Principal AI Engineer

This is a fully remote position, open to applicants in California, +5 more states.

📋 Description

• Define the technical vision for enterprise-level GenAI and agentic AI systems within a regulated healthcare setting.

• Design and implement production-ready GenAI and agentic AI solutions, which encompass RAG, vector search, model integration, tool orchestration, guardrails, and evaluation across AWS and/or GCP.

• Develop scalable, cloud-native AI systems utilizing serverless/event-driven architectures, APIs, CI/CD, infrastructure-as-code, and contemporary software engineering methodologies.

• Manage the complete production AI lifecycle, from experimentation and deployment to monitoring, observability, performance management, cost efficiency, and ongoing enhancement.

• Create secure and responsible AI practices that address privacy, security, governance, auditability, model risk, and human oversight.

• Establish AI architecture, standards, and engineering best practices for agent orchestration, RAG, tool/MCP integrations, evaluation, and enterprise AI integration.

• Collaborate with product, engineering, data, security, privacy, legal, compliance, and business teams to convert strategic requirements into scalable AI solutions.

• Provide hands-on technical leadership through design evaluations, mentorship, architectural guidance, build-vs-buy analyses, and technical documentation.

• Report to the Lead Director in the Commercial division of the Aetna Technology organization.

⛳️ Requirements

• Over 10 years of experience in software engineering, including more than 5 years in solution architecture or system design.

• More than 5 years of experience developing large-scale microservices and APIs using Node.js, TypeScript, Java, or Python.

• At least 5 years of practical experience with AWS and/or GCP, encompassing serverless, event-driven, CI/CD, and AI/ML technologies.

• Direct experience with AWS Bedrock or GCP Vertex AI, or similar platforms.

• Hands-on production experience with agentic AI frameworks, RAG architectures, and vector databases.

• Proficient Python skills tailored for AI/ML engineering.

• Experience in delivering AI/ML systems within regulated environments that require security, privacy, and auditing measures.

• Proven ability to influence technical direction across diverse teams without direct authority.

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related discipline, or equivalent experience (High School diploma + 4 years of relevant experience).

• Experience in healthcare, life sciences, or other regulated industries, including handling HIPAA and PHI.

• Familiarity with Vertex AI Generative AI Studio, vector search orchestration, and agent capabilities.

• Experience with LLM evaluation tools and observability platforms.

• Knowledge of MCP servers, tool integration, agent-to-agent patterns, and agent memory design.

• Experience in infrastructure-as-code, containers, and Kubernetes.

• Familiarity with fine-tuning techniques and open-weight models.

• Understanding of AI governance frameworks and model risk management.

• Agile/SAFe experience in large organizations.

• Relevant cloud certifications.

• Contributions to publications, patents, or open-source projects in AI/ML.

🏝️ Benefits

• Medical coverage.

• Dental coverage.

• Vision coverage.

• Paid time off.

• Retirement savings options.

• Wellness programs.

• Additional resources promoting physical, emotional, and financial wellness.

• CVS Health bonus, commission, or short-term incentive program.

• Equity award program.