Principal AI Engineer

Stratus, deriving from the Latin term meaning 'layer', offers an advanced set of MEP specific solutions that seamlessly layer across a contractor's entire workflow from design to fabrication to installation. Our team of seasoned industry experts, skilled technology leaders, innovators, and entrepreneurs understands that fabrication does not occur in isolation, and increasingly, it may not happen within your own fabrication shop. Through close relationships with our customers-who include some of the most innovative and largest MEP contractors-we have developed a suite of Stratus tools to digitize, automate, and optimize piping, plumbing, sheet metal, and electrical contracting. Stratus provides the software layer an MEP Contractor needs to optimize profits with true "Data Driven Contracting."

GENERAL DESCRIPTION:

The Principal AI Engineer builds the agentic intelligence layer for Stratus - the production agent systems, tool integrations, and evaluation infrastructure that let our products reason over MEP fabrication data and act on a contractor's behalf. You will design multi-agent workflows, build the tool and context layer that connects agents to Stratus data, and own the guardrails, evals, and observability that make those systems safe and trustworthy in front of customers.

As a Principal Engineer, you will set technical direction for a small, fast-moving team, mentor engineers, and act as a credible technical voice to executives and customers - translating how these systems work into plain language.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Design and build agentic workflows: multi-agent orchestration (e.g., LangGraph, CrewAI, AutoGen), tool calling, structured outputs, multi-step planning, and human-in-the-loop checkpoints, to automate complex MEP engineering tasks.
• Establish evaluation, guardrails, and failure-mode analysis for agent systems; including offline eval suites in CI and live production sampling, to ensure they are safe, reliable, and grounded.
• Build the tool and context layer connecting agents to Stratus data via internal and customer-facing APIs (e.g., MCP), including context-window management, permissioning, and cost control.
• Set up observability and tracing for agent behavior; diagnose cost, latency, and hallucination issues in production.
• Integrate Stratus's published design and fabrication data into agent workflows.
• Set technical direction for a small cross-functional team; mentor engineers and drive AI engineering best practices.
• Act as a technical translator to executives and customers - explain agentic systems in plain language and stand behind the workflows you ship.
• Perform requirements analysis with senior stakeholders, ensuring solutions meet immediate product goals and longer-term objectives.
• Contribute to agile workflows, ensuring flexibility and responsiveness to evolving project needs.
• Participate in technical planning and roadmap development.

QUALIFICATIONS:

Required:

• 6-8+ years of software engineering experience, with a proven track record of shipping and operating production-grade systems - not just prototypes or notebooks.
• Hands-on experience building and operating agentic systems in production - orchestration frameworks (LangGraph, CrewAI, or AutoGen), tool calling, structured outputs, and eval frameworks.
• Strong computer science fundamentals (data structures, algorithms, system design) and solid API/backend engineering depth.
• Demonstrated ownership of evals, guardrails, and observability for LLM or agent systems.
• Excellent communication skills - able to make complex AI systems legible to executives and customers and to influence technical direction.
• Comfort working in newly forming, ambiguous areas where learning and adaptability are key.
• Degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field, or equivalent practical experience.

Nice to Have

• Experience with MCP or similar tool-integration protocols.
• Familiarity working with data derived from CAD/BIM or other 2D/3D model sets.
• Familiarity with machine learning concepts and how data is represented for training.
• Proficiency in C# and strong software development practices.
• Background in customer-facing or professional-services roles.
• Ability to collaborate easily with others and work effectively with minimal direction.
• Drive to continually learn new technologies and seek new ways to solve hard problems.
• Bias toward putting your ideas out there and failing fast.

Benefits

• Comprehensive and competitive health benefits plan
• Matching 401k contributions
• 20 days annual PTO
• Primarily remote work with occasional annual team onsites.

This is a remote role, but candidates must be based in the U.S.


E-VERIFY STATEMENT
Stratus participates in E-Verify. After you join the team, we'll verify your eligibility to work in the U.S. by submitting information from your Form I-9 to the Social Security Administration and, if needed, the Department of Homeland Security. This process happens post-hire only - we never use E-Verify to pre-screen applicants.
E-Verify Notice
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