Lead AI Platform Engineer

Role: Lead AI Platform Engineer
Location: Chicago, IL  - 3 days onsite a week
Duration: 12 Months with possibility for extension
 
Project Overview:
The Lead AI Platform Engineer / GAI Platform Operations Lead is the senior technical resource accountable for the operational reliability, productionization, optimization, and continuous improvement of the enterprise Generative AI platform.

Contractor’s Role: The role leads advanced platform support, cloud infrastructure operations, application and TLA onboarding, DevOps automation, performance engineering, incident resolution, and coordination across technical and business teams.

Qualifications:
• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Data Science, Engineering, Information Systems, or a related field, or equivalent practical experience.
• Advanced experience supporting enterprise AI/ML, Generative AI, cloud, platform engineering, or production application environments.
• Hands-on experience with Azure cloud services, application hosting, monitoring, logging, and production support practices.
• Experience with incident, problem, change, release, and service-request management in an enterprise environment.
• Experience supporting CI/CD pipelines, automated infrastructure provisioning, and deployment processes.
• Demonstrated ability to lead complex troubleshooting, root cause analysis, technical coordination, and service restoration.
• Strong written communication, operational documentation, stakeholder management, prioritization, and escalation-management skills.

Nice to Haves:
• Experience with Generative AI platforms, LLMOps, MLOps, model-serving environments, or shared enterprise AI services.
• Experience onboarding enterprise applications or TLAs to a common platform.
• Knowledge of Infrastructure as Code, cloud-native architecture, observability, resiliency, and performance engineering.
• Experience guiding distributed onsite and offshore support resources.

Core Technical Capabilities:
• Generative AI and AI/ML platform operations
• Microsoft Azure cloud services and hosted application environments
• Azure DevOps, CI/CD pipelines, and automated infrastructure provisioning
• ServiceNow or equivalent enterprise service-management tooling
• Monitoring, logging, diagnostics, performance testing, and root cause analysis
• Production support, release management, operational resilience, and technical documentation

Expected Deliverables:
• Stable and supportable GAI platform services across lower and production environments.
• Repeatable application and TLA onboarding processes and supporting documentation.
• Completed incident resolutions, root cause analyses, and corrective/preventive action tracking.
• Maintained monitoring, performance-testing, runbook, playbook, troubleshooting, and operational documentation.
• Automation and resilience improvements that reduce manual effort and recurring production incidents.
Performance and Success Measures:
• Platform availability, reliability, and production stability.
• Resolution of escalated incidents within applicable service expectations and SLAs.
• Quality and timeliness of root cause analysis, corrective actions, and stakeholder communications.
• Effectiveness of onboarding, automation, monitoring, and operational-maturity improvements.
• Reduction of recurring incidents, manual support effort, and avoidable escalations.

Working Relationships:
• Collaborate with GAI platform engineering, application delivery, cloud infrastructure, cybersecurity, service management, and business stakeholder teams.
• Coordinate with third-party providers and distributed onsite/offshore support resources as required.
Governance and Control Expectations
• Follow applicable SDLC, security, change-management, incident-management, access-control, and documentation requirements.
• Use designated systems for issue logging, tracking, knowledge management, and closure.
• Maintain accurate, timely, and audit-ready operational records and stakeholder communications.

Tasks & Responsibilities:
• Lead deployment, management, and optimization of GAI platform resources across non-production and production environments.
• Own Level 3 investigation and resolution of complex platform, application, infrastructure, access, deployment, integration, and performance issues within agreed service expectations.
• Develop and mature repeatable platform onboarding processes for applications and TLAs, including readiness, access, infrastructure, deployment, and upstream/downstream integration dependencies.
• Coordinate with delivery teams, cloud infrastructure, security, application teams, and service providers to support smooth execution and service restoration.
• Establish continuous monitoring, logging, performance testing, capacity analysis, and proactive issue identification for deployed infrastructure and applications.
• Analyze platform and application logs, identify root causes, and direct corrective and preventive actions through closure.
• Lead support for DevOps pipelines, automated infrastructure provisioning, release activities, configuration, patching, maintenance, and productionization.
• Act on incidents, requests, defects, and problem records in accordance with defined escalation processes and SLAs.
• Create and maintain technical standards, runbooks, playbooks, troubleshooting guides, onboarding procedures, and operational knowledge.
• Identify and implement opportunities to strengthen resilience, reduce production incidents, decrease manual effort, and increase automation.
• Provide clear stakeholder communications regarding service status, incident progress, risks, dependencies, SLA performance, and required actions.
• Demonstrate a self-starter mindset by proactively identifying, owning, and driving work through completion with limited oversight.
• Think in systems by understanding complex processes, recognizing cross-functional dependencies, and solving interconnected problems across platform, application, infrastructure, and operational domains.
• Provide technical direction and escalation support to L1/L2 GAI Operations Support Engineers.
 
  
 
At SPECTRAFORCE, we are committed to maintaining a workplace that ensures fair compensation and wage transparency in adherence with all applicable state and local laws.This position's pay range is $100.00/hr - $115.63/hr.