{"id":167360,"url":"https://alion.io/job/vertex-principal-ai-engineer-2","title":"Senior Principal AI Engineer","company":{"id":58884,"name":"Vertex","domain":"vertexinc.com","url":"https://alion.io/company/vertexinc","size_band":"1001-5000","is_staffing_agency":false,"employer_type":"direct","is_intermediary":false,"listed_via":null,"ats_vendor":"Workday","truth_index":null},"role":"AI/ML","role_family":"AI/ML","seniority":"lead","employment_type":"full_time","work_mode":"remote","remote_scope":"stated_countries","remote_scope_basis":"board_field","remote_working_hours":null,"hiring_geo_confidence":"structured","locations":["United States"],"countries":["US"],"hiring_countries":["US"],"hiring_countries_total":1,"salary":{"min":229800,"max":298700,"currency":"USD","period":"year","gross":null,"usd_annual":298700},"salary_estimate":null,"experience_years_min":15,"visa_sponsorship":false,"relocation_package":false,"has_equity":true,"technologies":[{"name":"AI Agents","optional":false},{"name":"Azure","optional":false},{"name":"Embeddings","optional":false},{"name":"Fine-tuning","optional":false},{"name":"Hybrid Search","optional":false},{"name":"LLM","optional":false},{"name":"LLM Guardrails","optional":false},{"name":"LoRA","optional":false},{"name":"Model Context Protocol","optional":false},{"name":"PEFT","optional":false},{"name":"QLoRA","optional":false},{"name":"Quantization","optional":false},{"name":"RAG","optional":false},{"name":"FinOps","optional":true},{"name":"Prompt Engineering","optional":true},{"name":"Transformers","optional":true}],"status":"live","first_seen_at":"2026-07-17T00:00:00Z","employer_posted_date":"2026-10-06","last_verified_at":"2026-10-18T07:56:44Z","board_verified":true,"closed_at":null,"days_open":93,"trust":{"level":"ok","repost_count":null,"flags":[],"days_open":93},"description":"Job Description:\nThis position is a senior-level role responsible for leading the design, implementation, and maintenance of scalable, secure, and high-performance software systems across multiple projects. The position emphasizes architectural leadership, technical mentorship, and strategic collaboration to drive innovation, ensure consistency, and align solutions with organizational goals\nJob Description:\nServe as the most senior individual-contributor engineer and principal technical authority within the Commercial AI Center of Excellence (CAI CoE), owning the technical vision for AI-as-a-Service (AIaaS) enablement at enterprise scale. \nOperate as a full-spectrum AI engineer fluent across the entire lifecycle - data, model training and fine-tuning, retrieval, orchestration, evaluation, and production operations - able to go as deep as any specialist and to compose the pieces into coherent, production-grade systems. \nThis role requires both traditional AI/ML, GenAI product engineering, and traditional software architecture skillsets. \nEstablish reference architectures, paved-road patterns, and enterprise technical standards for agentic orchestration, tool and MCP design, retrieval, model training, and responsible AI across production systems. \nLead the most complex, ambiguous, cross-team initiatives spanning multiple value streams, and review and influence AI designs across product teams to ensure alignment with enterprise standards. \nSet long-term technical direction while remaining deeply hands-on with the most critical AI infrastructure and services. \nKey Responsibilities\nSet the multi-year technical vision, reference architectures, and enterprise standards for AIaaS across PDD, and act as the final technical authority and escalation point for the organization's hardest AI problems. \nDefine and own the enterprise model-training strategy across traditional AI/ML and LLMs, and personally train, fine-tune (e.g., QLoRA, LoRA, PEFT, and full fine-tuning), and evaluate models when the problem demands it. \nEstablish standards for how and where training data from Commercial AI products is sourced, cleaned, versioned, stored, and governed (lineage, licensing/consent, and PII), and architect the large-scale data and feature pipelines behind them. \nArchitect the orchestration and abstraction layers of the central AI system that connect LLMs to tools, data, and sub-agents, and set standards for MCP servers, tool-surface design (optimal number of tools exposed per LLM and APIs per server), and when to use specialized sub-agents versus direct tool exposure. \nDesign retrieval/RAG systems end to end - chunking strategies, embeddings, vector stores, hybrid search, re-ranking, context assembly, and memory. \nOwn the enterprise evaluation, observability, and safety strategy for AI systems, including offline and online evaluation, tracing, red-teaming, guardrails, and responsible-AI and compliance requirements. \nDrive build-versus-buy, model and vendor selection, and long-term architectural bets, anticipating where the field is heading and preparing the organization to adopt it. \nOptimize the performance, cost (token and inference economics), scalability, and reliability of AI workloads in partnership with Security, Cloud Platform, and SRE teams. \nMultiply the organization: mentor and grow Principal and Staff engineers and raise the AI engineering bar. \nRequired Qualifications\n15+ years in AI/ML software engineering with demonstrated Senior Principal-level (or equivalent) impact delivering production AI at enterprise scale. \nFull-lifecycle, hands-on mastery across both specialist domains: (a) training and fine-tuning traditional AI/ML models and LLMs - including parameter-efficient methods (QLoRA/LoRA/PEFT), quantization, distributed training, and rigorous evaluation; and (b) LLM orchestration, agentic systems, tool/MCP design, and retrieval/RAG in production. \nDeep expertise in distributed systems, cloud-native architecture, and large-scale data and feature pipelines. \nStrong command of data management and governance: dataset storage architecture, versioning, lineage, quality, PII handling, and licensing/consent for training data. \nProven ability to design developer platforms, APIs, reusable SDKs, MCP servers, and multi-agent orchestrations that many teams depend on. \nRigorous, demonstrated approach to AI evaluation, observability and tracing, and responsible-AI guardrails. \nExpertise with cloud platforms (Azure strongly preferred) and a track record of optimizing AI workload cost, performance, scalability, and reliability. \nDemonstrated ability to set technical strategy and influence decisions across many teams without direct authority, and to mentor Principal- and Staff-level engineers. \nExperience operating in regulated SaaS environments and meeting security and compliance requirements. \nPreferred Qualifications\nBachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related discipline; advanced degree preferred. An equivalent combination of education, training, and relevant professional experience is accepted in lieu of a formal degree. \nIndustry experience in tax or other regulated domains (insurance, fintech, or healthcare). \nExperience with vector databases and retrieval optimization at scale. \nFinOps for GenAI: experience modeling and optimizing LLM token and inference costs. \nData science or classical AI background beyond prompt engineering (statistics, feature engineering, and model evaluation). \nContributions to open-source AI tooling, published research, patents, or recognized technical thought leadership. \nStrong executive communication and technical storytelling skills. \nDisclaimer:\nThe above statements describe the general nature and level of work performed in this role. Other duties may be assigned.\nCOMMENTS:\nThe above statements are intended to describe the general nature and level of work being performed by individuals in this position. Other functions may be assigned, and management retains the right to add or change the duties at any time.\nVertex Values: Together We Win\nWe're building a team of people who are passionate about making an impact for our customers and committed to how that impact is achieved. Our values define the behaviors, mindset, and culture that make Vertex a great place to grow and do meaningful work.\nPlay to Win or We Don't Play - If we choose to do something, we're choosing to do it because we plan to win. That mindset raises our bar on product quality, customer outcomes, and how we show up for one another.\nWork As a Team, Putting the Customer At the Core - Our customers are our true north. Whatever your role, ask: how will this help a customer succeed today? We earn trust through outcomes, not promises.\nAchieve Excellence With Integrity, Speed, and Agility - The market isn't slowing down. We'll move faster, adapt quickly, and never compromise on doing things the right way - for teammates, customers, and partners.\nInnovate Boldly With a Growth Mindset - Progress demands smart risk. We'll try new approaches, learn fast, and keep pushing the boundaries - especially where AI can remove friction and unlock value.\nCommunicate with Care, Candor and Transparency - Honest, constructive conversations make us better. Let's speak plainly about what's working and what isn't and help each other improve.\n Pay Transparency Statement:\nUS Base Salary Range: $229,800.00 - $298,700.00Base pay offered to new hires may vary based upon factors including relevant industry and job-related skills and experience, geographic location, and business needs.* The range displayed does not encompass the full potential of the role, which allows for further growth and career progression.\nIn addition, as a part of our total compensation package, this role may be eligible for the Vertex Bonus Plan (VOB), a role-specific sales commission/bonus, and/or equity grants.\nLearn more about Life at Vertex and connect with your recruiter for more details regarding Vertex's compensation and benefit programs.\n*In no case will your pay fall below applicable local minimum wage requirements.","description_format":"text","description_chars":8121,"description_truncated":false,"requirements":{"experience_years_min":15,"management_years_min":null,"team_size_min":null,"manages_managers":false,"education":{"level":"bachelor","optional":false},"security_clearance":false,"languages":[]},"benefits":["Equity"],"hiring_locations":[{"name":"United States","iso":"US","kind":"country"}],"hiring_excludes":[],"relocation_offered":false,"industries":["Commerce","Marketplaces","Accounting & Tax Software"],"lifecycle":[{"event":"open","at":"2026-07-17T00:00:00Z"}],"visa":[{"country":"US","licensed_sponsor":true,"evidence":"H-1B filings in 12 months: 17","filings_12m":17,"filings_prev_12m":32,"green_card_filings_12m":0,"median_offered_wage_usd":122500,"route":null,"cap_exempt":false,"checked_at":"2026-10-15T11:24:14+00:00","sources":["US Department of Labor: LCA disclosure data (H-1B, H-1B1, E-3)"],"filings_for_role_12m":14}],"liveness":{"score":17,"band":"cold","label":"Long shot","p_open":1,"p_active":0.591,"p_room":0.28,"age_days":92,"expected_fill_days":35,"reasons":["conf:0","velocity","win:tail","crowd:"],"computed_at":"2026-10-17T05:46:00Z"},"pay":{"stated_usd_annual":298700,"is_top_pay":true},"html_url":"https://alion.io/job/vertex-principal-ai-engineer-2","json_url":"https://alion.io/job/vertex-principal-ai-engineer-2.json","meta":{"generated_at":"2026-10-18T15:51:49Z","cache_seconds":300,"methodology":"https://alion.io/methodology","terms":"https://alion.io/terms","contact":"https://alion.io/contact","api":"https://alion.io/developers","about":"Alion is a live layer of people, companies and AI agents: who they are, whether they are real and active right now, what they do and how to work with them, readable by people and by agents and paid per call.","catalog":"https://alion.io/catalog.json","usage":{"tier":"crawler_verified","counted_by":"address","units_charged":1,"used_today":21820,"day_limit":null,"remaining_today":null,"minute_limit":300,"resets_at":"2026-10-19T00:00:00Z"}},"offers":[{"id":"company.slices","title":"One company in depth, by slice","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.02,"usd":0.002,"plus_per_slice":{"credits":0.05,"usd":0.005}},"unit":"per company, plus each slice with data","note":"the employer in depth","call":{"mcp_tool":"get_company","arguments":{"id":58884},"rest":"https://alion.io/mcp/rest/get_company?id=58884"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.slices&for=job%2Fvertex-principal-ai-engineer-2"},{"id":"market.stats","title":"A market slice: pay, demand and time to fill","status":"live","price":{"credits":1,"usd":0.1},"unit":"per slice","note":"pay, demand and time to fill for this role and place","call":{"mcp_tool":"market_stats"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=market.stats&for=job%2Fvertex-principal-ai-engineer-2"},{"id":"job.search","title":"Open jobs by role, technology, place, pay and visa","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.02,"usd":0.002},"unit":"per posting in a list","note":"similar open postings","call":{"mcp_tool":"search_jobs"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=job.search&for=job%2Fvertex-principal-ai-engineer-2"},{"id":"company.verify","title":"Is this company real and active right now","status":"pilot","price":null,"unit":"per company","request":{"url":"https://alion.io/catalog/request","method":"POST","body":"{\"offer\": \"company.verify\", \"for\": \"job/vertex-principal-ai-engineer-2\", \"note\": \"what you need it for\"}"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.verify&for=job%2Fvertex-principal-ai-engineer-2"}]}