Lead AI Engineer

About the team:

You will be part of the AI team responsible for building next-generation AI capabilities at Helpshift. The team works on:
• AI Agents for automated issue resolution
• User Intent Detection
• AI-Powered Answers and Knowledge Base Enhancements
• Agent CoPilot for agent productivity
• LLM-based systems, proprietary ML models, and multimodal RAG pipelines

The team includes Backend Engineers, Full-stack Developers, ML Engineers, Data Scientists, and Frontend Developers—collaborating to deliver intelligent and scalable AI experiences.

About the role:

We are looking for an experienced engineer with deep technical expertise in AI and strong leadership skills. You will help design and deliver advanced AI products and AI Agents, lead a group of engineers, and drive end-to-end execution of LLM-powered initiatives.

This role combines hands-on AI/ML and LLM engineering with technical leadership—guiding backend, frontend, and full-stack developers to build reliable, scalable production AI systems.

Benefits
• Hybrid setup
• Worker's insurance
• Paid Time Offs
• Other employee benefits to be discussed by our Talent Acquisition team in India.

Helpshift embraces diversity. We are proud to be an equal opportunity workplace and do not discriminate on the basis of sex, race, color, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, religion, national origin, citizenship, marital status, veteran status, or disability status

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Experience & Requirements

What you'll do:
• Lead and mentor a team of backend and frontend developers, fostering a high-performing, collaborative engineering culture.
• Own the technical direction, architecture, and strategy for LLM, AI Agent, and ML initiatives.
• Architect and build AI Agents, RAG pipelines (including multimodal RAG), LLM-based services, and evaluation frameworks.
• Design, build, and deploy scalable AI/ML systems from concept to production.
• Collaborate closely with PMs, ML Engineers, and Data Scientists to convert business requirements into AI-driven solutions.
• Oversee full SDLC for your squad—ensuring strong engineering practices around coding, testing, quality, and reliability.
• Conduct detailed technical reviews and provide guidance to maintain code quality.
• Troubleshoot performance, scalability, and reliability issues in production AI systems.
• Champion continuous improvement, automation, and innovation within the team.
• Keep the team up-to-date with advances in LLMs, LLMOps, fine-tuning techniques, vector search, and generative AI.

What you'll bring:
• 8–10 years of experience in software development.
• More than 5 years of hands-on experience in AI/ML.
• More than 2 years in an engineering leadership role, preferably leading a cross-functional team.
• Hands-on experience building:
• Strong understanding of ML algorithms, embeddings, transformers, vector semantics, and distributed systems.
• Experience with Vector Databases such as Elasticsearch, Weaviate, Pinecone, or Milvus.
• Proficiency with ML frameworks (PyTorch, TensorFlow, scikit-learn).
• Experience with cloud platforms (AWS, GCP, Azure) and MLOps tooling.

Good to have:
• Solid foundation in backend technologies such as Python, Java, Go, Node.js, and experience with Kafka.
• Knowledge of the Gaming industry or Customer Support domain.
• Familiarity with frontend frameworks (React, Angular, Vue.js).
• Exposure to functional programming (Clojure preferred; our team uses Clojure).
• Experience in startup/high-growth environments.
• Open-source contributions in AI/ML/LLM projects.
• Experience with containerization and orchestration (Docker, Kubernetes).

Bonus Points:
• Experience building production-grade LLM-powered automation for customer support or gaming.
• Publications, presentations, or contributions related to LLMs, RAG, or AI Agents.