Principal AI Engineer

Job description

Remote - LATAM Ryz Labs is seeking a **Principal AI Engineer** to drive the technical evolution of artificial intelligence and machine learning solutions across our client's global business portfolio. Sitting at the intersection of software engineering, data science, platform architecture, and AI governance, you will serve as the technical owner for how AI/ML engineering is designed, built, governed, and deployed. This is a high-impact, hands-on engineering and technical leadership position. You will move fluidly between writing production code, architecting multi-tenant AI services, building internal developer tooling, establishing AI governance, and mentoring engineering teams. Your success will be measured by sustainable, scalable patterns that empower teams and shape the future of our digital capabilities. **What You Will Do** - **AI Productization & Platform Engineering** - Design and own the playbook for AI productization and governance, defining service patterns, security standards, evaluation rubrics, and production-readiness criteria. - Build reusable internal tooling, including AI scaffolding, monitoring systems, and data infrastructure designed for widespread adoption. - Establish robust AI agent governance policies (permissions, code execution controls, system access, human-in-the-loop enforcement). - Partner with Security, Legal, and Compliance teams to define SOC2/ISO-aligned AI controls, vendor requirements, and data classification policies. - Define standardized deployment patterns using containerization, Infrastructure-as-Code (IaC), and reusable CI/CD pipelines. - **Developer Experience & Engineering Excellence** - Champion AI-assisted development practices, test-driven development (TDD), and modern software engineering standards across the organization. - Codify engineering baselines (CI/CD, DevOps, testing, delivery quality) for new and re-platformed products. - Mentor engineers and tech leads, driving measurable improvements in design quality, consistency, and production rigor. - **Cross-Functional Leadership & Strategy** - Act as the primary technical authority on AI/ML, platform architecture, and modern engineering practices. - Bridge the gap between technical and non-technical stakeholders, translating complex architectural decisions, AI risk topics, and platform trade-offs into actionable executive guidance. **Required Skills & Experience** - **Experience:** 15+ years of experience in software engineering, data science, or a closely related technical field. - **Education:** Bachelor’s degree or higher in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field. - **AI/ML & Cloud:** Deep expertise in the Python ecosystem and AI/ML frameworks, with proven experience deploying models to public cloud infrastructure. - **Architecture:** Demonstrated track record designing and operating multi-tenant AI services, LLM integrations, and microservices architectures in production. - **DevOps & Infrastructure:** Strong hands-on command of containerization (Docker), Infrastructure-as-Code (Terraform), and modern CI/CD practices. - **AI Security & Governance:** Substantive experience with AI/LLM security risks (prompt injection, data boundary enforcement, model supply chain risks, threat modeling). - **Communication:** Exceptional written and verbal English skills, with the ability to articulate complex technical ideas to diverse audiences and senior stakeholders. - **Mentorship & Culture:** Passion for coaching, developing engineers, and advocating for engineering best practices. **Preferred Qualifications** - Prior experience applying AI/ML within business consulting, advisory, or professional services environments. - Hands-on experience with emerging AI integration protocols and gateway design patterns. - Active contributions to open-source AI/ML projects, publications, or technical communities. - Proficiency in additional programming languages (e.g., Go, TypeScript). - Advanced certifications in Cloud, AI/ML, or Security (AWS, GCP, Azure ML, CISSP, etc.). - Experience with compliance frameworks such as SOC2, ISO 27001, or TISAX. **About RYZ Labs:** RYZ Labs is a startup studio built in 2021 by two lifelong entrepreneurs. The founders of RYZ have worked at some of the world's largest tech companies and some of the most iconic consumer brands. They have lived and worked in Argentina for many years and have decades of experience in Latam. What brought them together is the passion for the early phases of company creation and the idea of attracting the brightest talents in order to build industry-defining companies in a post-pandemic world. Our teams are remote and distributed throughout the US and Latam. They use the latest cutting-edge technologies in cloud computing to create applications that are scalable and resilient. We aim to provide diverse product solutions for different industries, planning to build a large number of startups in the upcoming years. At RYZ, you will find yourself working with autonomy and efficiency, owning every step of your development. We provide an environment of opportunities, learning, growth, expansion, and challenging projects. You will deepen your experience while sharing and learning from a team of great professionals and specialists. **Our values and what to expect:** - Customer First Mentality - every decision we make should be made through the lens of the customer. - Bias for Action - urgency is critical, expect that the timeline to get something done is accelerated. - Ownership - step up if you see an opportunity to help, even if not your core responsibility. - Humility and Respect - be willing to learn, be vulnerable, and treat everyone who interacts with RYZ with respect. - Frugality - being frugal and cost-conscious helps us do more with less - Deliver Impact - get things done in the most efficient way. - Raise our Standards - always be looking to improve our processes, our team, and our expectations. The status quo is not good enough and never should be.