1. Role overview
You own the parts of a system that read, decide and act: retrieval over a client's own records, the rules around a model, and the evaluation that says whether it is safe to run.
This is engineering, not research. What you build is measured on whether it carries the work in production, on the client's data, under their controls.
You work beside the engineer deployed to the client, and you stay with the system after it goes live.
2. Key Responsibilities
Build retrieval and grounding over a client's own records, read in place
Design the evaluation set that decides whether a system is fit to run
Keep behaviour predictable: the same input, the same decision, and a record of both
Instrument every action so it can be traced back to what the system read
Tune cost and latency so a system is affordable to run every day
Adapt models to a client's own language, forms and edge cases
Write down what was tried, so the next engagement does not repeat it
3. Qualifications
Strong Python, and at least one system you took from a notebook into production.
Experience with retrieval and embeddings, and with the failure modes of both.
You design evaluations that can prove you wrong, not ones that flatter the model.
Comfortable with Docker, CI and at least one cloud, including inside someone else's account.
Experience with data that is not allowed to leave the client's environment.
You can explain the trade-off between accuracy, cost and latency to a non-specialist.
Curious about the open-source ecosystem without needing the newest thing in it.
You would rather be measured on production behaviour than on a benchmark.
4. The work
Understand the client's process before choosing the technology.
Build systems for real operational work.
Work with the people who know the process.
Learn from the behaviour of systems in production.
Choose tools to fit the client's platforms and controls.
Document decisions so other engineers can follow the work.
Connect engineering decisions to the work the system must carry.
Keep the client's people involved as the system evolves.
