> Markdown version of [/jobs/ext/4178342-founding-ai-engineer](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/jobs/ext/4178342-founding-ai-engineer). Every page supports `.md` or `Accept: text/markdown`. Links point to the HTML versions so they work for humans too. Agent guide: [/agents.md](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/agents.md). --- # Founding AI Engineer - **Company:** 44TH DRIVE GOURMET CORP. - **Location:** Washington, DC, United States - **Experience:** Expert - **Salary:** $170,000.0 - $200,000.0 - **Contract:** Permanent contract - **Skills:** Java (Programming Language), Application Programming Interfaces (APIs), Artificial Intelligence, Amazon Web Services, Big Data, Cloud Engineering, Information Retrieval, Python (Programming Language), Machine Learning, Natural Language Processing, Software Engineering, Systems Integration, Enterprise Software Applications, Retrieval-Augmented Generation, Large Language Models, IT Architecture, Generative AI, Agentic-AI, Build Management, Machine Learning Operations - **Published:** October 2, 2026 - **Apply:** https://www.disabledperson.com/jobs/75672033-founding-ai-engineer ## About the Role * 5+ years' experience across Software Engineering, AI Engineering or Machine Learning Engineering * Strong software engineering fundamentals and experience building production applications or systems * Commercial experience building and deploying AI/ML systems into production * Hands-on experience with LLMs, Generative AI and/or agentic AI * Strong Python development skills * Experience integrating AI capabilities into broader software products and platforms * Cloud engineering experience across AWS, GCP or similar * Understanding of AI evaluation, monitoring, reliability, scalability and performance * Experience with modern AI frameworks, APIs and tooling * Strong problem-solving skills and the ability to work autonomously in an evolving environment * Experience with Java/Spring, NLP, RAG, information retrieval or large-scale data platforms would be highly regarded ## Description They're making their first dedicated AI Engineering hire in the US - a key appointment that will work directly with the Co-Founder and senior Product leadership, with significant scope to influence the direction of their AI capability as the US engineering team grows., * Develop LLM-powered features and AI agents that solve complex, real-world intelligence problems * Integrate new AI capabilities into an established enterprise software platform * Take ideas from early prototype through to scalable, reliable production systems * Work across AI architecture, orchestration, evaluation, monitoring and performance * Build and deploy cloud-based AI services across AWS/GCP environments * Work with large volumes of complex structured and unstructured information * Partner closely with Product, Software Engineering and Data Science teams * Work directly with the Co-Founder and Head of Product on the direction of the AI capability * Help establish the foundations for a US AI Engineering team expected to grow to around five people