Lead ML/AI Engineer

Our client,  is opening a Lead ML/AI Engineer position.
The company is actively expanding its AI direction and is looking for a specialist who combines deep technical expertise with strong client-facing skills: joining calls, leading discovery phases, and participating in pre-sales processes.

Formal experience specifically in a “lead” role is not strictly required — what matters most is that you feel confident as a technical expert who understands client needs and can propose solutions. Approximately 50% of tasks will be presales/discovery, while the rest will be project work.
 

Responsibilities

• Design, build and scale a production-grade inference stack for RAG-based applications,
• Develop efficient retrieval pipelines using OpenSearch or similar vector databases, with a focus on high recall and response relevance,
• Optimize performance and latency for both real-time and batch queries,
• Identify and address bottlenecks in the inference stack to improve response times and system efficiency,
• Ensure high reliability, observability, and monitoring of deployed systems,
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams to integrate LLMs and retrieval components into user-facing applications,
• Evaluate and integrate modern RAG frameworks and tools to accelerate development,
• Guide architectural decisions, mentor team members, and uphold engineering excellence.

Requirements

• 8+ years of experience in software engineering, with a focus on AI/ML systems or distributed systems,
• Hands-on experience building and deploying retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) systems,
• Deep knowledge of OpenSearch, Elasticsearch, or similar search engines,
• Strong coding skills in Python,
• Experience with frameworks like LlamaIndex or LangChain,
• Familiarity with vector databases such as Pinecone, Qdrant, or FAISS,
• Exposure to LLM fine-tuning, semantic search, embeddings, and prompt engineering,
• Previous work on systems handling millions of users or queries per day,
• Familiarity with cloud infrastructure (AWS, GCP, or Azure) and containerization tools (Docker, Kubernetes),
• Experience with vector search, embedding pipelines, and dense retrieval techniques,
• Proven ability to optimize inference stacks for latency, reliability, and scalability,
• Excellent problem-solving, analytical, and debugging skills,
• Strong sense of ownership, ability to work independently, and a self-starter mindset in fast-paced environments,
• Passion for building impactful technology aligned with our mission,
• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science or related field, or equivalent practical experience.

What Offers

• Competitive salary and transparent bonus system.
• Exciting and stable AI projects with a modern tech stack.
• Daily English practice with international clients + courses.
• Coverage for training and certifications.
• VIP medical insurance or sports compensation.
• Flexible schedule with minimal bureaucracy.
• 18 vacation days + sick leave.
• Paid coworking (for those outside Kyiv/Lviv).
• Team events, corporate gatherings, soft skills clubs.
• Opportunity to work remotely or from offices in Kyiv and Lviv.

📌 Project: AI platform leveraging RAG, LLM, and search technologies, designed to scale to millions of users.