AFL manufactures industry-leading fiber optic cable, connectivity and accessories and provides engineering and installation services for some of the largest telecom customers in the world. Our company was founded in 1984 with a single fiber opticย cableย and today, we manufacture thousands of products, generate an excess of $2B in revenue, and employ approximately 11,000 associates worldwide. At AFL, we recognize that our employees are our greatestย asset. We hire and trainย each individual, investing in them to ensure success in their careers. With a commitment to professional development and growth, let us connect you to your next career opportunity.ย
What We Offer:ย ย
- Flexible time off policyย
- 401K Company match (up toย 4% โย dollar for dollar)ย
- Professional development, training, and tuition reimbursement programsย
- Excellent medical, dental, vision, and life insurance policy optionsย
- Opportunities for career advancement with anย industry leadingย company!ย
We are seeking a Lead AI Engineer to join our Business Operations team.ย This position may be able to work remotely from anywhere within the United States.ย ย
Theย Lead AI Engineerย is the first engineering hire on AFL's AI Enablement team, responsible for designing, building, and deploying agentic AI systems that automate the operational backbone of the business through workflow orchestration, model adaptation, and analytics. Working directly with the AI Enablement Manager, the Lead AI Engineer will helpย layย the technical foundation the rest of the team will build on โ including model selection and management, deployment posture, orchestration patterns,ย evaluationย andย audit. As the team grows, an AI Product Manager and AI Operations Specialists will join to take on intake, sequencing, stakeholder coordination, and product ownership of deployed solutions, allowing engineers to stay focused on build work.ย
Responsibilities:ย ย
Key responsibilities/essential functions include:ย
Architecture & Technical Foundationย ย
- Establishesย the architecturalย patterns, evaluation practices, and deployment standards for the teamย
- Makes framework and model recommendations that set the foundation for how the team builds โ evaluates orchestration frameworks, selects deployment patterns, trains and fine-tunes models, andย determinesย where managed platforms end and custom build beginsย
Solution Design & Deliveryย ย
- Translates proposed business solutions into technical plans โ defines product life cycles, prioritizes the backlog, and breaks initiatives into buildable workย
- Owns solutions end-to-end: technical planning, architecture,ย build, deploy, and the monitoring that keeps them honest in productionย
Production Reliabilityย ย
- Buildsย the monitoring, evaluation, and regression detection systems that keep production agents reliable โ including logging, performance benchmarking, and feedback loopsย that surfaceย drift earlyย
Governance & Collaborationย ย
- Partners with data governance to ensure solutions meet compliance, data quality, and operational standardsย
Personal Qualities:ย ย
- Innovative and tech-savvy, with deep curiosity about emerging AI capabilities and how to apply themย
- Analytical and detail-oriented, with a strong engineering mindsetย
- Collaborative and communicative, able to translate complex technical concepts for non-technical stakeholdersย
- Self-directed and accountable, able to set technical direction and drive execution independentlyย
Qualifications:ย ย
- Bachelor's degree in Computer Scienceย or related field, or equivalent experienceย
- 7+ years of software engineering experience with a strong full-stack foundation โ backend services, API design, system integration, and data infrastructureย
- Recent hands-on experience building AI or LLM-backed systems and shipping them to productionย
- Experience architecting solutions from scratch and owning them through deployment, observability, testing, and ongoing reliabilityย
- Experience with AI development practices โ model selection, fine-tuning, prompt engineering, evaluation frameworks, and understanding when each approach is the right fitย
- Proficiencyย in Python; experience with cloud platformsย
- Experience mentoring engineers and setting technical direction across multiple initiativesย
- Strong communicationย skills with both technical and non-technical stakeholders
Working Conditions:ย ย
- Environment: Remote work environment (US-based).ย
- Travel: Occasional travel (domestic) as needed.ย