop and maintain supervised fine-tuning, model adaptation, and evaluation pipelines.
• Apply advanced model optimization techniques including LoRA, QLoRA, distillation, quantization, and model compression to improve performance and efficiency.
• Assess commercial, open-source, and internally hosted foundation models based on quality, cost, scalability, and operational requirements.
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams to support domain-specific AI solutions using approved enterprise datasets and best practices for responsible AI.

Requirements

• 7+ years of experience in Software Engineering, AI Engineering, Machine Learning Engineering, Platform Engineering, or a related technical discipline.
• 2+ years of hands-on experience developing and deploying Generative AI, LLM, SLM, or Agentic AI solutions in production environments.
• Experience building enterprise-grade AI applications utilizing LLMs, Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG), prompt engineering, APIs, and cloud or on-premises platforms.
• Strong understanding of model fine-tuning, adaptation, evaluation frameworks, and AI quality measurement methodologies.
• Proficiency in machine learning development, model deployment, and MLOps best practices.
• Experience working with Python and modern AI/ML frameworks and tools.

Skills

These will help you stand out:

• Knowledge of AI infrastructure, GPU optimization, and large-scale model serving.
• Experience implementing model governance, responsible AI, and evaluation frameworks.
• Familiarity with vector databases, embedding models, and advanced RAG architectures.
• Experience building enterprise AI platforms, multi-agent systems, or agent orchestration frameworks.

Work Model

This is a remote position open to qualified applicants in Louisville, KY. We strive to provide flexibility wherever possible and support a healthy work-life balance through various wellbeing programs.

Please note that this position is not eligible for visa transfer or sponsorship now or at any time in the future.

Pay

The annual salary for this position is between $81,337 and $141,500, depending on experience and other qualifications. This position is also eligible for Cognizant’s discretionary annual incentive program, based on performance and subject to the terms of Cognizant’s applicable plans.

Benefits

• Medical/Dental/Vision/Life Insurance
• Paid holidays plus Paid Time Off
• 401(k) plan and contributions
• Long-term/Short-term Disability
• Paid Parental Leave
• Employee Stock Purchase Plan