Principal AI Application Engineer

Code for America is looking for a talented Principal AI Application Engineer who will bridge the gap between complex policy mandates and technical execution, building modular, model-agnostic systems to prove that civic tech can respond to urgent legislative shifts faster and more responsibly than traditional monolithic black boxes.

Requirements

• 7+ years of experience in high-ownership environments (former technical founders encouraged); ability to take a vague objective to a finished system.
• Hands-on experience building with LLMs, agentic orchestration, and RAG patterns, with the pragmatism to know when not to use them.
• Pragmatic Architecture: Ability to think in primitives and capabilities, preferring modular, reusable frameworks over bespoke scripts.
• Algorithmic Accountability: Passion for bias detection, harm mitigations, and building systems that are explainable to the people they serve.
• Modern Infrastructure Fluency: Mastery of Git, Linux, CI/CD, Infrastructure as Code (Terraform), and container-based workflows.
• Intellectual Humility: A critical eye toward the limitations of AI, especially black box logic in high-stakes public services.
• Demonstrated ability to influence technical direction and drive alignment across teams without formal authority.

Benefits

• Generous Paid Time Off
• 401k Matching
• Retirement Plan
• Remote Work
• Collaborative Working Hours
• Paid Sick Time
• Paid Parental and Family Leave
• Paid Sabbatical
• Medical Insurance
• Professional Development Stipend
• Training/Guidance for AI-related Skills