Software Engineer - AI Applications

About the Hiring Group You are: A Software Engineer with experience building cloud-native applications and applying AI technologies to practical business, research or client needs . You have contributed to systems beyond the proof-of-concept stage and understand the engineering work required to make AI-enabled applications reliable, secure and maintainable. You are comfortable working through ambiguity, explaining technical trade-offs and collaborating with researchers, data scientists and software engineers. You can distinguish between a compelling demonstration and a solution that is ready to support real users. You have personally contributed to building and deploying AI-enabled applications, not just experimenting with models or using AI tools as an end user. You can clearly explain the systems you worked on, your individual contribution, the technical decisions you made, and how you evaluated whether the solution worked. What You'll Do The Work: You will work closely with internal teams and clients to contribute to the design, development, and deployment of AI‑powered solutions across sectors such as health, energy, and education. You will help translate business and research needs into technical implementations, build and refine multi-step AI workflows, and support the delivery of scalable, secure systems in enterprise environments. You will contribute to new systems and enhancements that integrate with existing infrastructure, collaborating with colleagues and partners to deliver practical solutions that can be tested, deployed, maintained, and supported over time. In this role, you will support the development of AI systems and enhancements that integrate with RTI’s research infrastructure—including survey data collection platforms, systematic review pipelines, data quality assurance systems, and proposal development workflows—working closely with data scientists, domain researchers, and software developers to ensure solutions meet the rigor expected in federally regulated and research‑driven environments. Location preference: For this position, we strongly prefer candidates who are located within reasonable driving distance of RTI’s headquarters in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina. Proximity to RTP will allow for periodic in-person collaboration, team meetings, and other on-site activities as needed. As part of the interview process, candidates will be asked to discuss a system they personally helped build. The discussion will cover their individual contribution, key technical decisions, challenges encountered, evaluation approach and results. Candidates will also participate in a job-related technical discussion and exercise. Responsibilities: AI System & Agent Development. Design, build, and maintain AI‑enabled systems and multi-stepworkflows, including retrieval, tool use, orchestration, and iterative improvement, with a focus on production readiness and maintainability. Enterprise & Research…