Illumina

AI Engineer

Illumina San Diego, CA, US
Full-time $82k - $123k Posted about 1 month ago

Role overview

  • check_circle Implement features in production AI applications, including LLM integrations, prompt workflows, retrieval pipelines, and supporting backend services.
  • check_circle Develop and maintain components of RAG systems, including data ingestion, chunking, embedding generation, and retrieval logic.
  • check_circle Write clean, tested, well-documented Python code that meets team standards for quality and maintainability.
  • check_circle Build internal tools, scripts, and prototypes that accelerate the team's ability to experiment and iterate.
  • check_circle Run experiments to evaluate model performance, prompt variations, retrieval strategies, and end-to-end system behavior.
  • check_circle Develop and maintain evaluation datasets, test cases, and regression checks for AI features.
  • check_circle Analyze production logs and metrics to identify quality issues, latency bottlenecks, and cost optimization opportunities.
  • check_circle Contribute to incident response and root-cause analysis for AI system issues.
  • check_circle Stay current with the AI ecosystem by following research, exploring new tools, and bringing useful ideas back to the team.
  • check_circle Participate actively in code reviews, design discussions, and team rituals, asking questions and offering perspectives.
  • check_circle Document your work clearly so that teammates can build on it and learn from it.
  • check_circle Pair with senior engineers on complex problems and gradually take on larger scope as you grow.
  • check_circle Work closely with product managers, designers, and other engineers to understand requirements and ship features that solve real user problems.
  • check_circle Communicate progress, blockers, and trade-offs clearly in standups, written updates, and design documents.
  • check_circle Support other teams by answering questions about AI capabilities and limitations.

Basic qualifications

  • 1 to 2 years of professional software engineering experience (internships, co-ops, and substantial open source contributions count).
  • Strong programming skills in Python, with familiarity in writing modular, testable code.
  • Working knowledge of how large language models behave in practice, including experience calling LLM APIs (OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, or open-weight models) in at least one project.
  • Familiarity with at least one of the following: RAG systems, prompt engineering, vector databases, embeddings, or basic agent patterns.
  • Solid foundation in software engineering basics including Git, REST APIs, JSON, SQL, and at least one cloud environment.
  • Strong written and verbal communication skills with a willingness to ask questions and engage in technical discussion.
  • Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Data Science, Machine Learning, Engineering, or a related field, or equivalent demonstrable experience.

Preferred qualifications

  • Experience with at least one AI framework such as LangChain, LlamaIndex, Hugging Face Transformers, or DSPy.
  • Exposure to vector databases (Pinecone, Weaviate, pgvector, Vertex AI Vector Search) and embedding models.
  • Familiarity with one major cloud platform (GCP, Azure, or AWS), particularly the managed AI services.
  • Comfort with Docker, basic CI/CD workflows, and modern engineering practices.
  • A portfolio of personal projects, open source contributions, hackathon work, or coursework that demonstrates curiosity and initiative in AI.
  • Experience with web frameworks (FastAPI, Flask) or frontend basics (React, TypeScript) is a plus but not required.
  • Coursework or self-directed learning in machine learning, deep learning, NLP, or information retrieval.
  • Core Programming: Python (required), familiarity with JavaScript or TypeScript helpful.
  • AI Tooling: Comfort calling LLM APIs, basic prompt engineering, familiarity with at least one framework (LangChain, LlamaIndex, Hugging Face).
  • Data and Storage: SQL, JSON, basic familiarity with vector databases and traditional databases.
  • Cloud and Engineering: Git, REST APIs, basic Docker, at least one cloud environment (GCP, Azure, or AWS).
  • Bonus: Notebook environments (Jupyter, Colab), evaluation tools (RAGAS, LangSmith, Weights and Biases), basic frontend development.
  • Curiosity: Genuine interest in how AI works and a habit of digging into details rather than treating models as black boxes.
  • Ownership: Willingness to see problems through, even when the path is unclear.
  • Communication: Comfort asking questions, sharing progress, and explaining your thinking.
  • Quality Mindset: Pride in writing code that is clear, tested, and easy for others to work with.
  • Learning Velocity: A track record of picking up new tools, languages, and concepts quickly.
  • Collaboration: Generosity with teammates, openness to feedback, and willingness to help others succeed.

Tags & Focus Areas

Fulltime Ai Ai Engineer

About Illumina