Principal Forward Deployed AI Engineer

About the role

EPAM is looking for a Principal Forward Deployed AI Engineer to own end‑to‑end AI delivery across multiple streams. You will lead mini‑teams, collaborate with business stakeholders, solution architects, data engineers and analysts, and design production‑grade agentic AI systems.

Key responsibilities

• Own AI delivery for two streams and lead a mini‑team per stream (Senior AI Engineer, AI Engineer, DQ Engineer, Analyst).
• Partner with business stakeholders, solution architects, data engineers and analysts to refine requirements and user journeys.
• Design agent architecture, harness, and connections to data sources, including RAG pipelines.
• Create SME/end‑user feedback loops for continuous agent improvement.
• Build evaluation pipelines and establish an agent‑evaluation process.
• Implement observability and telemetry layers, including tracing and quality metrics.
• Determine optimal user journeys (chat vs A2UI) and influence ETL, transformation and vectorization decisions.

Required profile

• 7+ years of AI/ML engineering experience with a proven record of leading teams and delivering production AI systems.
• Deep expertise in agent architecture design, RAG pipelines and orchestration frameworks.
• Strong background in designing evaluation pipelines, including LLM‑as‑judge methodologies.
• Knowledge of observability, telemetry, ETL, data transformation and vectorization processes.

Required skills

• Vertex AI Search
• BigQuery
• NL2SQL
• RAG pipeline design and orchestration
• Integration of external APIs and data sources into agentic systems
• Evaluation pipeline construction (LLM‑as‑judge, golden set curation)
• Observability and telemetry systems (tracing, quality metrics, BigQuery telemetry)
• ETL, data transformation and vectorization
• Chat and A2UI interaction paradigm design

What we offer

• Global impact projects for industry leaders
• Flexible work environment (office or home)
• Opportunities to work abroad up to two months per year
• Relocation within 55+ countries
• Leadership development, certifications (GCP, Azure, AWS) and internal learning resources
• Medical & family care package, referral bonuses, six trust days per year
• Fitness, sports, and wellness discounts