Principal Engineer – Applied AI

Zeroto1 is seeking a Principal Engineer – Applied AI to join its engineering team. This role is fundamental to building production AI systems and the backend-first platform capabilities that make each new system faster to deliver.

The selected candidate will lead architectural coherence across Lighthouse and the systems it accelerates. You will write and review code on the highest-risk paths, define durable contracts and boundaries, and lead decisions where enterprise data, permissions, workflow state, models, and customer-controlled infrastructure meet.

The position requires deep technical strength in Python, distributed systems, AI/ML productionization, and the ability to design reliable, scalable architectures across shared, dedicated, and customer-hosted environments. Candidates can operate remotely.

Key Responsibilities

1. Reference Architecture & Control Plane

• Set and evolve the reference architecture across the Lighthouse control plane, Context Layer, data and execution adapters, workflow and agent runtime, evaluation, and production operations.

• Make build-versus-buy and open-source extension decisions with clear upgrade paths; turn proven patterns into versioned services, APIs, connectors, SDKs, and solution templates.

2. Contracts & Portability

• Define the contracts that keep the platform portable: canonical business concepts and tenant mappings, reusable Context Modules and task Recipes, context requests, plans, packages, and traces.

• Own the runtime boundary between context compilation and data execution.

3. Security, Deployment, & Multi-Tenancy

• Own security and deployment architecture for shared, dedicated, and customer-hosted environments, including identity, authorization, tenant isolation, secrets, network boundaries, data residency, audit, and policy enforcement before retrieval and action.

4. Reliable AI Workflows & Execution

• Design reliable execution for deterministic and model-driven workflows, including long-running state, approvals, retries, idempotency, timeouts, partial failure, compensation, safe replay, and rollback.

5. Engineering Standards & AI Quality

• Establish engineering standards for AI quality and system operations: evaluation datasets, regression gates, tracing, evidence and grounding, service-level objectives, incident learning, latency and cost budgets, and model or tool fallback.

• Personally design, implement, and review components with the highest architectural, security, performance, or operational risk; mentor engineers and communicate decisions clearly to stakeholders.

Skills Required

Candidates applying for this position should possess the following skills:

• Core Development: Python, API & Service Design, Relational Data Modeling, Asynchronous & Event-Driven Systems, Cloud-Native Operations.

• Architecture & Security: Multi-tenancy, Customer Isolation, Identity & Authorization, Distributed Systems.

• Applied AI: Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG), Tool Use, Structured Model Outputs, Evaluation Frameworks, Guardrails, Production Debugging.

• System Judgment: Scalability, Data Consistency, Build-versus-Buy Decisions, Abstraction Management.

Eligibility Criteria

• Minimum 8+ years building production software, including principal-level technical leadership across distributed, data-intensive, platform, or enterprise systems.

• Proven experience taking AI or ML systems beyond prototypes into production environments.

• Strong background in system boundaries, data ownership, security, and delivery sequencing.

• Educational background: Graduation in any discipline with a strong track record of technical leadership.

Work From Home Requirements

• This position offers flexible remote work options.

• Candidates must be capable of working independently while maintaining strong asynchronous alignment with team members and stakeholders.

Working Hours & Days

• Full-time professional working hours aligned with standard corporate structures.

Salary

• Compensation is Not Disclosed.

• Zeroto1 offers competitive compensation packages based on candidate expertise and impact.

Number of Openings

• There is 1 opening available for this role.

Start Date

• Immediate to standard corporate joining timeframe.

About Zeroto1

Zeroto1 builds enterprise AI systems around important business workflows. We bring together models, enterprise data, business context, applications, workflows, and human decisions so the result is secure, observable, governed, measurable, and useful in day-to-day operations. Lighthouse serves as the platform accelerator beneath this work, featuring an independent Context Layer that standardizes business meaning, mappings, permissions, evidence, and approved access paths between enterprise data and AI applications.

Why Join Zeroto1

• Work at the intersection of enterprise data, business semantics, AI, workflows, security, and human decision-making.

• Shape a platform while its most important contracts and operating model are still being defined.

• Build technology that becomes part of how enterprises operate, rather than isolated demonstrations or thin model wrappers.

• Join a small, ambitious team where strong technical judgment, direct implementation, and end-to-end ownership have visible impact.

Who Can Apply?

This role is suitable for professionals with experience in:

• Principal & Staff Engineering

• Distributed Systems & Platform Engineering

• Enterprise SaaS & Developer Platforms

• Applied AI & Machine Learning Engineering

Selection Process

1. Resume Screening

2. Technical & Architecture Interviews

3. Leadership / Team Discussion

4. Final Offer Review

Education Qualification

• UG: Any Graduate (Technical background preferred)

Important Documents

• Passport-size Photograph

• Government-issued ID Proof (e.g., Driver’s License or Passport)

• Education Certificates & Degrees

• Previous Employment Experience Letters & Pay Slips

How to Apply

1. Review the job specifications and core ownership details carefully.

2. Click on the Apply Now link on the official portal.

3. Complete your profile registration with updated contact details and credentials.

4. Upload your updated CV highlighting relevant applied AI, Python, and platform engineering experience.

Frequently Asked Questions

1. Is this a remote work opportunity? Yes, this is a fully remote role.

2. How much experience is required? The role requires 8+ years of production software experience, including principal-level leadership.

3. What is the expected salary range? Salary details are Not Disclosed and are based on experience and expertise.

4. What are the key technical skills needed? Python, API design, event-driven systems, cloud-native operations, and production AI/ML system design.

5. What is the focus of Lighthouse? Lighthouse is a platform accelerator featuring an independent Context Layer that standardizes business meaning, mappings, permissions, and evidence between enterprise data and AI applications.