Lead AI​/ML Engineer

Lead AI/ML Engineer – GenAI, LLM, RAG

Remote (U.S.; Eden Prairie, MN time zone)

Contract (W2 through Zip Staff — No C2C or 1099)

Zip Staff is seeking a Lead AI/ML Engineer to design, build, and deploy enterprise Generative AI solutions at a major healthcare organization.

You will sit with a cross-functional team (product, a senior lead, developers, data scientists, data engineers, and application developers) and own production LLM work plus Responsible AI controls. This is a hands‑on lead seat — not a research‑only role and not a prompt‑only role.

• Architect and develop production Generative AI and LLM solutions.
• Design and implement RAG, vector search, and knowledge-retrieval platforms.
• Build scalable APIs, AI services, and cloud-native ML / LLM infrastructure.
• Establish evaluation for quality, accuracy, groundedness, and safety.
• Lead Responsible AI: bias mitigation, hallucination reduction, security, privacy, and compliance controls.
• Partner with product, business, and engineering on high-value use cases.
• Evaluate emerging AI technology and recommend what to adopt.
• Influence and mentor engineers on the delivery team.

• 10+ years in software engineering, machine learning, or AI engineering.
• 5+ years building and deploying LLM or Generative AI solutions in production.
• Bachelor's in Computer Science, Engineering, Data Science, or a related field.
• Strong Python and modern software-engineering practices.
• Cloud platforms (Azure or AWS).
• Hands‑on RAG, vector databases, prompt engineering, and AI application development.
• Proven lead of complex technical initiatives across functions.
• Responsible AI, governance, privacy, and security in a regulated environment.
• Must be legally authorized to work in the United States without sponsorship now or in the future.

• Healthcare or another regulated industry.
• Production evaluation frameworks (groundedness, safety, accuracy).
• Mentoring and platform-building, not only feature delivery.

• Health Insurance.
• Dental Insurance.
• Vision Insurance.
• 401(k).
• 401(k) matching.
• Paid time off.
• Referral Program.

Zip Staff partners with leading organizations to connect skilled technology professionals with high-impact contract opportunities. We focus on quality matches, clear communication, and long‑term success for candidates and clients.