Principal R&D AI Software Engineer - Remote Position

About the Role

We are seeking a Principal R&D AI Software Engineer to join our team at Progressive Leasing. This remote position allows you to work from anywhere in the continental United States. As a Principal R&D AI Software Engineer, you will play a crucial role in advancing our AI initiatives and driving innovation in our products.

What You'll Do

• Architect, design, and develop proof-of-concepts and early-stage production systems leveraging LLMs, agentic workflows, vector databases, and emerging AI technologies.
• Collaborate closely with the VP of Research & Development to shape technical direction and evaluate emerging tools.
• Build integrations with platforms such as Microsoft Copilot, ChatGPT, and other leading models using APIs and SDKs.
• Develop full-stack solutions end-to-end, including API development, data pipelining, and cloud-native deployments.
• Create advanced prompts, system instructions, tools, and agent architectures to enhance automation and decision-making.
• Partner with engineering, product, data, and security teams to ensure responsible AI standards and transition successful POCs toward production readiness.
• Maintain a high sense of ownership over solution design, performance, quality, and reliability.
• Actively research and document findings to keep Progressive Leasing at the forefront of applied AI.

Requirements

• 10+ years of experience in software engineering with deep expertise in full-stack development and cloud architectures.
• Senior-level proficiency in AI integrations, LLM APIs, and prompt engineering.
• In-depth expertise in cloud infrastructure design and deployment with AWS.
• Strong programming skills in Python, with experience in JavaScript/TypeScript.
• Hands-on experience building APIs and designing scalable services using JSON and REST.
• Solid understanding of databases (SQL/NoSQL) and data modeling for AI applications.
• Ability to work autonomously and distill ambiguous problems into actionable solutions.
• Strong communication skills to influence decision-making and explain complex concepts.

Nice to Have

• Experience with agent development and orchestration frameworks.
• Curiosity and creativity in exploring the evolving AI landscape.

What We Offer

• Competitive compensation and full health benefits (medical, dental, vision).
• Paid parental leave and company-matched 401k.
• Paid time off, holidays, and volunteer hours.
• Employee resource groups and stock purchase programs.
• Tuition reimbursement and charitable gift matching.
• Job-required equipment and services.