Robots & Pencils is seeking an AI Engineer / AI Architect to design, build, and scale production-grade AI systems that deliver measurable business value.
This is a hands-on technical leadership role. You will define system architectures, lead implementation of scalable AI platforms, and guide teams through the full lifecycle of AI development, from experimentation and model iteration to secure, observable production deployment.
As a Level 4 leader, you are expected to own complex AI systems end-to-end, influence technical direction, mentor engineers, and make principled architectural tradeoffs under real-world constraints.
Key Responsibilities
AI Architecture & Technical Strategy
Define AI system architecture aligned to business objectives and long-term scalability
Translate ambiguous AI opportunities into structured technical approaches
Design modular, extensible AI platforms supporting experimentation and production workloads
Establish architecture decision records (ADRs) and technical documentation standards
AI System Design & Implementation
Lead design and implementation of ML systems, model services, and inference pipelines
Build scalable training, evaluation, and deployment workflows
Architect data ingestion, feature engineering, and model serving strategies
Ensure reliability, observability, and performance optimization of AI systems
AI Platform & Infrastructure
Design and implement end-to-end AI pipelines and agentic orchestration frameworks.
Establish LLMOps best practices including CI/CD, prompt versioning, and real-time model observability.
Optimize distributed inference systems and retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) performance.
Ensure AI infrastructure aligns with security, compliance, and GPU/token cost-efficiency standards.
Research-to-Production Acceleration
Bridge research and engineering by operationalizing prototypes into production-ready systems
Define evaluation metrics, validation processes, and rollout strategies
Improve iteration velocity through tooling and automation
Technical Leadership & Mentorship
Mentor junior and mid-level AI engineers
Lead code reviews and enforce engineering standards
Guide teams in making informed tradeoffs across performance, scalability, cost, and complexity
Contribute to shared AI best practices and internal accelerators
Cross-Functional Collaboration
Partner with product, engineering, and executive stakeholders to shape AI roadmaps
Communicate technical strategy and system tradeoffs clearly to non-technical audiences
Align AI initiatives with business value and measurable outcomes
Required Skills & Qualifications
5+ years of experience in AI/ML engineering or applied machine learning
Proven experience designing and deploying production AI systems
Strong software engineering background (Python or similar)
Experience with distributed systems and scalable data architectures
Deep understanding of MLOps, model lifecycle management, and AI infrastructure
Experience building and maintaining ML pipelines and automated deployment workflows
Strong problem-solving skills and architectural judgment
Demonstrated leadership and mentoring experience
Excellent communication skills for technical and executive stakeholders
Nice to Have
Experience with generative AI, LLM systems, or retrieval-augmented architectures
Exposure to multi-agent or agentic AI systems
Experience with cloud-based AI platforms and infrastructure-as-code
Background in consulting or professional services environments
Experience designing AI systems in regulated or security-sensitive domains
Hands-on AWS experience supporting cloud-native or AI/ML production systems.
AWS certifications (Associate or Professional level) or equivalent practical AWS expertise.
Personal Competencies
Architectural Thinking – Designs systems that scale and evolve
Technical Ownership – Drives AI initiatives from concept to production
Engineering Rigor – Prioritizes reliability, observability, and maintainability
Mentorship – Elevates team capability through guidance and example
Execution Focus – Delivers production-ready systems, not just prototypes
Comfort in Ambiguity – Translates unclear AI challenges into structured solutions
Why Join Robots & Pencils?
At Robots & Pencils, we build intelligent systems for real-world environments, blending creativity, engineering excellence, and applied AI to help organizations work smarter. Our teams partner directly with leading North American organizations to design and deliver production-ready digital and AI solutions that create measurable impact.
As an AI Engineer, you will build production AI systems alongside experienced architects and senior engineers, strengthening your foundation in machine learning, scalable system design, and modern cloud-native delivery. You’ll collaborate closely with US-based clients, gaining hands-on exposure to complex problem-solving while contributing to meaningful, real-world outcomes.
By joining Robots & Pencils, you also benefit from our Advanced AWS Partnership and participation in the highly exclusive AWS Patterns Partnership, a distinction held by only 11 companies worldwide out of more than 190,000 AWS partners. This provides access to specialized training, early access to emerging cloud capabilities, and advanced engineering resources that support accelerated professional growth.
This is a role for builders who want to sharpen their craft, grow quickly, and deliver impactful AI systems within an elite global engineering ecosystem.