Engineering manager leading a forward-deployed team that designs, builds, and ships custom AI agents, RAG systems, and data integrations inside enterprise customers' environments. Day to day combines hands-on Python/LLM work (LangChain, prompt engineering, cloud data infrastructure) with managing engineers and partnering closely with strategic clients.
Compensation
$252K–$315K / yr
Location
San Francisco, CA
Work setup
Not specified
Seniority
Not specified
Employment
Full time
Experience
3+ years
Category
Software engineering
Posted
Skills
ab-testing
agentic-ai
ai
api
automation
aws
azure
bicep
ci-cd
cloud
containerization
data-pipelines
devops
docker
embeddings
etl
fine-tuning
gcp
gdpr
generative-ai
hipaa
huggingface
infrastructure-as-code
kubernetes
langchain
llamaindex
llm
machine-learning
mcp
openai
prompt-engineering
python
rag
semantic-search
soc-2
terraform
vector-databases
Must have
5+ years software engineering experience with 3+ years management experience; strong fundamentals in data structures, algorithms, and system design
Production Python expertise with modern ML/AI frameworks (e.g., LangChain, LlamaIndex, HuggingFace, OpenAI API)
Experience with cloud platforms (AWS, GCP, or Azure) and modern data infrastructure
Strong problem-solving skills; navigate ambiguous requirements and rapidly iterate
Excellent communication skills for technical and non-technical audiences
Nice to have
Deep understanding of LLMs including prompting techniques, embeddings, and RAG architectures
Experience building and deploying AI agents or autonomous systems in production
Knowledge of vector databases and semantic search systems
Contributions to open-source AI/ML projects
Experience with containerization (Docker, Kubernetes) and CI/CD pipelines
Experience with Terraform, Bicep, or other Infrastructure as Code tools
Previous work in a devops, platform, or infra role
Familiarity with enterprise security, compliance, and governance requirements (SOC 2, GDPR, HIPAA)
Proven ability to work with customers in a technical consulting, solutions engineering, or product engineering role
Domain expertise in verticals like finance, healthcare, government, or manufacturing
Experience with technical enablement or teaching programs
Full description
About Scale AI
Scale AI is the data foundation for AI, helping organizations build and deploy reliable production AI applications. We partner with leading enterprises and government organizations to accelerate their AI initiatives through our data annotation platform, generative AI solutions, and enterprise AI capabilities.
Role Overview
As a Forward Deployed AI Engineering Manager on our Enterprise team, you'll be the technical bridge between Scale AI's cutting-edge AI capabilities and our most strategic customers. You'll work with enterprise clients to understand their unique challenges, lead a team that architects specific AI solutions, and ensure successful deployment and adoption of AI systems in production environments.
This is a Management role that combines deep engineering and AI expertise, leading a team, and working on customer-facing problems. You'll work directly with customer engineering teams to integrate AI into their critical workflows.
Key Responsibilities
Customer Integration & Deployment
Partner directly with enterprise customers to understand their technical infrastructure, data pipelines, and business requirements
Design and implement custom integrations between Scale AI's platform and customer data environments (cloud platforms, data warehouses, internal APIs)
Build robust data connectors and ETL pipelines to ingest, process, and prepare customer data for AI workflows
Deploy and configure AI models and agents within customer security and compliance boundaries
AI Agent Development
Develop production-grade AI agents tailored to customer use cases across domains like customer support, data analysis, content generation, and workflow automation
Architect multi-agent systems that orchestrate between different models, tools, and data sources
Implement evaluation frameworks to measure agent performance and iterate toward business objectives
Design human-in-the-loop workflows and feedback mechanisms for continuous agent improvement
Prompt Engineering & Optimization
Create sophisticated prompt engineering strategies optimized for customer-specific domains and data
Build and maintain prompt libraries, templates, and best practices for customer use cases
Conduct systematic prompt experimentation and A/B testing to improve model outputs
Implement RAG (Retrieval Augmented Generation) systems and fine-tuning pipelines where appropriate
Leadership & Collaboration
Serve as the Engineering Manager and technical point of contact for strategic enterprise accounts
Frontier Agent Engineering Manager, Enterprise at Scale AI (San Francisco, CA) — aijobsearch
Lead a team that is collaborating with customer data scientists, ML engineers, and software developers to ensure smooth integration
Work closely with Scale's product and engineering teams to translate customer needs into product improvements
Document technical architectures, integration patterns, and best practices
Problem Solving & Innovation
Debug complex technical issues across the entire stack, from data pipelines to model outputs
Rapidly prototype solutions to unblock customers and prove out new use cases
Stay current on the latest AI/ML research and tools, bringing innovative approaches to customer problems
Identify opportunities for productization based on common customer patterns
Required Qualifications
5+ years of software engineering experience with 3+ yrs of Management experience with strong fundamentals in data structures, algorithms, and system design
Production Python expertise with experience in modern ML/AI frameworks (e.g., LangChain, LlamaIndex, HuggingFace, OpenAI API)
Experience with cloud platforms (AWS, GCP, or Azure) and modern data infrastructure
Strong problem-solving skills with the ability to navigate ambiguous requirements and rapidly iterate toward solutions
Excellent communication skills with the ability to explain complex technical concepts to both technical and non-technical audiences
Preferred Qualifications
Agent Development Wiz
Deep understanding of LLMs including prompting techniques, embeddings, and RAG architectures
Experience building and deploying AI agents or autonomous systems in production
Knowledge of vector databases and semantic search systems
Contributions to open-source AI/ML projects
Infrastructure Guru
Experience with containerization (Docker, Kubernetes) and CI/CD pipelines
Experience using Terraform, Bicep, or other Infrastructure as Code (IaC) tools
Previous work in a devops, platform, or infra role
Familiarity with enterprise security, compliance, and governance requirements (SOC 2, GDPR, HIPAA)
Customer Product Whisperer
Proven ability to work with customers in a technical consulting, solutions engineering, or product engineering role
Domain expertise in verticals like finance, healthcare, government, or manufacturing
Experience with technical enablement or teaching programs
Sample Projects
The following are some examples of the types of projects we’ve worked on with customers. All of these projects leverage customer data, integrate directly into customers’ existing systems, and are deployed on their infrastructure.
Deep Research for Due Diligence
For a global professional services firm, we developed a sophisticated deep research agent to assist in due diligence. This agent employs a multi-agent architecture for robust fact-checking, integrates several internal MCP tools, and processes complex, unstructured data sources. This solution reliably saves employees hundreds of hours weekly.
Churn Prediction
Working with a TelCo organization, we built a model utilizing customer data to predict churn likelihood. The system then curates personalized offers based on this prediction. This model was integrated into a "next best action" copilot, enabling call center agents to proactively surface relevant offers to customers, leading to a significant reduction in churn.
Data Extraction Voice Agent
We partnered with a healthcare organization to create a lifelike voice agent and avatar designed to gather unstructured health information from patients. Engineered for low latency, the agent adeptly manages conversational flow, adheres to safety guardrails, and efficiently handles data extraction. This automation saves the organization's nurses hundreds of hours each week.
Compensation packages at Scale for eligible roles include base salary, equity, and benefits. The range displayed on each job posting reflects the minimum and maximum target for new hire salaries for the position and may be inclusive of several career levels at Scale; it will be determined during the interview process based on work location and additional factors, including job-related skills, experience, qualifications, interview performance, and relevant education or training. Scale employees in eligible roles are also granted equity based compensation, subject to Board of Director approval. Your recruiter can share more about the specific salary range for your preferred location during the hiring process, and confirm whether the hired role will be eligible for equity grant. You'll also receive benefits including, but not limited to: comprehensive health, dental and vision coverage, retirement benefits, a learning and development stipend, and generous PTO. Additionally, this role may be eligible for additional benefits such as a commuter stipend.
The base salary range for this full-time position in the location of San Francisco is:
$227,000—$325,000 USD
PLEASE NOTE: Our policy requires a 90-day waiting period before reconsidering candidates for the same role. This allows us to ensure a fair and thorough evaluation of all applicants.
About Us:
At Scale, our mission is to develop reliable AI systems for the world's most important decisions. Our products provide the high-quality data and full-stack technologies that power the world's leading models, and help enterprises and governments build, deploy, and oversee AI applications that deliver real impact. We work closely with industry leaders like Meta, Ernst & Young, Mayo Clinic, Time Inc., the Government of Qatar, and U.S. government agencies including the Army and Air Force. We are expanding our team to accelerate the development of AI applications.
We believe that everyone should be able to bring their whole selves to work, which is why we are proud to be an inclusive and equal opportunity workplace. We are committed to equal employment opportunity regardless of race, color, ancestry, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, age, citizenship, marital status, disability status, gender identity or Veteran status.
We are committed to working with and providing reasonable accommodations to applicants with physical and mental disabilities. If you need assistance and/or a reasonable accommodation in the application or recruiting process due to a disability, please contact us at accommodations@scale.com. Please see the United States Department of Labor's Know Your Rights poster for additional information.
We comply with the United States Department of Labor's Pay Transparency provision.
PLEASE NOTE: We collect, retain and use personal data for our professional business purposes, including notifying you of job opportunities that may be of interest and sharing with our affiliates. We limit the personal data we collect to that which we believe is appropriate and necessary to manage applicants’ needs, provide our services, and comply with applicable laws. Any information we collect in connection with your application will be treated in accordance with our internal policies and programs designed to protect personal data. Please see our privacy policy for additional information.