VPP-125 - Agentic AI Engineer Lead Onshore - Hybrid in Chicago or Houston

We are seeking an Agentic AI Engineer Lead to provide hands‑on technical leadership for the design, development, and delivery of enterprise‑scale AI solutions. This individual will lead a team of AI Engineers while remaining actively involved in architecture, coding, integration, and production implementation. This is a hybrid role based in either Chicago or Houston, with 2–3 days per week in the office. The ideal candidate combines deep technical expertise with strong leadership skills and has experience delivering production‑ready AI systems, agent‑based workflows, and complex integrations. This role is highly collaborative and requires close partnership with architecture, platform, data, and business teams to drive successful outcomes.

What You’ll Do

• Lead AI engineering delivery and technical execution across multiple initiatives.
• Design, build, and deploy agentic AI workflows, intelligent agents, integrations, and supporting components.
• Serve as the technical lead for AI engineering teams, guiding implementation decisions, trade-offs, and solution design.
• Translate architectural designs into scalable, maintainable, production‑ready solutions.
• Establish and enforce engineering best practices, coding standards, testing strategies, and quality controls.
• Actively contribute code and remain hands‑on in development and troubleshooting efforts.
• Partner with architecture, data, platform, and integration teams to ensure successful solution delivery.
• Remove technical blockers and drive issue resolution throughout the software development lifecycle.
• Mentor and coach engineers while fostering technical growth and delivery excellence.
• Own technical delivery outcomes and ensure projects are completed on time and aligned with business objectives.

What You’ll Bring

• Proven experience leading engineering teams while remaining hands‑on in software development.
• Strong background delivering production‑grade AI and machine learning solutions.
• Experience developing and implementing agentic AI systems and AI‑driven workflows.
• Deep understanding of AI/LLM architectures, model integration, workflow orchestration, and system connectivity.
• Strong software engineering fundamentals, including application architecture, APIs, testing, and deployment practices.
• Experience making architecture and implementation trade‑off decisions.
• Excellent communication and stakeholder management skills.
• Ability to lead technical discussions with engineering, architecture, and business teams.

Nice-to-Haves

• Experience building enterprise AI platforms and intelligent automation solutions.
• Knowledge of cloud‑native architectures and modern software delivery practices.
• Experience leading cross‑functional engineering teams in Agile environments.
• Familiarity with AI orchestration frameworks, model lifecycle management, and enterprise integrations.

What Makes Us Great Place To Work

Vekend is a people‑first organization focused on developing thoughtful products and services that create meaningful impact for our customers and communities. We are committed to fostering a collaborative, respectful, and inclusive work environment where employees are empowered to take ownership of their work, contribute ideas, and grow professionally. We strive to support flexibility and work‑life balance while maintaining high standards of performance and accountability.

For all locations, the good‑faith, reasonable annualized full‑time compensation for this role will be determined based on competitive market data and may vary depending on geographic location, job‑related knowledge, skills, experience, education, and other business considerations. Specific compensation details will be discussed during the interview process. Vekend offers a comprehensive benefits and wellness package designed to support employees’ overall well‑being, financial security, and professional growth. Eligibility and coverage are subject to the terms of the applicable benefit plans and company policies. Eligible employees have access to medical, dental, and vision insurance with company contributions toward premiums, a 401(k) retirement plan with company matching, and Paid Time Off that begins accruing on the first day of employment. We also support flexible work arrangements and opportunities for professional growth. Benefits eligibility, coverage, and company contributions are subject to the terms of the applicable plan documents and may be modified at the company’s discretion.