Principal AI Platform Engineer

About the role

We are seeking a Principal AI Platform Engineer to join our community. This role is critical for managing the operational reliability, governance, security, and cost management of the AI layer in production business workflows.

Responsibilities

• Own the operational lifecycle of AI agents deployed across PEMCO: deployment, monitoring, scaling, incident response, and retirement.
• Build and maintain observability for the AI layer, including cost tracking, latency, error rates, model performance, token usage, and production monitoring for agent workers.
• Manage agent orchestration infrastructure, including configuration, versioning, connection management, and tool registration.
• Establish runbooks and incident response procedures for AI agent failures.
• Implement prompt governance controls and role-based model access per Information Security standards.
• Contribute requirements and technical capabilities to InfoSec for AI-specific policy development.
• Build the enterprise agent marketplace: deploy and manage AI agents within an enterprise UI framework, ensuring discoverability, versioning, and access controls.
• Evaluate new model releases, track capability evolution, and make recommendations on model selection.
• Maintain a knowledge management layer for AI operations including decision logs, model inventories, and governance documentation.
• Contribute directly to AI governance and the AI Governance Working Group.
• Operationalize security, governance, and compliance standards defined by Information Security and Data & AI leadership across all AI deployments.
• Optimize AI infrastructure costs through model selection, caching strategies, batching, and token budget management.
• Partner with the Data & AI team on production readiness for models and agents.
• Translate between data teams and infrastructure teams. Comfortable in both conversations.
• Comfortable operating in startup mode within an established organization. Delivers value incrementally while building toward a mature platform.

Requirements

• Technical degree or equivalent practical experience.
• 5+ years in a technical operations, platform engineering, or SRE leadership role is required.
• 2+ years building and deploying AI agents in production environments, including AI/ML ops (model monitoring, feature store management, RAG, vector store enablement) is required.
• Experience with cloud AI services (Azure OpenAI, AWS Bedrock, Google Vertex AI, or comparable) is required.
• Experience building observability and monitoring for production services is required.
• Experience with identity and access management for technical platforms is required.
• Demonstrated understanding of AI security risks: prompt injection, data leakage, model abuse is required.
• Experience leading or building a technical team is required.
• Experience with agent orchestration frameworks (MCP, LangChain, CrewAI, AutoGen, or similar) is required.
• Experience with LLM operational patterns: token management, caching, rate limiting, fallback strategies is required.
• Experience in a regulated industry (financial services, insurance, healthcare) is required.
• Experience with cost optimization for cloud AI consumption is required.
• Familiarity with AI governance frameworks (NIST AI RMF, ISO 42001, or internal frameworks) is required.

Qualifications

• Experience with cloud platforms (Azure, AWS, or GCP) is preferred.
• Experience with AI/ML certifications is preferred but not required.

Skills

• Technical degree or equivalent practical experience.
• Leadership and managing others.
• Interpersonal skills and empathy.
• MS Office proficiency.
• Communication skills.

Benefits

• Medical, dental, and vision plans.
• Life and accidental death & dismemberment insurance.
• Short- and long-term disability benefit coverages.
• 401(k) plan with employer match.
• Paid leave programs including vacation, sick leave, and holidays.
• Employee assistance program.
• Well-being program.
• Discounts on computer software and hardware, cell phone plans, and rental cars.

Pay

The pay range for this role is shown below. Compensation decisions are determined based on an individual’s qualifications, job-related knowledge, skills, and experience. Greater Seattle area target pay range: $154,845-$189,255. The full pay range is $129,038-$215,063. Outside Greater Seattle area target pay range: $136,654-$167,022. The full pay range is $113,879-$189,797. Greater Seattle Area is defined as working within approximately 100 miles of Seattle. Outside Greater Seattle is defined as working approximately 100 miles or more from Seattle.

Schedule

Regular part-time and full-time PEMCO employees are eligible for these benefits.

Equal Employment Opportunity

At PEMCO, we celebrate and support our differences. We know employing a team rich in diverse thoughts, experiences, and opinions allows our employees, our products, and our community to flourish. PEMCO is honored to be an equal opportunity workplace. We are dedicated to equal employment opportunities regardless of race, color, ancestry, religion, sex, national orientation, age, citizenship, marital status, disability, gender identity, sexual orientation, or veteran status.