Principal Founding Product Engineer

Location: United States — Remote Compensation: $200,000–$350,000 USD Start Date: ASAP Languages: Fluent English required Type: Full-time ABOUT THE OPPORTUNITY Pragmatike is recruiting on behalf of a fast-growing technology company building critical infrastructure that powers high-volume, real-time business operations across multiple systems and platforms. We are seeking a Principal AI Engineer to define architecture and technical strategy for highly scalable AI systems. WHAT YOU'LL DO • Define architecture for large-scale AI systems. • Lead complex model serving and inference initiatives. • Optimize AI workloads across performance, quality, and cost. • Evaluate and introduce emerging AI technologies. • Establish technical standards across AI engineering. • Lead high-impact cross-functional AI initiatives. • Mentor senior and staff AI engineers. • Influence product and infrastructure strategy. WHAT WE'RE LOOKING FOR • 8+ years of AI/ML or software engineering experience. • Deep expertise in production AI systems. • Strong distributed systems and architecture skills. • Significant LLM and inference experience. • Strong technical leadership. • Proven ability to solve complex AI engineering problems at scale. NICE TO HAVE • vLLM, Triton, TGI, CUDA. • GPU optimization and distributed inference. • Kubernetes. • AI agents and RAG. • Large-scale model serving. WHY JOIN? Our client is building highly scalable technology that sits at the core of critical business operations, offering engineers the opportunity to work on complex systems, large-scale integrations, and real-world technical challenges. You'll join a collaborative, fast-moving environment where ownership is encouraged, decisions are made quickly, and engineers have meaningful influence on architecture, product direction, and engineering culture. This role offers the opportunity to tackle challenging backend problems, work with modern technologies, and grow alongside an ambitious team building for scale. Full benefit package and competitive compensation. Pragmatike is committed to a fair, transparent, and inclusive recruitment process. We do not discriminate based on age, disability, gender, gender identity or expression, marital or civil partner status, pregnancy or maternity, race, religion or belief, sex, or sexual orientation. In accordance with GDPR, your personal data will be processed lawfully, fairly, and securely, and used solely for recruitment purposes, including sharing it with our client(s) for employment consideration. You may request access, correction, or deletion of your data at any time. We are committed to maintaining the confidentiality and security of your information throughout the recruitment process. Compensation: $200K - $400K