[Hiring] Principal Engineer, Applied AI @National Debt Relief

Role Description

National Debt Relief (NDR) is seeking highly skilled and technically curious Principal Applied AI Engineers to join our growing Data & AI organization. Reporting to the Director of Applied AI, these roles will be foundational members of the Applied AI team responsible for the hands-on implementation of enterprise-grade Generative AI (GenAI) solutions. This is an exciting opportunity to build and deploy real-world, production-ready AI applications that transform client experiences, optimize internal operations, and unlock intelligent automation at scale.

• Design, prototype, and deploy Generative AI solutions across NDR’s client-facing and internal platforms.
• Build and optimize applications using large language models (LLMs), vector databases, prompt engineering, and Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) pipelines.
• Own hands-on development of AI-powered chatbots using modern conversational AI frameworks, ensuring production-grade performance, scalability, and compliance.
• Lead development of AI agents for both digital and voice channels, supporting real-time interactions with clients and internal users.
• Work with external vendors to evaluate GenAI platforms and APIs, integrate off-the-shelf solutions, and drive production rollouts.
• Build proof-of-concept (POC) applications to evaluate emerging use cases in document classification, summarization, AI-powered knowledge assistants, and more.
• Optimize prompt structures, parameter tuning, and model usage to improve cost-effectiveness and accuracy of deployed AI solutions.
• Partner with the ML/AI Ops Engineer to ensure robust data pipelines, deployments, and observability for GenAI applications.
• Work closely with the Senior Generative AI Product Manager to align technical implementation with user needs, timelines, and business priorities.
• Lead architectural design discussions with digital, product, and engineering teams to align AI integration across the enterprise.
• Drive technical execution and architectural alignment across multiple teams and stakeholders on high-impact AI initiatives.
• Tackle ambiguous or technically complex problems and provide guidance on solution design and tradeoffs.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in data science, Computer Science, Statistics, or a related field required.
• 8 years of experience in machine learning, NLP, AI engineering, software engineering, and data engineering with recent focus on LLMs / Generative AI.
• Proven, hands-on experience building and deploying production-grade AI chatbots in the past 2 years.

Requirements

• Expert-level Python programming skills, including experience with modern ML and GenAI libraries (e.g., LangChain, Transformers, OpenAI, Hugging Face).
• Proficiency in working with vector databases (e.g., FAISS, Pinecone, Chroma, Weaviate) and building RAG pipelines.
• Experience with prompt engineering, model tuning, API orchestration, and LLM evaluation strategies.
• Solid SQL skills and understanding of how to work with data stored in platforms like Snowflake.
• Comfortable working in fast-paced, collaborative environments with product managers, engineers, and vendors.
• Strong communication skills with the ability to explain complex AI behavior and performance to non-technical stakeholders.
• Ability to foster a culture of collaboration, continuous improvement, and innovation.

Preferred Skills/Abilities

• Experience in financial services or a related industry.
• Experience deploying voice AI or conversational AI agents in telephony environments.
• Familiarity with Snowflake, dbt, and data pipelines used in support of AI solutions.
• Experience working with or integrating Salesforce data and workflows.
• Exposure to GenAI use cases including document understanding (OCR/NLP), summarization, or personalized insights.
• Prior experience supporting regulated environments or customer service applications.

Benefits

• Generous Medical, Dental, and Vision Benefits
• 401(k) with Company Match
• Paid Holidays, Volunteer Time Off, Sick Days, and Vacation
• 12 weeks Paid Parental Leave
• Pre-tax Transit Benefits
• No-Cost Life Insurance Benefits
• Voluntary Benefits Options
• ASPCA Pet Health Insurance Discount
• Wellness Incentive Program