About this role
Organizations struggling to navigate ambiguous technological initiatives and transition early prototypes into scalable production environments require architectural leadership to bridge complex systems with business outcomes. This role exists to guide high-stakes consulting engagements, architect durable platforms, and transition agentic AI systems from prototype to production across diverse client industries.
The incoming engineer will build production-grade platforms, advise client executives on architectural decisions, and manage the full machine learning lifecycle from data ingestion to model deployment. A successful candidate possesses extensive consulting experience, deep technical expertise across multiple language paradigms, and the ability to align technical and non-technical stakeholders through complex architectural challenges.
What you will do
- Build and ship production-grade platforms, reusable foundations, tools, infrastructure, and workflows that enable other teams to operate faster and more reliably.
- Take AI and agentic systems from prototype to production with a focus on infrastructure, authentication, and observability.
- Drive platform strategy and delivery across diverse platform types, connecting long-term technical vision to actual shipments.
- Advise clients on architecture, scalability, and platform evolution while balancing technology choices with deadlines.
- Manage the full machine learning lifecycle including data ingestion, preprocessing, model deployment, integration, and performance monitoring.
- Provide mentorship and team support at scale while sharing knowledge and improving engineering practices.
What you need
- Demonstrate long-term repeated success on a variety of projects typically over the course of 10+ years.
- Bring deep consulting acumen, technical expertise, and product thinking that drives measurable outcomes.
- Deliver production-grade software using a variety of languages and frameworks including Java, C#/.NET, Python, TypeScript, JavaScript, React, Go, Ruby, Scala, R, and SQL.
- Build or integrate AI and machine learning features into products and systems such as recommendation engines, NLP, computer vision, predictive analytics, RAG pipelines, and agents.
- Lead modernization and replatforming efforts to align legacy systems with business needs.
- Facilitate alignment across technical and non-technical stakeholders to move initiatives forward through ambiguity and complexity.
Nice to have
- Platform engineering experience building reusable software foundations and internal developer platforms
- Data engineering experience including platforms like Databricks for data processing and analytics
- Experience delivering production agentic systems including RAG pipelines, vector search, and frameworks like LangChain, LlamaIndex, CrewAI, AutoGen, and n8n
- DevSecOps and DevOps experience
- MLOps and Infrastructure as Code experience
Benefits
- Robust L&D program featuring unlimited access to books, courses, and expert-led training on the O'Reilly learning platform
- Annual financial stipend and time allotment for learning and development
- Coworking support for the global team
- Flexible PTO
- 12 weeks of new parent leave available for eligible employees
Skills and tech stack
Questions candidates ask
What is the remote work policy for this role?
The position is remote within the United States. 8th Light benchmarks salaries using geographic structures across different US regions.
What is the compensation range for this position?
The salary ranges vary by geographic structure, starting at $151,535-$189,418 USD for Structure 1 and $159,240-$199,050 USD for Structure 2.
What kind of clients will I work with?
You will partner with organizations ranging from early-stage startups to the world's largest companies. Typically, you will work with one to two clients in a year.
What languages and frameworks are used in this role?
You will lead development using a variety of languages and frameworks including Java, C#/.NET, Python, TypeScript, JavaScript, React, Go, Ruby, Scala, R, and SQL.