Founding AI/ML Tech Lead
Skills
About the role
This is a founding, hands-on AI/ML technical lead role at an early-stage enterprise AI company, based hybrid in Hyderabad. The person hired will set the AI architecture and engineering standards while also building products directly alongside the founder. It suits someone who wants to combine hands-on coding with technical leadership at a very early stage. Client-facing work is part of the role, including technical discovery and demos for prospective customers.
What you’ll do
- Define the AI strategy and technical architecture for the company's products
- Evaluate and select LLMs, frameworks and supporting technologies
- Design RAG, agentic and workflow-automation solutions for enterprise use cases
- Build prototypes and convert them into production-ready systems
- Lead and mentor a small team of AI/ML and software engineers
- Establish coding, testing, CI/CD and deployment standards
- Design integrations between AI solutions and enterprise systems like ERP or CRM
- Join client discovery calls and demo prototypes to prospective customers
What they’re looking for
- 3-5+ years in software engineering, AI/ML engineering or a related field
- Strong hands-on experience building AI/ML applications
- Strong Python programming skills
- Practical experience with RAG, vector databases, embeddings and prompt engineering
- Experience with AI agents, agentic workflows and LLM orchestration
- Experience with a major cloud platform (AWS, Azure or GCP)
- Experience deploying production-grade applications and designing APIs
- Comfortable working hands-on rather than only managing
Nice to have
- Experience integrating AI with enterprise systems such as SAP, Oracle, Dynamics or Salesforce
- Experience in finance, procurement, supply chain or ERP business processes
- Experience with document AI or intelligent document processing
- Experience with AI evaluation, observability and governance
- Experience fine-tuning or adapting open-source models
- Experience with Kubernetes, Docker and cloud-native architectures
- Experience taking a prototype through to production
- Understanding of IP, patents or technology commercialisation
What’s on offer
- Competitive salary plus performance incentive
- Potential ESOP/equity participation depending on experience and contribution
- Significant influence over technology and product direction as a founding hire
Questions about this role
Is this role remote or in-office?
It's a hybrid role based in Hyderabad.
How much experience do I need?
The posting asks for 3-5+ years in software engineering, AI/ML engineering or a related field.
Does this role involve managing a team?
Yes, it includes leading and mentoring a small team of AI/ML and software engineers, alongside hands-on work.
Is equity offered?
Compensation includes a competitive salary, performance incentive, and potential ESOP/equity participation.
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