Director, AI Engineering

Position Summary Director, AI Engineering is a senior technical leader who partners with Principal Architects, business stakeholders, and engineering teams to translate enterprise strategy into scalable, AI‑enabled technology solutions. The role blends deep hands‑on technical depth across full‑stack engineering, cloud platforms, and modern AI architectures with leadership presence required to influence cross‑functional teams and shape long‑range technology direction. The successful candidate will architect production‑grade systems that integrate Generative AI, agentic workflows, and RAG‑based retrieval into core enterprise applications, while mentoring engineering teams and establishing the patterns, guardrails, and platforms that allow AI to scale responsibly across the organization. Location: San Diego, CA (HQ). Key Responsibilities Architecture and Technical Strategy – Define reference architectures, design patterns, and platform standards for AI‑enabled enterprise applications spanning web, mobile, and backend services; partner with the Principal Architect to develop multi‑year technology roadmaps; evaluate emerging technologies (foundation models, agentic frameworks, vector databases, MLOps tooling) and translate them into actionable adoption plans; lead architectural reviews to ensure system designs meet scalability, security, performance, observability, and TCO requirements. AI and Generative AI Engineering – Architect Generative AI solutions including RAG systems, multi‑agent workflows, conversational interfaces, and domain‑specific fine‑tuned models; design responsible AI frameworks covering prompt engineering standards, evaluation pipelines, model governance, and content safety controls; establish MLOps and LLMOps practices for deployment, monitoring, drift detection, and continuous improvement; integrate LLM providers (OpenAI, Anthropic, Google) and orchestration frameworks (LangChain, LangGraph) into production systems with fallback and cost controls. Cloud and Platform Engineering – Design cloud‑native solutions on Google Cloud Platform, Azure, or AWS, leveraging managed AI services (Vertex AI, AlloyDB, Cloud Functions, equivalent services); architect CI/CD pipelines, infrastructure‑as‑code, and platform automation; define and enforce standards for containerization, microservices, API design, and event‑driven architectures. Leadership and Delivery – Provide technical leadership to engineering teams of 15 to 30 engineers (UI, backend, ML, platform specialists); mentor senior engineers and tech leads; partner with product, design, and business stakeholders to scope initiatives, manage trade‑offs, and deliver measurable business outcomes; represent the architecture function in executive forums, vendor evaluations, and strategic planning sessions. Required Qualifications 15 or more years of progressive experience in software engineering, with at least 5 years in architecture or senior technical leadership roles. Experience leading distributed engineering teams of 15+ across multiple time zones. Deep hands‑on expertise across full‑stack development (Python and Java, Spring Boot, microservices). Proven experience architecting and deploying Generative AI solutions in production (RAG, prompt engineering, LLM integration). Strong command of at least one major cloud platform (GCP, Azure, or AWS) with experience designing scalable, multi‑tenant systems. Track record of delivering enterprise‑grade systems that serve large user bases with measurable performance and revenue outcomes. Preferred Qualifications Experience with agentic AI frameworks (LangChain, LangGraph, AutoGen, CrewAI) and multi‑agent system design. Familiarity with Voice AI and conversational AI platforms (ASR, TTS, dialog management). Background in commerce platforms (Bloomreach, Salesforce Commerce Cloud, Adobe Experience Cloud) or industrial and B2B e‑commerce. Exposure to data platforms (BigQuery, Snowflake, Databricks) and modern data architectures (lakehouse, streaming, vector stores). Industry certifications such as TOGAF, GCP Professional Cloud Architect, Azure Solutions Architect Expert, or AWS Solutions Architect Professional. Active engagement with the technology community through conference talks, publications, patents, or industry awards. Senior membership in IEEE, ACM, or equivalent professional organization. Technical Skill Profile AI & ML: Generative AI, LLMs (GPT‑4, Claude, Gemini), LangChain, LangGraph, RAG architectures, vector search, prompt engineering, fine‑tuning, MLOps, responsible AI, multi‑agent systems, Voice AI, semantic search. Programming: Python, Java, Spring Boot, Spring MVC, Spring JPA, Spring REST, Spring Cloud, Hibernate, REST and GraphQL API design. Cloud & DevOps: GCP (Vertex AI, AlloyDB, Cloud Functions), Azure, Docker, Kubernetes, CI/CD tooling, Terraform, observability stacks. Benefits & Compensation Estimated base salary range: $170,600 – $255,800. Variable cash programs (bonus or commission) and equity may be offered. Total benefits include genomics sequencing access, family planning, health/dental/vision coverage, retirement benefits, and paid time off. Equal Opportunity Statement Illumina is an equal‑opportunity employer. We are committed to providing employment opportunities regardless of sex, race, creed, color, gender, religion, marital status, domestic partner status, age, national origin or ancestry, physical or mental disability, medical condition, sexual orientation, pregnancy, military or veteran status, citizenship status, and genetic information. Illumina conducts background checks on applicants for whom a conditional offer of employment has been made and will consider applicants with arrest or conviction records in accordance with applicable local, state, and federal laws. #J-18808-Ljbffr