AI Engineer II / III

Department: Applied Computation & AI

Employment Type: Full Time

Location: Research Triangle Park, NC

Description

Role Overview

• Design, build, and deploy agentic AI systems and LLM-based tools, including specialized, on-demand AI agent-contractors (e.g., scientific review, competitive intelligence, experimental design, manufacturing analysis) and custom AI skills and plugins, using orchestration frameworks such as LangGraph, AWS Bedrock / AgentCore, or similar.
• Build, evaluate, and maintain retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) pipelines and vector search capabilities over Kriya's internal data, exposing that data to AI tools via MCP connectors and unified APIs.
• Develop production-grade data pipelines connecting Kriya's datalake to AI applications, ensuring architecture, access patterns, and governance meet downstream AI requirements.
• Apply strong software engineering practices — testing, CI/CD, version control, observability, and monitoring — to build reliable, secure, and maintainable AI systems.
• Collaborate cross-functionally across functions such as CMC, Clinical, Corporate Strategy, Legal, and Finance to implement high-value opportunities for agentic AI and computational solutions, translating scientific and business needs into technical designs.
• Provide technical leadership on agent architecture and AI system design, model best practices for the team, and mentor junior team members.

Experience & Skills and Work Environment

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field.
• Advanced degree preferred.
• 3-7+ years of experience as a software, ML, or AI engineer (level based on depth of experience with agentic systems and scope of technical leadership). An equivalent combination of education and experience is acceptable.
• Hands-on experience building agentic AI systems / multi-step LLM workflows using frameworks such as LangGraph, AWS Bedrock / AgentCore, CrewAI, or similar.
• Experience building RAG systems, including chunking, embeddings, vector databases, and retrieval evaluation.
• Strong Python engineering skills, including API development and integration (MCP, REST).
• Experience with AWS cloud services (e.g., Lambda, S3, Bedrock, IAM) and Databricks or similar platforms, with solid data engineering fundamentals (ETL pipelines, data modeling, structured and unstructured data).
• Experience with LLMs and prompt engineering / evaluation practices.
• Experience with version control (Git) and collaborative development practices (CI/CD, code review, testing).
• Life sciences, biotech, or pharma experience preferred, including familiarity with GxP-adjacent data governance and lab or manufacturing information systems (e.g., ELN/LIMS).
• Scientific curiosity and analytical mindset, with the ability to translate ambiguous stakeholder needs into technical solutions.
• Excellent written and verbal communication for working with technical and non-technical stakeholders.
• Self-directed with ability to manage multiple projects independently in a fast-moving, resource-constrained environment.

• Primarily desk-based, generally in an office or home office setting.
• May involve extended periods of sitting and computer use.

Life at Kriya

• Time Off & Work-Life Balance: Flexible Time Off ∙ Paid Parental & Medical Leave ∙ Paid Company Holidays
• Health & Wellness:  Fertility & Family Building Benefits ∙ Medical, Dental, and Vision Insurance ∙ Employee Assistance Program (EAP) ∙ Life Insurance ∙ Short- and Long-Term Disability Coverage
• Financial Security: Equity ∙ 401(k) with Company Match ∙ Identity Theft Protection
• And More!