Applied AI Engineer Global Investment Firm

APPLIED AI ENGINEER – Global Investment Firm

J Harlan Group is conducting a search for an APPLIED AI ENGINEER for a world-renowned global investment and technology firm headquartered in NYC.

Technology and advanced computation are foundational to everything this firm does. They are seeking exceptional engineers with strong computer science fundamentals and hands‑on experience designing and deploying applied AI and agentic systems. As an Applied AI Engineer, you will help build the next generation of AI‑driven applications, agent frameworks, and shared infrastructure—making AI reliable, scalable, and impactful for users across research, technology, trading, and operations.

You will collaborate with highly talented engineers, quants, and domain experts to create sophisticated AI solutions and foundational platforms. This is an opportunity for individuals who enjoy building real production AI systems, experimenting with emerging model capabilities, and shaping firmwide adoption of AI and automation.

The firm values engineers who are agile, intellectually curious, creative, and hands‑on, and who thrive in a collegial, fast‑paced environment.

• Develop and maintain shared AI platforms, including agent frameworks, orchestration layers, retrieval systems, and firmwide tools for scalable, safe AI usage.
• Build foundational components such as vector stores, RAG pipelines, reusable “skills,” LLM gateways, evaluation frameworks, and large‑scale retrieval infrastructure supporting AI applications across the firm.
• Integrate modern AI tools and state‑of‑the‑art models to create robust, production‑grade AI services.

• Lead and contribute to greenfield AI projects, taking solutions from concept through prototyping to full production deployment.
• Build bespoke AI agents and intelligent applications tailored to researchers, technologists, investment teams, and operations groups.
• Integrate AI agents with diverse internal data sources, knowledge repositories, and documentation systems to deliver context‑aware, deeply useful tools.

• Rapidly prototype with emerging AI capabilities, including advanced model types, agentic workflows, and new tool chains.
• Evaluate new techniques—RAG, multi‑agent systems, long‑context models, model‑to‑model orchestration—and determine where they deliver meaningful business value.
• Conduct benchmarking, reliability testing, and quantitative evaluation to inform design decisions and ensure robust performance.

• Work closely with engineering teams, quants, and business partners to understand workflows and identify opportunities for intelligent automation.
• Make AI approachable for a wide range of users by building intuitive abstractions, interfaces, and developer‑friendly tooling.

Help define best practices, frameworks, and reusable patterns to scale AI adoption across the organization.

The ideal candidate combines strong software engineering expertise with deep interest in applied AI systems, agent architecture, and real‑world deployment of advanced model capabilities.

• Strong computer science fundamentals—algorithms, systems, data structures.
• Hands‑on experience with applied AI: LLMs, embeddings, agent frameworks, retrieval pipelines, or similar systems.
• Experience building production‑quality software in Python or other high‑level languages.
• Familiarity with cloud model providers, model APIs, and scalable system architectures.

• Historically, successful engineers at the firm excel academically in technical fields such as CS, EE, Math, or Physics.
• Ability to reason quantitatively and analytically, even in unfamiliar domains.

• A “builder–tinkerer” mentality: curious, experimental, eager to explore new tools and approaches.
• Thrives in a collaborative, high‑intensity, intellectually rigorous environment.
• Strong ownership mentality—motivated to build durable, production systems that create real impact.
• Excellent communication skills and ability to work with diverse…