Applied AI Engineer | Hybrid | $170K–$230K Equity

Full-time Description Applied AI Engineer | Production AI / LLM | $170K–$230K + Equity New York, NY | Full-Time | Approximately 3 Days/Week In Office Yanny Almanzar Senior Recruiter | Heartline Staffing Call or Text: 929-523-6975 Email: Yanny@heartlinestaffing.com Prefer a confidential conversation instead of applying? Call or text Yanny directly at 929-523-6975 . Heartline Staffing is recruiting an Applied AI Engineer for a full-time opportunity in New York City. This is an early-engineering role focused on building and shipping production AI systems that directly support marketplace growth, operational efficiency, revenue, and product quality. The engineer will work closely with the founder/CEO and own AI initiatives from problem definition and architecture through production deployment, evaluation, and iteration. IMPORTANT: This is not a research-only AI role. Candidates must have meaningful experience shipping AI/LLM functionality into production and must also have a strong full-stack engineering foundation. COMPENSATION • $170,000–$230,000 annual base salary • Equity • Relocation support available for strong candidates WORK ARRANGEMENT • Full-time, permanent • New York City • In-person collaboration strongly preferred • Approximately 3 days per week in office ROLE FOCUS • Approximately 60% AI / Machine Learning • Approximately 40% Product / Full-Stack Engineering AI / ML RESPONSIBILITIES • Select and evaluate models based on product and business requirements. • Develop and refine prompts, fine-tuning approaches, and LLM workflows. • Build with embeddings and vector databases. • Develop AI evaluation and experimentation systems. • Build and maintain data pipelines supporting AI functionality. • Deploy, monitor, evaluate, and continuously improve production AI systems. PRODUCT ENGINEERING RESPONSIBILITIES • Build APIs and backend services supporting AI-powered functionality. • Develop product integrations and AI-enabled features. • Support UI integration of AI functionality. • Build production infrastructure supporting AI systems. • Translate ambiguous business problems into practical production solutions. WHAT YOU'LL BUILD • Candidate-to-job matching systems designed to improve placement quality and speed. • Intelligent automation replacing manual marketplace workflows. • AI-powered classification, extraction, content generation, and search functionality. • Evaluation and experimentation systems focused on accuracy and consistency. • Production AI features informed by real-world user feedback. • Internal tooling and infrastructure supporting faster AI development and iteration. Requirements Requirements • 4+ years of engineering experience REQUIRED • Meaningful experience shipping AI / LLM features into production REQUIRED • Experience owning AI projects end-to-end, from problem definition through deployment and iteration REQUIRED • Strong understanding of model selection, data pipelines, deployment, evaluation, and iteration REQUIRED • Experience working with LLM APIs REQUIRED • Experience with embeddings REQUIRED • Experience with vector databases REQUIRED • Experience with fine-tuning REQUIRED • Strong full-stack web development foundation REQUIRED • Ability to connect technical decisions to measurable business outcomes REQUIRED • Must be legally authorized to work in the United States without sponsorship REQUIRED • Ability to work approximately 3 days per week in the New York City office REQUIRED Preferred • Early-stage or high-growth startup experience • Founding-team engineering experience • Recruiting or talent-industry experience • Marketplace experience • Matching, search, or recommendation-system experience Not ready to formally apply? That's completely fine. Many professionals prefer a confidential conversation first. Call or text Yanny directly at 929-523-6975 . Salary Description $170K-$230K + Equity