AI/ML Engineer
Alation is pioneering the next era of data intelligence — powered by AI agents and trusted data. The AI/ML Engineer will build intelligent systems, prototype AI applications, and collaborate with customers to design practical solutions using Alation's data ecosystem. Responsibilities Prototype AI Agents: Experiment with modern LLM and agent frameworks (e.g., LangChain, Pydantic-AI) — evaluate, benchmark, and refine performance with guidance from AI experts and researchers Collaborate with customers: Partner with technical stakeholders to understand real-world use cases and co-design practical solutions Build AI-powered applications: Develop agentic systems that combine structured data, language models, and automation to deliver measurable results Code with care: Write clean, well-structured Python code for integrations, pipelines, and intelligent systems Grow through teamwork: Work directly with product and platform teams to share insights from real deployments and help improve Alation’s AI platform Contribute reusable tools: Help create templates and patterns that speed up future implementations Skills 1 - 3 years of related experience in a startup or rapidly growing and evolving business B.S. in Computer Science or related field (M.S. in Computer Science or related field preferred) Strong Python fundamentals, with experience writing and debugging production-quality code Curiosity and an understanding of LLMs or AI system development — from prompting to evaluation Comfort working with SQL and relational data; familiarity with tools like Snowflake, BigQuery, or Redshift is a plus Interest in working across the full lifecycle — from problem framing and prototyping to testing and deployment Clear communication skills and an ability to collaborate with both engineers and non-technical teams A growth mindset — you like learning new frameworks, exploring ideas, and solving open-ended problems Experience deploying AI or ML systems in production (e.g., observability, monitoring, and iterative improvement) Background in forward deployed engineering, solutions engineering, or AI consulting roles Familiarity with data infrastructure and MLOps concepts — APIs, orchestration, containerization, and cloud environments Understanding of enterprise data governance and access control principles Company Overview Alation is a data intelligence platform for banks, retailers, and government agencies. It was founded in 2012, and is headquartered in Redwood City, California, USA, with a workforce of 501-1000 employees. Its website is