Principal Software Engineer - AI

Job Mission New Balance is seeking an experienced Principal Software Engineer to join our Enterprise AI Solutions team. The team researches and delivers AI solutions to improve internal workflows, decision‑making, and operational efficiency across business functions including operations, supply chain, finance, product, and corporate services. In this role you will design and build enterprise‑grade AI assistants and automations using RAG and agentic AI techniques—software agents that plan, coordinate tools, interact with systems, and execute multi‑step workflows with appropriate guardrails. This position is based in our Brighton, MA office with occasional travel to Lawrence, MA. Major Accountabilities Architect autonomous and semi‑autonomous agents that execute multi‑step business processes across disparate enterprise systems. Partner with finance, supply chain, and product leaders to identify high‑value automation opportunities and translate them into scalable AI solutions. Lead the selection and implementation of models, tools, frameworks, and SDKs across open‑source and Microsoft AI ecosystems (Microsoft Foundry and Copilot Studio) ensuring enterprise security, privacy, and cost efficiency. Design robust human‑in‑the‑loop systems and technical guardrails to ensure AI agents operate reliably and safely within a complex corporate environment. Oversee the full lifecycle of AI deployments—from PoC to production‑grade integration with internal APIs and databases. Mentor engineers on LLM orchestration and best practices for RAG and agentic reasoning. Requirements 10+ years software development experience, 4+ years focused on AI/ML and large language models. Hands‑on experience building with LangChain, LangGraph, or Semantic Kernel. Strong background with the Microsoft AI ecosystem (Azure OpenAI Service, Azure AI Search, Microsoft Copilot Studio). Expert‑level Python skills for building scalable, concurrent, maintainable enterprise backends. Front‑end development experience with React or similar. Experience designing RESTful APIs and integrating AI agents with legacy and modern enterprise systems (ERPs, CRMs, SQL/NoSQL databases). Ability to distinguish between “hype” and “utility,” selecting the right AI approach (RAG vs. fine‑tuning vs. prompt engineering) for a business problem. Strong communication skills to explain complex AI logic to non‑technical stakeholders. Degree in Computer Science, Data Science, or related field. Preferred Qualifications Experience with vector databases such as Azure AI Search. Familiarity with persistent memory and long‑term state management for multi‑session AI agents. Experience setting up LLMOps pipelines for monitoring model performance, drift, and hallucination rates. Basic proficiency with Chainlit or Streamlit for prototyping agent interfaces. Understanding of prompt injection mitigation and secure data handling in GenAI applications. Pay & Benefits Location: Brighton, MA (occasionally travel to Lawrence, MA) Pay Range: $120,000 – $150,000 – $180,000 Annual (actual base pay varies by relevant experience, tenure, equity, location, etc.) Benefits include medical, dental, vision, life insurance, 401(k), learning & development, tuition reimbursement, student loan support, mentorship programs, $1,000 lifestyle reimbursement, 4 weeks vacation, 12 holidays, generous parental leave. Equal Opportunity Employer New Balance provides equal opportunities for all current and prospective associates to ensure that employment, training, compensation, transfer, promotion and other terms, conditions and privileges of employment are provided without regard to race, color, religion, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, handicap, genetic information and/or status as an Armed Forces service medal veteran, recently separated veteran, qualified disabled veteran or other protected veteran or any other protected status. #J-18808-Ljbffr New Balance Sverige