Senior Applied AI Engineer (Public Sector) - Sacramento, CA

Celonis is a global leader in Process Intelligence technology and one of the world’s fastest-growing SaaS firms. We believe there is a massive opportunity to unlock productivity by placing AI, data and intelligence at the core of business processes – and for that, we need your help. Care to join us? Role Description As an Applied AI Engineer specializing in the Public Sector, you will work with our most strategic public sector clients, understanding their unique objectives—from enhancing citizen services and modernizing legacy systems to optimizing grant management and regulatory compliance—and building Celonis solutions using the world’s leading Process Intelligence (PI) platform in combination with top AI and ML technology partners, such as Microsoft, OpenAI, and Databricks. You will prototype these solutions, demonstrate their value to government CIOs and Agency Directors, and ensure successful implementation, adoption, and value realization to increase Celonis’ footprint across state and local governments. Key Responsibilities AI Discovery & Solutioning: Understand public sector AI strategies and specific agency challenges and translate agency requirements into innovative solutions that deliver measurable public impact. Pre- and Post-Sales Execution: Actively drive the full customer lifecycle within the public sector, leading technical discovery and capability demonstrations during complex government pre‑sales and procurement cycles, and remaining involved post‑sale to guide implementation and ensure agreed value and adoption thresholds are met. Hackathons & Prototyping: Think out of the box, have a can‑do attitude, and leverage cutting‑edge AI technologies to build creative prototypes in agency hackathons, solving critical pain points to improve constituent experiences. Agentic Process Transformation: Support our government customers in achieving real value from AI deployments at scale, enabling a shift from traditional, rigid, paper‑heavy workflows to the use of autonomous AI agents powered by the Celonis Process Intelligence Platform. Proof Projects: Execute end‑to‑end Proof‑of‑Value projects, architecting and delivering secure, scalable LLM/agent systems with RAG, tools, and guardrails, while integrating with government enterprise data, identity protocols, and compliance/security frameworks. Domain & Industry Leadership: Serve as the internal and external technical subject matter expert for the State & Local Government vertical, scaling knowledge across the organization regarding agency processes and public sector nuances. Requirements 5+ years of experience leading technical pre‑sales and post‑sales engagements within the Public Sector (State & Local Government). This includes navigating government procurement cycles, building compelling ROI business cases for public funds, and guiding technical implementations through to constituent value realization. Deep understanding of business processes native to state and local governments such as Health & Human Services, Procurement, Finance, DMV operations, or Public Safety, with the ability to translate high‑level policy or agency needs into specific, impactful AI use cases. Expertise in generative AI techniques like RAG, few‑shot learning, prompt engineering, multi‑agent orchestration, multimodal understanding, or fine‑tuning used to build high‑impact use cases. Solid knowledge of Python and common ML libraries such as LangChain, pandas, pydantic, sklearn, PyTorch, as well as data engineering tools and technologies. Strong presentation skills to both internal and external stakeholders, whether leading whiteboarding sessions or formal demos. Bachelor’s Degree required; Master’s Degree or equivalent work experience preferred. Nice to Have (Big Plus) Hands‑on experience building agentic systems using LLM orchestration, RAG, function calling, and prompt engineering, with safety evaluations and guardrails suitable for public sector environments. Experience deploying and monitoring models at scale within government‑compliant cloud environments such as AWS GovCloud or Azure Government. Working knowledge of tools in the LLM ecosystem such as LangChain, LlamaIndex, or other OSS packages. Visa sponsorship is not offered for this role. Base salary range for this role in California is $145,000 – $170,000 USD. Total compensation will include base pay, bonus, equity, and benefits (health, dental, life, 401k, paid time off, and more). What Celonis Can Offer You Pioneer Innovation: Work with the leading, award‑winning process mining technology and shape the future of business. Accelerate Your Growth: Benefit from clear career paths, internal mobility, a dedicated learning program, and mentorship opportunities. Exceptional Benefits: Includes generous PTO, hybrid working options, company equity, comprehensive benefits, extensive parental leave, dedicated volunteer days, and more. Prioritize Your Well‑Being: Access to resources such as gym subsidies, counseling, and well‑being programs. Connect and Belong: Find community and support through inclusion and belonging programs. Make Meaningful Impact: Be part of a company driven by core values: Live for Customer Value, The Best Team Wins, We Own It, and Earth Is Our Future. Collaborate Globally: Join a dynamic, international team of talented individuals. Empowered Environment: Contribute your ideas in an open culture with autonomous teams. About Us Celonis makes processes work for people, companies, and the planet. The Celonis Process Intelligence Platform uses industry‑leading process mining and AI technology, augmented with business context to give customers a living digital twin of their operations. It’s system‑agnostic, unbiased, and provides a common language for understanding and improving businesses. Celonis is headquartered in Munich, Germany, and New York City, USA, with more than 20 offices worldwide. Get familiar with the Celonis Process Intelligence Platform by watching this video. Inclusion Statement At Celonis, we believe our people make us who we are and that “The Best Team Wins”. We know that the best teams are made up of people who bring different perspectives to the table. When everyone feels included, able to speak up, and knows their voice is heard, that’s when creativity and innovation happen. Your Privacy Any information you submit to Celonis as part of your application will be processed in accordance with Celonis’ Accessibility and Candidate Notices. By submitting this application, you confirm your agreement to the storing and processing of your personal data by Celonis as described in our Privacy Notice for the Application and Hiring Process. Please be aware of common job offer scams, impersonators, and frauds. #J-18808-Ljbffr