AI Engineer II / III
Department: Applied Computation & AI
Employment Type: Full Time
Location: Research Triangle Park, NC
Description
Kriya is a biopharmaceutical company whose mission is to develop life-changing gene therapies for diseases affecting millions of patients around the world.
We leverage our proprietary computational engine, in-house manufacturing infrastructure, and integrated design platform to engineer technologies and therapeutics with the potential to transform the treatment of a broad universe of diseases of high unmet need, with a focus on metabolic disorders, neurology, and ophthalmology.
We are proud to have been named Triangle Business Journal's Life Sciences 2024 "Best Private Company to Work For," recognized by Forbes as one of "America's Best Startup Employers of 2024," and honored as one of BioSpace's "2025 Best Places to Work."
Role Overview
The AI Engineer designs, builds, and operates agentic AI systems, retrieval infrastructure, and data pipelines that help realize Kriya''s AI strategy. This role's responsibilities include developing custom AI agents, retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) pipelines, and MCP connectors that make Kriya''s data accessible to AI tools. As a member of Kriya''s Applied Computation & AI (ACAI) team, the AI Engineer partners closely with stakeholders across the organization to ship production-grade AI systems quickly while meeting Kriya''s security, compliance, and governance standards. This role requires strong software engineering fundamentals, hands-on experience with modern agentic AI and cloud/data infrastructure, and the judgment to translate ambiguous scientific and business needs into reliable systems.
Key Responsibilities
- Design, build, and deploy agentic AI systems and LLM-based tools, including specialized, on-demand AI agent-contractors (e.g., scientific review, competitive intelligence, experimental design, manufacturing analysis) and custom AI skills and plugins, using orchestration frameworks such as LangGraph, AWS Bedrock / AgentCore, or similar.
- Build, evaluate, and maintain retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) pipelines and vector search capabilities over Kriya''s internal data, exposing that data to AI tools via MCP connectors and unified APIs.
- Develop production-grade data pipelines connecting Kriya''s datalake to AI applications, ensuring architecture, access patterns, and governance meet downstream AI requirements.
- Apply strong software engineering practices - testing, CI/CD, version control, observability, and monitoring - to build reliable, secure, and maintainable AI systems.
- Collaborate cross-functionally across functions such as CMC, Clinical, Corporate Strategy, Legal, and Finance to implement high-value opportunities for agentic AI and computational solutions, translating scientific and business needs into technical designs.
- Provide technical leadership on agent architecture and AI system design, model best practices for the team, and mentor junior team members.
Experience & Skills and Work Environment
Experience & Skills
- Bachelor''s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field.
- Advanced degree preferred.
- 3-7+ years of experience as a software, ML, or AI engineer (level based on depth of experience with agentic systems and scope of technical leadership). An equivalent combination of education and experience is acceptable.
- Hands-on experience building agentic AI systems / multi-step LLM workflows using frameworks such as LangGraph, AWS Bedrock / AgentCore, CrewAI, or similar.
- Experience building RAG systems, including chunking, embeddings, vector databases, and retrieval evaluation.
- Strong Python engineering skills, including API development and integration (MCP, REST).
- Experience with AWS cloud services (e.g., Lambda, S3, Bedrock, IAM) and Databricks or similar platforms, with solid data engineering fundamentals (ETL pipelines, data modeling, structured and unstructured data).
- Experience with LLMs and prompt engineering / evaluation practices.
- Experience with version control (Git) and collaborative development practices (CI/CD, code review, testing).
- Life sciences, biotech, or pharma experience preferred, including familiarity with GxP-adjacent data governance and lab or manufacturing information systems (e.g., ELN/LIMS).
- Scientific curiosity and analytical mindset, with the ability to translate ambiguous stakeholder needs into technical solutions.
- Excellent written and verbal communication for working with technical and non-technical stakeholders.
- Self-directed with ability to manage multiple projects independently in a fast-moving, resource-constrained environment.
Work Environment
- Primarily desk-based, generally in an office or home office setting.
- May involve extended periods of sitting and computer use.
Life at Kriya
Discover True Collaborative Teamwork
We have an ambitious set of goals, but our confidence - and our inspiration - stems from our people. From California to North Carolina, our teammates bring a spirit of Collaboration, Leadership, and Innovation to their work every day.
We're always looking for teammates with the drive and energy to help us grow. If you want to be a part of a company with an entrepreneurial culture, a bold vision, and a meaningful purpose, join us.
Rewards & Benefits
- Time Off & Work-Life Balance: Flexible Time Off Paid Parental & Medical Leave Paid Company Holidays
- Health & Wellness: Fertility & Family Building Benefits Medical, Dental, and Vision Insurance Employee Assistance Program (EAP) Life Insurance Short- and Long-Term Disability Coverage
- Financial Security: Equity 401(k) with Company Match Identity Theft Protection
- And More!