Lead AI​/ML Engineer – GenAI, LLM, RAG

Job Title: Lead AI/ML Engineer – GenAI, LLM, RAG
Location: Eden Prairie, MN (Remote)
Employment Type: 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 (one product manager, a senior lead, three developers, plus 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.