AI Agent Engineer

AI Agent Engineer

Pelago is the world's leading virtual clinic for Substance Use Management. Our program provides guidance, support and treatment for members seeking to overcome their tobacco, alcohol and opioid use. From unhealthy habits to active substance use disorders, Pelago delivers a personalized solution based on individual health, habits, genetics, and goals, providing care for members wherever they might be on the substance use spectrum. Pelago's suite of virtual services ranges from education, to cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) to comprehensive medication-assisted treatment (MAT). Pelago enables employers and health plans to deliver accessible, affordable, and effective treatment for substance misuse. Pelago has scaled to helping hundreds of employers and health plans and has already helped more than 750,000 members manage their substance use better. We have recently closed our Series C and raised over $151m from leading global investors. If you are passionate about making an impact on the health of others, join us and make it happen!

Pelago is building a small AI Accelerator team to lead one of the most important transformations in our company's evolution: rethinking how work gets done so our teams can focus on the decisions, relationships, and problem-solving that matter most.

As an AI Agent Engineer, you'll identify workflows that are repetitive, manual, or unnecessarily complex and redesign them as AI-powered systems that meaningfully change how Pelago operates. That might mean automating parts of compliance reviews, streamlining member operations, or replacing spreadsheet-heavy analytics handoffs with smarter, more reliable workflows.

This is a hands-on role for someone who wants to be an innovator and change driver, applying AI to real business problems and leaving a visible mark on how the company runs.

This is a hybrid role with a high-collaboration rhythm (3 days/week in our NYC office).

In this role you will:

• Identify high-friction internal workflows and redesign them as AI-powered systems that meaningfully improve how Pelago operates
• Design, build, and deploy production-grade AI agents that connect to internal APIs, databases, and tools (Salesforce, Slack, Notion, and more)
• Integrate LLMs into real operational processes — from compliance reviews and ticket triage to documentation and QA — ensuring systems are reliable, secure, and auditable
• Build observability, guardrails, and evaluation frameworks so agents perform safely and consistently in a regulated healthcare environment
• Partner closely with product, operations, data, and compliance teams to define success metrics, iterate quickly, and continuously improve performance

The background we are looking for:

• Experience building production-grade software systems, ideally in product or operational environments, autonomously
• Strong Python skills and experience designing event-driven or distributed systems
• Hands-on experience building and deploying LLM-powered workflows: tool use, retrieval, structured outputs, orchestration
• Experience integrating systems via APIs, message queues, or workflow engines
• Familiarity with cloud infrastructure (AWS, GCP, or Azure) and deploying containerized services
• Solid understanding of security, privacy, and data controls. especially in regulated environments
• Systems thinker who can translate messy real-world processes into scalable technical solutions
• Pragmatic builder who prototypes quickly but ships responsibly
• A genuine passion for using AI to create measurable operational impact

We have a whole host of perks for our people! From life essentials to nice-to-haves, there are more than a few good reasons to love working with us. We strive to ensure Pelago employees have equitable access to healthcare, wellbeing, time away, and then some.

• Generous and meaningful equity package
• Full Medical, Dental, & Vision coverage
• 401k Plan
• Unlimited PTO Policy, 10 paid holidays, & company wide "Me Time" Days
• Paid maternity, paternity & new parent leave
• Flexible working environment
• Annual Learning and Development stipend to support continued learning and career development
• Wellness Reimbursement Program
• Access to Reproductive & Family Planning Care
• Substance Use Support for employees and family members

At this time, we are unable to offer visa sponsorship for this position.

Please note that Pelago is dedicated to providing accommodations to candidates upon request. If you need accommodations at any point throughout the interview process, please reach out to your recruiter.

The provided range reflects our US target salary range for this full-time position, which is part of our broader total compensation package, including incentive bonus program, stock options, comprehensive benefits, and incentive pay applicable to eligible roles. Individual pay within the range will vary based on a variety of factors like role-related experience and education, internal pay equity, and other relevant business factors. At Pelago, we are committed to an equitable and fair pay philosophy and review total compensation for our employees at least twice a year.

Base Pay Range $165,000 —$175,000 USD