About the Role
As a Lead AI Engineer on our Data Platform & Services (DPS) team, you will bridge deep data engineering expertise with emerging AI capabilities to build production-grade AI-powered systems. You’ll design and deploy agentic frameworks, natural language querying (NLQ) capabilities, and prompt/LLM evaluation strategies that unlock insights at scale across Upwork. This is an opportunity to deliver tangible impact, enabling faster decision-making, democratizing data access, and empowering analysts and stakeholders throughout the company.
Responsibilities
- Design and implement scalable agentic frameworks that coordinate multiple AI agents to deliver accurate and reliable outcomes.
- Build and optimize natural language query solutions that provide compliant, intuitive, and self-service access to enterprise data.
- Develop and maintain evaluation frameworks for LLMs and prompts, driving measurable improvements in accuracy, scalability, and resilience.
- Partner with data engineering peers to integrate AI orchestration with Python, SQL, and Snowflake pipelines.
- Contribute to AI-powered summarization and explanation tools that enhance reporting, insights, and executive reviews.
- Collaborate cross-functionally with product, analytics, and business teams to ensure solutions meet measurable business goals.
What it takes to catch our eye
- Proven experience delivering AI-powered data systems in production, including hands-on expertise with LLMs and prompt engineering.
- Strong foundation in modern data engineering, with proficiency in Python, SQL, and platforms such as Snowflake.
- Demonstrated ability to design agentic orchestration frameworks that scale across diverse business scenarios.
- A collaborative problem-solver with strong communication skills, able to align stakeholders and create clarity across teams.
- Growth mindset—excited to learn, iterate, and deliver measurable business outcomes through applied AI.