Principal AI Engineer

Pair Team

Principal AI Engineer designing and building AI systems for healthcare delivery. Leading complex projects in a remote setting to improve patient care through technology.

Posted 5/12/2026full-timeRemote • California • 🇺🇸 United StatesLead💰 $240,000 - $260,000 per yearWebsite

About the role

Key responsibilities & impact

Lead the design and evolution of agentic systems that participate directly in care delivery, helping coordinate care, engage patients, and execute meaningful portions of care workflows.
Define and build architectural patterns for agent reasoning, tool use, memory, and human-in-the-loop collaboration.
Develop both reusable platform capabilities and product-facing implementations, balancing long-term architecture with rapid iteration.
Own complex problem spaces end-to-end — from system design and implementation through observability, evaluation, and continuous improvement in production.
Partner closely with product managers, operators, and domain experts to translate complex real-world processes into reliable agent behavior.
Establish standards and best practices for agent evaluation, safety, and operational reliability as these systems evolve toward greater autonomy
Mentor engineers and influence technical direction across teams building agent-driven capabilities.

Requirements

What you’ll need

8+ years of experience building and shipping production software systems, including experience operating at a Principal IC level and driving technical direction across complex systems
Proven experience building and scaling multi-agent or agent-driven systems in production and real-world operational ownership (beyond simple LLM workflows).
Hands-on experience with modern agent ecosystems, including frameworks (e.g., LangGraph, Mastra, Claude Agents SDK), observability/evals tooling (e.g., Langfuse, LangSmith, Braintrust), MCP implementations, and leading AI SDKs (e.g., OpenAI, Anthropic).
Strong systems and backend architecture fundamentals, with experience designing scalable, reliable systems and handling infrastructure, performance, failure modes, cost, and deployment concerns.
Clear agentic evaluation mindset, including automated evals, simulation-based testing, regression frameworks, metrics design, and continuous improvement loops. Firsthand experience addressing performance and reliability of scaled agentic systems.
AI-native builder with high velocity and ownership, demonstrating intellectual curiosity, rapid adoption of new tools, bias to action, and the ability to drive ambiguous problems from concept to production.
Strong cross-functional collaborator and communicator, able to partner with Product, Operations, and domain experts to deliver end-to-end systems with measurable real-world impact.
Force-multiplier technical leader, raising the bar for clarity of thinking, system design standards, and team execution.

Benefits

Comp & perks

Competitive salary: $240,000 - 260,000
Equity compensation package
Flexible vacation policy – take the time you need to recharge
Comprehensive medical, dental, and vision coverage
401(k)
100% company-sponsored short and long-term disability and life insurance
Subsidized backup childcare and caregiver supports through Wellthy
Work entirely from the comfort of your own home
Monthly $100 work from home expense stipend
We provide the equipment needed for the role
Opportunity for rapid career progression with plenty of room for personal growth!
Travel reimbursements for any company retreats or leadership offsites

ATS Keywords

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Applicant Tracking System Keywords

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Hard Skills & Tools

agentic systemsarchitectural patternsmulti-agent systemsbackend architectureobservabilityautomated evaluationssimulation-based testingmetrics designAI SDKsproduction software systems

Soft Skills

cross-functional collaborationcommunicationmentorshiptechnical leadershipintellectual curiosityproblem-solvingrapid adoption of new toolsbias to actioninfluence technical directionclear thinking