AI Lead

AI Lead San Francisco / Seattle , PST time. (On-site) Primary focus for someone with good audio/video/chat interface experience (OpenAI real time API experience would be good) and good communication skills. Rate : Contract to Hire in 3 months We are looking for an AI Lead with 13+ years of Exp to design, develop, and deploy AI/ML and Generative AI solutions that deliver measurable business value. The role involves building scalable models, working with large datasets, integrating AI systems with enterprise applications, and collaborating with cross-functional teams including Data Engineering, Cloud, and Product to operationalize AI at scale. Key Responsibilities AI / ML Solution Development Design, develop, and deploy ML and AI models to solve business problems Build solutions across Machine Learning, Deep Learning, NLP, Computer Vision, and Generative AI Implement feature engineering, model training, tuning, validation, and deployment Develop scalable model pipelines and reusable AI components GenAI & LLM (If applicable) Build solutions on Azure OpenAI, OpenAI, AWS Bedrock, Google Vertex or similar platforms Prompt engineering, RAG pipelines, embeddings, vector DB integration Implement model governance, data privacy, bias & compliance controls MLOps & Productionization Operationalize models using MLOps frameworks (Azure ML, SageMaker, MLflow, Databricks, Vertex AI) CI/CD for ML, model monitoring, retraining strategies Optimize performance, scalability, and reliability of AI solutions Data Collaboration Work closely with Data Engineers & Architects to ensure reliable data pipelines Handle structured and unstructured datasets Ensure data quality, lineage, and governance alignment Stakeholder Collaboration Work with business, product, and engineering stakeholders to understand use cases Translate business requirements into AI solutions Provide technical leadership and guidance to project teams Required Skills & Experience 5+ years in AI/ML engineering roles Strong expertise in: Python, ML libraries (TensorFlow, PyTorch, Scikit-learn) NLP, Computer Vision, or GenAI (at least one specialization) SQL, data wrangling, feature engineering Experience with: Azure ML / AWS SageMaker / GCP Vertex / Databricks MLOps, CI/CD, APIs, containers (Docker, Kubernetes) Experience building and deploying production AI systems Strong understanding of algorithms, statistics, and ML concepts Nice to Have Experience with Generative AI/LLM implementations Experience with vector databases (Pinecone, FAISS, Azure Vector Search) Knowledge of RAG, prompt engineering, model tuning Cloud certifications (Azure, AWS, GCP) Experience in specific domains (Banking, Retail, Manufacturing, Healthcare etc.) Soft Skills Strong problem-solving and analytical ability Excellent communication and stakeholder collaboration Innovation mindset and ability to think productively Ability to work independently and mentor junior engineers Veracity