Director, AI Engineer

Job Description

“US citizens and those authorized to work in the US are encouraged to apply. We are unable to sponsor H1b candidates at this time.”

Job Title: Director, AI Engineer

Location: East Lansing, MI (Remote)

Duration: Full time permanent / Contract to Hire

Job Description:

The Principal, AI Engineer is a senior technical leader who blends deep software engineering expertise with AI, machine learning, and data science to design, build, and deploy scalable AI-driven systems, including internal and external frameworks, products, and reusable software assets.

Directly reporting to the company’s Chief AI Officer, this role requires AI-first thinking that is expressed through hands-on coding, system architecture, and a passion for mentoring product and technical staff—software engineers, AI engineers, cloud specialists, and product/QA professionals.

You’ll shape technical direction and ensure that your small teams deliver production-grade solutions. You’ll contribute directly to projects while guiding the team through influence, collaboration, and technical competence.

Duties and Responsibilities:

AI Software Development (35%)

•Drive the design and implementation of scalable, production-ready AI products, integrating generative AI and machine learning models into robust software applications.

•Evangelize and ensure company-wide use of products like AWS Q, Cursor, Lovable, and existing in-house AI products.

•Mentor and lead the creation of end-to-end AI pipelines, from data ingestion to model deployment, using MLOps tools like MLflow, Kubeflow, or Airflow, ensuring seamless integration with MCP, microservices, or APIs.

•Optimize software and AI components for performance, reliability, and scalability, leveraging techniques like model quantization, distributed computing, caching, or low-latency inferencing.

•Train the team to write high-quality, maintainable code with AI while adhering to software engineering best practices, including unit testing, CI/CD, containerization (Docker, Kubernetes), HITECH, and HIPAA.

System Architecture and Technical Strategy (25%)

•Architect resilient, scalable AI products and solutions that integrate seamlessly with software infrastructure, ensuring high availability, fault tolerance, and efficiency.

•Ensure scalability and maintainability on cloud platforms and products (AWS, Palantir, DocuSign, etc.).

•Define technical roadmaps for AI and software engineering initiatives, balancing innovation with practical delivery to meet organizational goals.

•Evaluate and integrate emerging AI technologies (e.g., Reasoning Models, Large Vision Models, RLHF) and software frameworks to enhance our capabilities.

•Collaborate with cross-functional teams to translate business needs into technical solutions, ensuring AI and software systems deliver measurable impact and happy customers.

Mentorship and Maker-Leadership (20%)

•Mentor AI engineers and data engineers, providing hands-on guidance on “AI First for People” software engineering practices, AI-ML implementation, and system design.

•Lead by example, contributing high-quality code, prototypes, and architectural designs to set technical standards in a flat, collaborative environment.

•Facilitate knowledge-sharing through code reviews, pair programming, and workshops, fostering a culture of continuous learning and experimentation.

•Guide teams through complex technical challenges, promoting collaborative problem-solving without relying on formal authority.

Data Science and System Integration (20%)

•Partner with customers and data scientists to preprocess and analyze datasets, ensuring high-quality inputs for AI models and integration with software pipelines.

•Apply statistical methods to validate model performance and ensure system reliability, using metrics like accuracy, latency, or throughput.

•Work with Product Leads to align AI and software solutions with customer requirements, ensuring end-to-end functionality and value delivery.

Qualifications:

Required:

•Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Machine Learning, or a related field.

•7+ years leadership experience in HIE or healthcare IT

•Deep understanding of integration technologies and data exchange protocols

•Strong analytical and investigative problem-solving skills

•Outstanding communication and presentation skills

Preferred Qualifications:

•Advanced degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Machine Learning, or a related field.

•Contributions to open-source AI or software projects, or active participation/publications in AI-ML conferences, journals, or work groups.

•Experience in flat or self-managed organizations, with a focus on collaborative technical leadership and empowered members of technical staff.

•Familiarity with specialized AI hardware (e.g., GPUs, TPUs) or advanced techniques like federated learning or explainable AI.