Principal AI Software Engineer

At AbsenceSoft, we’re transforming the employee experience. Our secure, intuitive technology helps employers bring humanity, certainty, and efficiency to some of the most complex moments in the workplace. Built by HR professionals for HR professionals, we’re proud of where we’ve been and even more excited about where we’re going.

We're seeking a Principal AI Software Engineer who thrives in dynamic environments and is excited to shape the future of AI-powered intelligent applications. In this role, you'll architect, build, and deploy AI-driven systems—blending traditional ML pipelines, computer vision and audio models, and modern LLM and agentic AI approaches. You'll work across engineering and product to bring smart, contextual, and reliable AI features to production, collaborating closely with data scientists and data engineers to ensure performance, accuracy, and scalability.

If you're a builder who is energized by frontier AI problems—whether with language models, vision systems, or classic predictive pipelines—and who cares deeply about ethics, usability, and long-term scalability, we'd love to meet you.

WHAT YOU'LL DO

• Design and implement AI applications using the most effective modality for the problem—whether structured ML models, LLMs, vision, or audio-based models.
• Build intelligent systems using vector search, semantic retrieval, RAG pipelines, and agentic behavior where appropriate.
• Architect and deploy context-aware services with autonomous behavior and real-time reasoning capabilities.
• Contribute to core infrastructure for inference pipelines, embeddings, prompt management, and intelligent feedback loops.
• Work closely with data scientists and data engineers to design, train, and serve robust, production-ready models.
• Collaborate with product managers and designers to shape user-facing AI features and customer experiences.
• Integrate AI-assisted developer tools into engineering workflows and internal platforms.
• Ensure solutions adhere to Responsible AI principles and comply with evolving global AI regulations and privacy standards.
• Lead performance tuning, observability, and failover design for critical AI services.
• Operate effectively within a highly compliant environment, supporting company controls and security standards.

WHAT YOU'LL BRING

• 8+ years building enterprise-grade applications with deep expertise in MACH architectures, plus 3+ years developing AI/ML-powered applications using LLMs, classic ML models, or multi-modal architectures.
• Strong Python programming skills with production-level API and async design experience, and fluency across multiple ML paradigms including deep learning, vision, and audio models.
• Hands-on experience with LLM orchestration, RAG pipelines, embeddings, and prompt engineering, with a track record of deploying trained models at scale in collaboration with data scientists.
• Proficiency deploying with Docker/Kubernetes across cloud platforms (AWS, Azure, or GCP), with familiarity in CI/CD pipelines, model versioning, A/B testing, and observability best practices.
• Strong communicator who thrives in cross-functional, fast-moving environments; bonus points for experience with Event-Driven Architecture (EDA) patterns.

Why join us

At AbsenceSoft, we LEAD with our values:

Lead with Innovation - We create meaningful change through intelligence, focus and passion.  We embrace curiosity, data, and insight to shape the future of our industry. Always innovating, learning and evolving.

Elevate Every Voice - Every perspective matters. We listen, learn, and build a culture where diversity of thought and experience drives better solutions and smarter decisions. 

Achieve Together - The customer fuels everything we do. We share knowledge, collaborate, celebrate wins, and face challenges as one team because success is always a collective achievement.

Drive Outcome - Every action we take delivers measurable value to our teams, our customers, and the employees they support. Accountability is non-negotiable. We honor our commitments, take responsibility for results, and see every success and setback as a chance to grow stronger.

We offer:

• Impact that matters. You’ll do work that shapes the future of the modern workplace
• Flexibility and trust. We’re remote-first and results driven. You’ll have the freedom and flexibility to do your best work, wherever you do it best.
• Growth and development. We believe the best work happens when people are growing. You’ll have access to learning resources, leadership programs, and real opportunities to take on new challenges and expand your impact.  
• Competitive rewards. We offer comprehensive benefits, a performance-based bonus program, and equity opportunities – because when we grow, you should too.
• Time for life. Recharge and reconnect with flexible time off, paid holidays, and flexible leave programs designed to support every season of life.
• Belonging and balance. We’re building an inclusive culture where every voice is valued, collaboration is celebrated, and success is shared.

We’re committed to building a team as diverse as the customers we serve. If your experience doesn’t align perfectly with every qualification, we still encourage you to apply you might be exactly what we’re looking for. If this sounds like a fit, apply today, we’d love to meet you!

Final compensation is determined based on a candidate's relevant experience, skills, education, and geographic location. This position is also eligible for annual bonus.