Position Summary
We are seeking a Lead AI Developer to lead the design, development, testing, and deployment of reliable AI-powered applications and services. In this role, you will provide technical direction, collaborate with product and engineering colleagues, and guide the delivery of AI solutions that address business needs. The ideal candidate brings strong software development experience, practical expertise in artificial intelligence and machine learning, and the ability to support and develop a collaborative engineering team.
Key Responsibilities
Lead the design, development, testing, and maintenance of AI applications, services, and supporting software components
Translate product requirements and business needs into robust, scalable, and maintainable AI solutions
Provide technical leadership and guidance to developers, supporting sound engineering practices and effective collaboration
Assess AI approaches, models, and tools to determine their suitability for product and operational requirements
Develop and integrate machine learning models, generative AI capabilities, and AI services into software applications
Build and maintain APIs, data pipelines, and integrations that support AI features and applications
Establish and maintain practices for evaluating model quality, performance, reliability, and suitability for intended use
Promote responsible AI development, including appropriate consideration of privacy, security, fairness, transparency, and human oversight
Review code and technical designs, and help maintain consistent standards for testing, documentation, and software quality
Investigate and resolve defects, performance issues, and production incidents affecting AI applications and services
Identify opportunities to improve the scalability, security, cost-effectiveness, and maintainability of AI systems
Work with product, data, engineering, and operational colleagues to plan and deliver AI initiatives
Contribute to technical roadmaps, project estimates, implementation plans, and knowledge sharing across the team
Keep up to date with developments in AI, machine learning, software engineering, and relevant security and governance practices
Required Qualifications
Professional experience in software development, AI development, machine learning engineering, or a related technical role
Experience leading technical work or providing guidance to developers within a collaborative engineering team
Proficiency in Python and experience with at least one other modern programming language
Practical experience developing, integrating, or deploying AI or machine learning solutions
Understanding of machine learning principles, model evaluation, data preparation, and common AI development workflows
Experience building APIs or production software services and integrating them with data sources or third-party systems
Experience working with relational or non-relational databases and data processing workflows
Familiarity with software testing, code reviews, version control, and continuous integration practices
Understanding of software architecture, data structures, algorithms, and common design patterns
Strong analytical and problem-solving skills, with the ability to assess trade-offs and develop practical solutions
Ability to communicate technical concepts clearly and work effectively with colleagues across different disciplines
Good organisation and time management skills, with the ability to manage priorities and deliver work to agreed timelines
Commitment to developing secure, reliable, maintainable, and responsible AI-enabled software
Preferred Qualifications
Experience developing generative AI applications using large language models, embedding models, or related technologies
Familiarity with retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), vector search, prompt design, and AI application evaluation
Experience with machine learning frameworks or libraries such as PyTorch, TensorFlow, or scikit-learn
Experience with cloud-based AI or machine learning services from AWS, Microsoft Azure, or Google Cloud
Familiarity with MLOps practices, model deployment, monitoring, and lifecycle management
Experience with containerisation technologies such as Docker and orchestration platforms such as Kubernetes
Knowledge of data protection, AI governance, or responsible AI frameworks and practices
Experience working in an agile software development team
Relevant degree, professional qualification, or equivalent practical experience in software development, artificial intelligence, machine learning, or a related field
Skills Required
- Significant experience in data science, artificial intelligence, machine learning, statistics, quantitative analysis, or a related technical discipline, including experience leading AI/ML projects or teams
- Experience applying machine learning and statistical techniques to solve complex business, customer, or operational problems
- Strong understanding of supervised and unsupervised learning, deep learning, predictive modeling, feature engineering, model evaluation, experimentation, and statistical inference
- Practical experience with Python and common data science, machine learning, and deep learning libraries and frameworks
- Experience with SQL, databases, data warehouses, data lakes, and large or complex datasets
- Experience taking AI/ML models or analytical solutions from development through deployment, monitoring, governance, and ongoing improvement
- Experience managing or mentoring data scientists or machine learning engineers
- Ability to communicate complex AI/ML concepts, model limitations, analytical findings, and business recommendations to technical and non-technical stakeholders
- Strong problem-solving, critical thinking, decision-making, organizational, and stakeholder management skills
- Understanding of data governance, information security, data protection, model risk, AI ethics, and responsible AI principles
- Experience leading distributed or cross-functional data science, AI, and machine learning teams
- Experience with generative AI, large language models, prompt engineering, retrieval-augmented generation, NLP, computer vision, forecasting, recommendation systems, or optimization
- Experience with AWS, Microsoft Azure, or Google Cloud machine learning platforms
- Experience with MLOps, model governance, feature stores, experiment tracking, model monitoring, model registries, and automated ML workflows
- Experience with distributed data processing, data pipelines, APIs, software engineering, and modern data platforms
- Experience with containerization, orchestration, infrastructure as code, CI/CD, and production-grade machine learning services
- Relevant degree or professional qualification in AI, machine learning, data science, computer science, statistics, mathematics, engineering, or a related field
- Research experience, published work, patents, or open-source AI/ML contributions
- Experience in environments with formal information security, data protection, quality, responsible AI, or regulatory requirements
What We Do
Vidoori, Inc. is a consulting firm that provides Program Management, Information Technology and Engineering services for government and commercial clients. Our team’s experience and on-going support span numerous government agencies, such as the Census Bureau, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, Department of Defense (Army branch), Department of Homeland Security, Social Security Administration, and Department of Veterans Affairs. Vidoori takes the experiences we gain to continuously improve upon existing and future efforts, while producing innovative solutions to complex problems. We are committed to providing our partners with a low cost, low risk, and high quality driven small business partner for their mission critical needs.
