Principal AI Engineer

Job Title and Department 

Level: Principal 

Department: Data Science & Artificial Intelligence (DS&AI) 

Location: Chicago (we will cover eligible relocation expenses)  

Base Salary: $225,000 - $275,000 

Other compensation: Performance bonus, LTIP and various other benefits 

Company Overview 

Teragonia develops Analytics Engineering and AI solutions for private equity portfolio companies and founder-owned businesses, supported by a team of technologists, data scientists, and business experts with first-hand private equity experience as investors, operators, and M&A advisors. We create bespoke ‘data-to-dollars’ value creation playbooks using Decision Intelligence Systems (DIS) that deliver real-time, system-level insights to enhance EBITDA. We supplement the DIS with advisory services to help business leaders operationalize analytics-driven strategies and work closely with deal teams, operating partners, and management to embed analytics in strategic planning and tactical monitoring for timely course corrections. 

Our “Data-to-Dollars” playbooks and solutions are designed to augment returns during private equity investment lifecycles and span i) Infrastructure Enhancement, ii) Business Growth and Profitability Diagnostics, iii) Value Creation, and iv) Exit Prep. In each of the core solutions we leverage cutting edge tools and technology such as SQL, Python, Tableau, Power BI, Dataiku, DBT, and more to translate technical challenges into business value for our clients. We deliver value to clients across three teams: i) Value Creation & Analytics, ii) Data Science & AI, and iii) Software Engineering. 

Teragonia offers a comprehensive career development platform through cross-learning within our multidisciplinary structure. We nurture a diverse, inclusive, collaborative, respectful, and collegial environment. Our competitive compensation package aligns with the technology industry leaders, encompassing 401k contribution matching, medical insurance, and additional benefits.   

Department Description 

This position is within our Data Science & Artificial Intelligence (DS&AI) team which delivers solutions at the intersection of management consulting, data science and advanced technology, to drive enterprise value creation for private equity backed companies. This position offers a unique opportunity to engage in high-impact projects across diverse industries in the middle-market, combining Teragonia’s deep experience in Private Equity value creation, and expertise in analytics engineering and AI.  

Job Summary 

We are looking for a talented and experienced AI Architect to join our team as Principal AI Engineer. You will play a crucial role in researching, developing, and implementing cutting-edge Artificial Intelligence (AI) capabilities within the Decision Intelligence Platform we have been developing. You will collaborate with Teragonia’s multidisciplinary team of data scientists, management consultants, analytics engineers, data engineers, software engineers, and UI/UX experts to design, develop and scale the AI capabilities within the platform that helps (i) the business users of the platform to interact with enterprise data models as well as the machine learning and optimization models within the platform, in natural language and (ii) technical users (analytics engineers and data engineers) to efficiently develop robust and scalable enterprise data models by automating challenging problems for our customers in the middle market such as database schema matching and exploratory data analysis . You will have the opportunity and the executive support to create innovative products and services that leverage the power of AI for our clients. This is a high visibility role; working closely with the Chief Data Scientist, and with the CTO and CEO. 

Responsibilities 

• Design and develop AI models and algorithms as a part of Teragonia’s product roadmaps. 

• Take a strategic leadership role in the development, launch, and continual refinement of AI components within our Decision Intelligence Platform, including working cross-functionally with software engineers, value creation analytics experts and data scientists. 

• Utilize knowledge of cloud platforms and services to implement and optimize machine learning and AI algorithms for efficient and scalable deployment 

• Work closely with our (i) business leaders to continuously optimize the AI models to deliver impactful outputs to senior customer executives (C-suite and heads of divisions) (ii) analytics engineers in optimally automating the enterprise data model development process within our platform. 

• Oversee the collection, cleaning, preprocessing of data to ensure high-quality inputs for AI solution development process, enabling accurate and reliable outputs. 

• Work across an entire lifecycle from ideation to production to deployment of domain specific and fit-for-purpose open-source or API-based Large Language Models (LLMs) 

• Understand Teragonia’s Decision Intelligence Platform offering and develop AI applications that can integrate with current processes and enhance value to customers. 

• Regularly assess the performance of the AI capabilities within our platform, implementing optimizations based on feedback and evolving business and technical user needs. 

• Advocate for and implement ethical AI practices, ensuring compliance with industry standards and regulations while addressing potential biases in AI systems. 

• Stay up to date with industry trends and best practices in AI, experimenting with new approaches to improve existing systems and develop cutting-edge solutions. 

• Guide and mentor a team of junior AI engineers, software engineers, analytics engineers and data engineers, fostering a collaborative environment that encourages continuous learning and innovation in AI technologies. 

Necessary Qualifications 

• Be located and eligible to work in the United States 
• Be located in or willing to relocate to the Chicago metropolitan area 
• Master's degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Data Science or a closely related field 
• 8+ years of experience in software engineering role, with 5+ years of experience in data science or ML engineering role in training, evaluating, and deploying scalable AI/ML models in production environments 
• Cross-functional experience in leading teams in product development or owning a significant component of a product 
• Proficiency in running ML/AI models in distributed clusters, GPU optimization, and parallel environments 
• Experience in projects or building products that materially use and deploy language models or generative AI 
• Proficiency in Python or R, vector databases, PyTorch/Tensorflow/JAX, industry-standard NLP toolkits and AI platforms (such as LangChain and HuggingFace) 
• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills 

Preferred Qualifications 

• Ph.D. degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Data Science or a closely related field 
• Experience in financial services 
• Experience in product development in ML or AI, from initial ideation all the way to Go-Live and scaling 
• Experience in designing, developing and deploying conversational AI solutions 
• Experience in GCP and Snowflake