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Agent guide: [/agents.md](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/agents.md). --- # Associate Principal, Artificial Intelligence Engineering - **Company:** The Options Clearing Corporation - **Location:** Chicago, IL, United States (Remote available) - **Experience:** Expert - **Salary:** $127,900.0 - $176,800.0 - **Contract:** Permanent contract - **Skills:** Application Programming Interfaces (APIs), Artificial Intelligence, Amazon Web Services, Audit Trail, Cloud Computing, Continuous Integration, Information Engineering, Distributed Systems, Python (Programming Language), Software Deployment, Software Engineering, SQL Databases, AI Infrastructure, Large Language Models, Containerization, Kubernetes, Information Technology, Api Design, Terraform, Docker - **Published:** August 18, 2026 - **Apply:** https://jobs.localjobnetwork.com/apply/add/85504632/1 ## About the Role The requirements listed are representative of the knowledge, skill, and/or ability required. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the primary functions. * Experience mentoring or elevating the work of junior engineers * Demonstrated ownership of production systems from design through deployment * Ability to work effectively in a still-forming, fast-moving team environment * This position is not eligible for employment visa sponsorship. Candidates must be legally authorized to work in the United States without the need for sponsorship now or in the future. Technical Skills: * Required: Strong Python; proficient SQL; solid distributed systems and API design fundamentals * Required: Hands-on experience building LLM-powered applications or agentic systems * Required: Working knowledge of AI-specific risk areas (prompt injection, output validation, hallucination mitigation, data privacy), or demonstrated ability to build this expertise quickly * Required: Cloud infrastructure experience (AWS preferred); comfort with Docker, CI/CD, and containerization fundamentals * Preferred: Direct experience with Claude, the Anthropic API, or Claude.ai/Console * Preferred: Experience designing agent orchestration or Model Context Protocol (MCP)-based integrations * Preferred: Production experience operating LLM-powered applications or agentic systems at scale * Preferred: Kubernetes and infrastructure-as-code (Terraform) * Preferred: Background in financial services, derivatives, or other regulated industries * Preferred: Exposure to AI security practices such as red-teaming or adversarial testing of model inputs and outputs * Preferred: Data engineering experience (pipelines, data modeling), particularly for candidates interested in AI infrastructure work Education and/or Experience: * Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related technical field; Master's preferred * 4-7 years of software engineering experience, with production AI/LLM systems experience preferred ## Description OCC's AI Research & Engineering (AIRE) team is building the company's first generation of agentic AI capabilities on Anthropic's Claude models and AWS infrastructure. The Associate Principal, AI Engineering owns the design and delivery of agentic AI systems end-to-end, mentors junior engineers, and contributes technical judgment on AI application and/or AI infrastructure work in a largely greenfield environment., To perform this job successfully, an individual must be able to perform each primary duty satisfactorily. * Own the design and delivery of agentic AI systems end-to-end, from architecture through production deployment * Architect agent orchestration patterns, tool and context integration, and evaluation pipelines for reliability in a regulated environment * Own AI infrastructure supporting AIRE's agents and applications on AWS, and contribute to the team's growing infrastructure self-sufficiency * Implement technical safeguards against AI-specific risks, including hallucination detection, prompt injection defense, and output validation, in collaboration with OCC's AI Governance function * Build audit logging and human-in-the-loop checkpoints into agentic workflows so agent actions remain traceable and reviewable in a regulated environment * Mentor Associate and Senior Associate engineers through code and architecture review * Contribute technical point of view to the team's evolving engineering standards and practices, in partnership with the Executive Director ## Related Videos - [Docker Compose: Rediscovered](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/videos/1978-docker-compose-rediscovered) - [Infrastructure as Code: The Developer's Secret Weapon](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/videos/1221-infrastructure-as-code-the-developer-s-secret-weapon) - [API Design - Getting Started](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/videos/33-api-design-getting-started) - [Coffee with Developers - Maria Apazoglou](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/videos/1209-coffee-with-developers-maria-apazoglou) - [Docker build without Docker](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/videos/100114-docker-build-without-docker) - [Agentic employees in world's most downloaded FinTech app](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/videos/100123-agentic-employees-in-world-s-most-downloaded-fintech-app) ## Related Articles - [How to Become an AI Engineer](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/magazine/331-how-to-become-an-ai-engineer) - [From Prototype to Production: Build AI Agents with This Free 4-Course Learning Path](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/magazine/655-from-prototype-to-production-build-ai-agents-with-this-free-4-course-learning-path) - [What Are Large Language Models?](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/magazine/304-what-are-large-language-models) - [MLOps And AI Driven Development](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/magazine/82-mlops-and-ai-driven-development) - [Coffee with Developers - Maria Apazoglou - Making AI understandable for all in production](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/magazine/475-coffee-with-developers-maria-apazoglou-making-ai-understandable-for-all-in-production) - [Navigating the AI Shift](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/magazine/629-navigating-the-ai-shift)