Senior Associate, Applied AI Engineer

Senior Associate, Applied AI Engineer (Direct Hire)

Chicago, IL

Job Requisition: 7652

Annual Salary Range: $130 – 160K. Individual salaries are based on education, geographic location, and alignment to the market data.

Description for Senior Associate, Applied AI Engineer:

The Senior Associate, Applied AI Engineer is a hands-on technical role focused on designing, building, and operationalizing AI agents and automation workflows across the organization. This position works with modern AI techniques, including retrieval-augmented generation, embeddings, and agent frameworks, within a Databricks-centric data platform and Microsoft Copilot Studio environment. The role emphasizes building reliable, auditable AI systems that integrate deeply with enterprise data and business processes, while collaborating closely with cross-functional teams to ensure AI solutions are accurate, effective, and aligned with business objectives.

Responsibilities for Senior Associate, Applied AI Engineer:

Develop and deploy AI agents using RAG, tool orchestration frameworks, and prompt logic
Prepare and process structured and unstructured data for AI workflows, including document ingestion, metadata enrichment, and indexing
Build and maintain experimentation and evaluation pipelines in Databricks (Delta Lake, notebooks, jobs, MLflow)
Integrate AI agents into Microsoft Copilot Studio and enterprise systems, APIs, and workflows
Audit AI agent behavior for accuracy, completeness, and alignment with business intent
Identify errors, retrieval gaps, or hallucinations and propose corrective solutions
Support monitoring, iteration, and performance tracking of deployed AI agents
Collaborate with product managers, engineers, and stakeholders to define problem statements, success metrics, and workflow requirements
Communicate system behavior, limitations, and trade-offs to technical and non-technical stakeholders
Ensure AI implementations follow responsible AI practices and organizational governance standards
Perform other duties as assigned to support AI initiatives and innovation

Requirements for Senior Associate, Applied AI Engineer:

2–5 years of experience in applied AI, ML engineering, data science, or analytics engineering
Hands-on experience developing AI/ML solutions in production or enterprise environments
Proficiency in Python and modern ML frameworks
Experience with Databricks (Delta Lake, notebooks, jobs, MLflow)
Familiarity with Microsoft Copilot Studio or similar agent-based AI platforms
Knowledge of retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), embeddings, and vector databases
Experience designing and evaluating AI agent workflows, prompts, and outputs
Strong understanding of data structures, algorithms, and software engineering principles
Ability to translate business needs into technical AI solutions
Strong collaboration and communication skills across technical and non-technical teams
Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Data Science, Machine Learning, or related field (or equivalent practical experience)

Preferred Requirements for Senior Associate, Applied AI Engineer:

Experience with cloud platforms (Azure preferred, AWS/GCP acceptable)
Familiarity with LLM evaluation, agent testing, and semantic search
Exposure to responsible AI frameworks and governance

Benefits for Senior Associate, Applied AI Engineer:

Employees may be eligible for discretionary bonuses, typically up to 20% of base salary annually, depending on individual and organizational performance.
Paid flexible PTO
Paid 14+ holidays, including your birthday
Paid Parental Leave that begins after 90 days
Paid volunteer time off to give back to your community
Monthly workshop weeks
Health plan options that begin within at least 30 days of your employment
Monthly phone reimbursement
Wellness allowance and perks, including a yearly subscription to a meditation app
Employee Assistance Program (EAP) for access to confidential support services
Company retirement options including 401(k) + matching & Roth account option