Lead AI Engineer

Qualified Health PBC is building agentic AI systems across its full product portfolio, and it’s looking for a Lead AI Engineer to set the technical vision and deliver the platform strategy. Based in Palo Alto, CA (onsite), this role spans multi-year infrastructure planning, org-wide standards for LLM evaluation and safety, and hands-on engineering on the most ambiguous problems. With an emphasis on mentoring, the Lead AI Engineer will also help shape how applied AI roles grow across the organization.

Responsibilities

• Define the multi-year technical strategy and architecture for agentic workflow infrastructure supporting the full Qualified Health product portfolio, including 100+ workflows and growth.
• Serve as the applied AI engineering voice in cross-functional and leadership-level decisions on product direction, build-vs-buy, and platform investment.
• Set org-wide engineering standards for LLM evaluation, deployment, safety, and monitoring, aligning with the company’s broader AI governance approach.
• Act as a technical escalation point for the most challenging, high-ambiguity problems across product lines.
• Mentor and develop Staff-level engineers, contributing to the technical career ladder for applied AI roles.
• Stay ahead of the frontier by evaluating emerging models, frameworks, and techniques (including OpenAI, Anthropic, and Mistral) and determining what to adopt at Qualified Health.
• Partner with founders and engineering leadership on how AI infrastructure investment ties to overall company strategy.

Requirements

• Python required with a deep software engineering foundation and a track record of architecting systems used company-wide.
• 8+ years building production software, including 4+ years building and scaling AI-powered / LLM-driven applications in production.
• Proven experience setting technical direction and standards adopted across multiple teams, beyond a single product line.
• Deep expertise in MLOps, model deployment, and workflow automation at an organizational or platform level.
• Ability to operate with full autonomy on ambiguous, high-stakes technical and strategic problems.
• Strong history influencing technical decisions at the leadership level, including with non-technical stakeholders.

Technologies

• Python
• LLM
• MLOps
• OpenAI
• Anthropic
• Mistral

Benefits

• Competitive salaries with equity packages
• Robust medical/dental/vision insurance
• Flexible working hours
• Hybrid work options
• Inclusive environment that fosters creativity and innovation
• Eligible for equity and benefits

Desirable Skills

• Bachelor’s degree + 10 years OR Master’s degree + 8 years in Computer Science, Engineering, or related field (or equivalent experience).
• Recognized expertise in applied AI and agentic systems (internally or externally), such as talks, publications, open source, or prior platform-level roles.
• Experience building AI infrastructure in a regulated or high-stakes domain such as healthcare or finance.
• History of founding or scaling a technical function from the ground up in a startup environment.
• Experience mentoring Staff-level engineers and shaping technical career ladders.

Salary: USD 230,000 - 350,000 per year. Experience: 8+ years.