Artificial Intelligence Engineer II

Artificial Intelligence Engineer II

Universal Leaf Tobacco Company is headquartered in Richmond, Virginia, and is a leading global leaf tobacco supplier. Founded in 1918, the company focuses on procuring and processing flue‑cured, burley, and dark air‑cured leaf tobacco for manufacturers of consumer tobacco products and has recently expanded into plant‑based ingredients for the food and beverage markets.

As an AI Engineer II at Universal, you will lead the development of advanced AI models and systems that solve complex business challenges. You will work independently and collaboratively to design, deploy, and optimize production‑grade AI solutions, while mentoring junior engineers and contributing to strategic technical decisions. This role requires strong expertise in machine learning, big data, and cloud technologies.

• Architect and implement scalable AI systems using advanced machine learning techniques.
• Lead model development, training, evaluation, and deployment for production environments.
• Optimize system performance through rigorous testing, tuning, and monitoring.
• Collaborate with stakeholders to align AI solutions with business goals and technical requirements.
• Guide junior engineers through code reviews, technical mentorship, and best practices.
• Develop reusable components and contribute to internal AI frameworks and libraries.
• Stay current with AI research and emerging technologies to inform solution design.
• Ensure compliance with data governance, security, and ethical AI standards.

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Data Science, Engineering, or a related field.
• 3–5 years of experience in AI/ML engineering, with proven success in deploying scalable solutions.
• Proficiency in programming languages such as .NET, Python, or R.
• Experience with cloud platforms and big data tools.
• Strong understanding of model lifecycle, MLOps, and performance optimization.
• Excellent communication and leadership skills.
• Experience with SQL or No
  
  SQL databases.
• Strong understanding of data governance, privacy, and ethical AI.
• Ability to write clean, maintainable code and follow coding standards.
• Strong analytical and problem‑solving skills.
• Effective communication and collaboration abilities.

• Experience with edge AI or deploying models to production environments.
• Exposure to MLOps tools and practices.
• Experience with RESTful APIs or microservices.
• Familiarity with containerization (Docker).
• Experience mentoring junior engineers or interns.
• Experience with business intelligence tools (e.g., Power BI).

We offer a wide range of market‑competitive total rewards that include 401(k) match, pension, merit increases, paid holidays, medical, dental, life, vision, short- and long-term disability benefits, and tuition assistance.

EOE M/F/Disabled/Vet Employer

All applicants must be authorized to work in the United States.