Senior AI Engineer - AI Developer

Senior AI Engineer - AI Developer - Contract - Charlotte, NC / Remote - $62.12- $62.12/hr.

The final salary or hourly wage, as applicable, paid to each candidate/applicant for this position is ultimately dependent on a variety of factors, including, but not limited to, the candidate's/applicant's qualifications, skills, and level of experience as well as the geographical location of the position.

Applicants must be legally authorized to work in the United States. Sponsorship not available.

Our client is seeking a Senior AI Engineer - AI Developer in Charlotte, NC / Remote.

Responsibilities

Architect and develop AI-driven IVR and conversational systems using Python
Build NLP models for text classification and clustering to support intent detection and call routing
Perform data analysis using SQL on large-scale IVR and interaction datasets
Design and deploy LLM workflows (prompt engineering, RAG, evaluation) for voice and chat use cases
Lead development of agentic AI workflows for multi-step customer interactions
Establish LLMOps best practices, including monitoring, evaluation, and lifecycle management
Partner with IVR platform, speech engineering, and product teams
Mentor offshore and junior AI engineers
5+ years of experience in AI / ML
Very strong proficiency in Python
Proven expertise in NLP, including:
Text classification
Clustering
Strong experience in data analysis using SQL
Hands-on experience with LLMs:
Prompt engineering
Evaluation frameworks
Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG)
Experience with Agentic AI and multi-agent orchestration
Experience with LLMOps / MLOps in production environments
Familiarity with IVR platforms and speech technologies (ASR, NLU, TTS)
Libraries & Tools
Python / ML: NumPy, Pandas, Scikit-learn, XGBoost
NLP: spaCy, Hugging Face Transformers, NLTK, Sentence-Transformers
LLM Frameworks: LangChain, LlamaIndex, OpenAI SDK
Agentic AI (Good to Have): LangGraph, AutoGen, CrewAI
Data & SQL: Oracle, MySQL, SQLAlchemy
Vector Databases: FAISS, Pinecone, Weaviate, Qdrant
LLMOps / MLOps (Good to Have): MLflow, Weights & Biases, BentoML, Airflow
Benefits/Other Compensation

This position is a contract/temporary role where Hays offers you the opportunity to enroll in full medical benefits, dental benefits, vision benefits, 401K and Life Insurance ($20,000 benefit).

Why Hays?

You will be working with a professional recruiter who has intimate knowledge of the industry and market trends. Your Hays recruiter will lead you through a thorough screening process in order to understand your skills, experience, needs, and drivers. You will also get support on resume writing, interview tips, and career planning, so when there's a position you really want, you're fully prepared to get it.

Nervous about an upcoming interview? Unsure how to write a new resume?

Visit the Hays Career Advice section to learn top tips to help you stand out from the crowd when job hunting.

Hays is committed to building a thriving culture of diversity that embraces people with different backgrounds, perspectives, and experiences. We believe that the more inclusive we are, the better we serve our candidates, clients, and employees. We are an equal employment opportunity employer, and we comply with all applicable laws prohibiting discrimination based on race, color, creed, sex (including pregnancy, sexual orientation, or gender identity), age, national origin or ancestry, physical or mental disability, veteran status, marital status, genetic information, HIV-positive status, as well as any other characteristic protected by federal, state, or local law. One of Hays' guiding principles is 'do the right thing'.
We also believe that actions speak louder than words.
In that regard, we train our staff on ensuring inclusivity throughout the entire recruitment process and counsel our clients on these principles. If you have any questions about Hays or any of our processes, please contact us.

In accordance with applicable federal, state, and local law protecting qualified individuals with known disabilities, Hays will attempt to reasonably accommodate those individuals unless doing so would create an undue hardship on the company. Any qualified applicant or consultant with a disability who requires an accommodation in order to perform the essential functions of the job should call or text .

Drug testing may be required; please contact a recruiter for more information.

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