AI and Data Engineer

SnapDrum provides AI-native engineering capacity to technology companies in the UK and US.

We help clients move beyond AI experimentation by embedding engineers who can build data pipelines, integrate models, evaluate outputs and deploy reliable AI-enabled systems into production.

We are developing a carefully vetted talent network for upcoming client opportunities.

The opportunity

We are looking for AI and data engineers who combine strong software-engineering fundamentals with practical experience building production data or AI systems.

This is not a research-only role and it is not a prompt-engineering role. You should be comfortable working across data pipelines, APIs, model integrations, evaluation, deployment and monitoring.

Successful candidates will become part of SnapDrum’s client-ready talent network and may be matched to UK or US client engagements based on their experience, availability and technical fit.

What you may work on

• Build reliable data-ingestion and transformation pipelines.
• Design APIs and services that integrate AI models into existing products.
• Develop retrieval-augmented generation systems.
• Build search, embedding and vector-database workflows.
• Integrate commercial and open-source language models.
• Design evaluation frameworks for AI quality, accuracy and safety.
• Create monitoring for model performance, latency and failures.
• Improve data quality, observability and lineage.
• Build batch and real-time processing workflows.
• Deploy AI and data services to cloud environments.
• Collaborate with product, engineering and business stakeholders.
• Translate ambiguous business problems into technical solutions.
• Document architectures, assumptions, risks and operating procedures.
• Use AI development tools responsibly and verify generated outputs.

Required experience

• Strong Python programming ability.
• Good software-engineering fundamentals, including testing, source control and code review.
• Experience building data pipelines or production backend systems.
• Experience with SQL and relational databases.
• Familiarity with cloud platforms such as GCP or AWS.
• Understanding of APIs, distributed systems and deployment.
• Experience working with structured and unstructured data.
• Ability to explain technical work clearly to non-specialists.
• Strong spoken and written English.
• A track record of independently delivering meaningful technical work.

Relevant technologies may include

• Python
• SQL
• FastAPI or Flask
• PostgreSQL
• BigQuery
• Snowflake
• Spark
• Airflow
• dbt
• Kafka or Pub/Sub
• Docker
• Kubernetes
• Terraform
• LangChain or LlamaIndex
• Vector databases
• OpenAI, Anthropic, Google or open-source model APIs
• MLflow or comparable monitoring and evaluation tools

You are not expected to know every technology listed.

Strong candidates will also demonstrate

• Production experience with LLM applications.
• Experience creating automated evaluation systems.
• Knowledge of data privacy and secure model integration.
• Experience with RAG, agents or tool-calling systems.
• Experience deploying on GCP or AWS.
• Relevant cloud or data certifications.
• Experience working with international clients.
• Ability to lead technical discovery and recommend practical solutions.

What we value

We look for engineers who:

• understand that a working demo is not the same as a production system;
• validate model output rather than trusting it blindly;
• communicate uncertainty honestly;
• think about security, cost, latency and maintainability;
• ask questions before building the wrong thing;
• take ownership of delivery;
• learn new technologies quickly;
• use AI tools to improve execution while remaining accountable for the result.

Hiring process

1. Application and eligibility review

2. Asynchronous video interview

3. Practical AI or data-engineering assessment

4. Live technical interview

5. Ownership and communication interview

6. Reference and credential verification

7. Addition to the SnapDrum client-ready talent network

8. Client-specific matching and interviews when a suitable opportunity becomes available

Location and working model

• Remote from Sri Lanka
• Future full-time or long-term client engagements
• UK or US working-hours overlap may be required
• Opportunity timing will depend on client demand and candidate fit

Compensation

Compensation will be agreed for each client engagement based on experience, seniority, technical specialization and working-hours requirements.