Senior Data & AI Platform Engineer

Senior Data & AI Platform Engineer
Bellevue, WA (Hybrid, 3 Days Onsite)
Contract-to-Hire
Pay Rate: $80.00 - $90.00/hour Conversion: 170k-185k

A mission-driven technology organization is seeking a Senior Data & AI Platform Engineer to help build the next generation of AI-powered products and scalable data platforms. This organization leverages large, complex datasets to develop innovative software solutions and is investing heavily in modern AI technologies, cloud infrastructure, and machine learning. They are looking for a senior engineer who enjoys solving challenging backend problems, mentoring teammates, and building products that create meaningful impact.

Job Description:
We are looking for a Senior Data & AI Platform Engineer to design and enhance the data infrastructure that powers AI applications and analytics products. This individual will build scalable data pipelines, develop cloud-native platform solutions, and help productionize machine learning capabilities across the organization. The role requires a strong backend engineering mindset with experience supporting modern AI technologies while partnering closely with software engineering and product teams. The ideal candidate enjoys building scalable systems, influencing technical direction, and mentoring junior engineers.

Required Skills:

• 5+ years of experience in Software Engineering, Data Engineering, Platform Engineering, or a related discipline
• Proven experience owning technical projects from strategy through delivery, including defining requirements, coordinating work across a small to medium-sized engineering team, delegating responsibilities, driving execution, and effectively communicating and defending technical decisions with stakeholders
• Strong experience building cloud-native data platforms and distributed backend systems
• Experience designing and maintaining scalable ETL/ELT pipelines and modern data architectures
• Hands-on experience supporting AI or machine learning solutions in production environments
• Experience with Large Language Models (LLMs), Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG), vector databases, semantic search, or similar AI technologies
• Strong programming experience with Python or another backend language
• Experience with APIs, cloud infrastructure, distributed systems, and scalable platform design
• Strong communication skills and the ability to collaborate across engineering and product teams

• Experience with Databricks, Airflow, Kubernetes, Spark, or similar data platform technologies
• Familiarity with graph databases, vector search, knowledge graphs, or semantic retrieval
• Experience with AI observability, orchestration frameworks, or model evaluation
• Comfortable mentoring junior engineers and providing technical leadership
• Passion for AI, emerging technologies, and building high-quality products
• Adaptable, collaborative, and comfortable working in a fast-paced engineering environment

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