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Principal AI Engineer (Remote)
Location: Remote
Employment Type: Full-Time
Job ID: 00070203661
About the role
As a Principal AI Engineer, you will make a significant impact by designing, building, and scaling enterprise-grade agentic AI solutions that are secure, trustworthy, and production-ready. You will serve as a senior individual contributor, leading the architecture and implementation of advanced multi-agent systems, model orchestration frameworks, and AI governance capabilities that can be leveraged across multiple strategic initiatives.
You will be a valued member of our AI Engineering team, collaborating with architects, data scientists, software engineers, platform teams, and business stakeholders to establish reusable patterns, raise engineering standards, and accelerate enterprise AI adoption.
In this role, you will:

• Architect and deliver scalable agentic and multi-agent AI systems, including orchestration, planning, memory, tool integration, and enterprise platform connectivity.
• Design, develop, and deploy production-grade AI applications, owning technical decisions from proof of concept through operational deployment.
• Build and optimize model orchestration frameworks that intelligently balance cost, latency, performance, and scalability across multiple model providers and AI services.
• Develop robust LLM-powered solutions using prompt engineering, Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG), context management, structured outputs, and advanced evaluation frameworks.
• Establish AI governance, safety, and responsible AI controls, including guardrails, validation frameworks, traceability, monitoring, auditability, and compliance mechanisms.

Work model
We strive to provide flexibility wherever possible. Based on this role's business requirements, this is a remote position open to qualified applicants within the United States.
Regardless of your working arrangement, we are committed to supporting a healthy work-life balance through our wellbeing programs, career development opportunities, and collaborative culture.
What you need to have to be considered

• Bachelor's or Master's degree in Computer Science, Data Science, Engineering, or a related discipline, or equivalent practical experience.
• 8+ years of experience in software engineering, machine learning, or AI engineering, including recent hands-on delivery of production AI or LLM-based solutions.
• Expert-level Python development experience with modern frameworks such as FastAPI, Pydantic, and asynchronous programming patterns.
• Deep hands-on experience with agentic AI frameworks such as LangGraph, LangChain, Google ADK, or similar orchestration platforms.
• Strong expertise in LLM integration, prompt engineering, Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG), context management, and evaluation methodologies.
• Experience designing model selection and orchestration strategies that optimize cost, latency, and response quality across AI workloads.
• Practical experience in machine learning, model evaluation, fine-tuning, feature engineering, and statistical analysis.
• Proven experience delivering solutions on cloud platforms using modern MLOps practices, CI/CD pipelines, containers, monitoring, and observability tools.
• Demonstrated ability to lead complex technical initiatives, mentor engineers, and produce clear architecture and design documentation.

These will help you stand out

• Experience implementing AI governance, responsible AI, and safety frameworks, including adversarial testing, guardrails, drift detection, auditability, and compliance controls.
• Hands-on experience with Google Cloud technologies such as Vertex AI, Cloud Run, and BigQuery.
• Experience with model routing, LLM gateway, or AI orchestration platforms such as LiteLLM, TrueFoundry, or Bifrost.
• Familiarity with low-latency model serving, inference optimization, and local-model deployment strategies.
• Knowledge of AI FinOps practices, including predictive budgeting, usage optimization, and cost governance for LLM platforms.
• Contributions to AI evaluation, observability, monitoring, or governance tooling.
• Experience operating in highly regulated, security-sensitive, or compliance-driven enterprise environments.
• Publications, conference presentations, technical blogs, whitepapers, or contributions to the broader AI community.

Salary and Other Compensation:
Applicants will be accepted till 9/18/2026
Cognizant will only consider applicants for this position who are legally authorized to work in the United States without company sponsorship.
*Please note, this role is not able to offer visa transfer or sponsorship now or in the future*
The annual salary for this position will be in the range of $130,000 - $150,000 depending on experience and other qualifications of the successful candidate.
This position is also eligible for Cognizant's discretionary annual incentive program, based on performance and subject to the terms of Cognizant's applicable plans.
Benefits: Cognizant offers the following benefits for this position, subject to applicable eligibility requirements:

• Medical/Dental/Vision/Life Insurance
• Paid holidays plus Paid Time Off
• 401(k) plan and contributions
• Long-term/Short-term Disability
• Paid Parental Leave
• Employee Stock Purchase Plan

Disclaimer: The salary, other compensation, and benefits information is accurate as of the date of this posting. Cognizant reserves the right to modify this information at any time, subject to applicable law.
Our strength is built on our ability to work together. Our diverse backgrounds offer different perspectives and new ways of thinking. It encourages lively discussions, creativity, productivity, and helps us build better solutions for our clients. We want someone who thrives in this setting and is inspired to craft meaningful solutions through true collaboration.
If you are content with ambiguity, excited by change, and excel through autonomy, we'd love to hear from you!
Apply Now!
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About Cognizant:
Cognizant (Nasdaq: CTSH) is an AI Builder and technology services provider, bridging the gap between AI investment and enterprise value by building full-stack AI solutions for our clients. Our deep industry, process and engineering expertise enables us to build an organization's unique context into technology systems that amplify human potential, drive tangible outcomes and keep global enterprises ahead in a fast-changing world. See how at cognizant.ai or @cognizant.
Additional employment information
Compensation information is accurate as of the date of this posting. Cognizant reserves the right to modify this information at any time, subject to applicable law.
Applicants may be required to attend interviews in person or by video conference. In addition, candidates may be required to present their current state or government issued ID during each interview.
Cognizant is an equal opportunity employer. Your application and candidacy will not be considered based on race, color, sex, religion, creed, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, genetic information, pregnancy, veteran status or any other characteristic protected by federal, state or local laws.
If you have a disability that requires reasonable accommodation to search for a job opening or submit an application, please email [email protected] for roles based in the Americas or [email protected] for roles based in India.