Principal Agent Engineer, Agentic AI Platform

Job Description

Position Summary

Vertex is seeking an Agent Engineer, Agentic AI Platform to help create the next generation of AI agents that deliver practical value across internal and user-facing experiences. This role will focus on prototyping, building, and productionizing multi-step agent workflows that are deeply integrated with enterprise systems, business processes, and digital products.

The ideal candidate is energized by fast-moving AI technology but grounded in strong engineering discipline. This individual will use a forward deployed engineering mindset to work closely with stakeholders, rapidly iterate on real-world use cases, connect agents to APIs and business systems, and continuously improve quality through measurement and feedback. The Agent Engineer will play an important role in shaping how AI agents are adopted and used day to day across Vertex.

Key Responsibilities

• Design, prototype, and productionize AI agents and multi-step agent workflows for internal and user-facing use cases
• Apply a forward deployed engineering approach by working closely with end users, product teams, and business stakeholders to solve real workflow problems quickly and effectively
• Build agents that can reason across steps, invoke tools, call APIs, retrieve information, and take actions within defined enterprise guardrails
• Integrate agents with internal platforms, third-party applications, enterprise APIs, and business-critical systems
• Develop reusable agent patterns, components, prompts, tools, and orchestration logic that can be scaled across use cases
• Rapidly iterate on agent behavior based on usage data, qualitative feedback, evaluation results, and operational metrics
• Improve agent quality through testing, experimentation, benchmarking, and structured measurement of outcomes
• Partner with platform, integration, data, security, and product teams to ensure agents are secure, reliable, maintainable, and aligned with enterprise architecture
• Help define best practices for agent design, tool use, fallback behavior, escalation paths, and human-in-the-loop workflows
• Support deployment, monitoring, troubleshooting, and optimization of agents in production environments
• Contribute to observability practices for agent execution, including logging, tracing, performance tracking, and issue analysis
• Ensure solutions are designed with security, compliance, and responsible AI principles in mind
• Stay current on emerging patterns, frameworks, and technologies in generative AI and agentic systems, and translate them into practical applications for Vertex

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Artificial Intelligence, Data Science, or a related technical field; equivalent practical experience may be considered
• Experience in software engineering, AI engineering, machine learning engineering, or intelligent application development
• Hands-on experience building applications powered by large language models, AI workflows, or agentic systems
• Experience integrating software applications with APIs, data sources, and enterprise systems
• Demonstrated experience using AI-assisted software development and autonomous coding agents to design, generate, test, review, debug, optimize, and refactor code across complex enterprise systems.
• Deep understanding of AI-native software engineering practices and experience establishing standards, governance, and best practices for the responsible use of AI coding assistants and software engineering agents across engineering teams
• Demonstrated ability to move from prototype to production while balancing speed, quality, and operational rigor
• Experience working directly with users or stakeholders to iteratively refine technical solutions based on real-world needs
• Strong problem-solving and systems-thinking skills
• Strong written and verbal communication skills with the ability to work effectively across technical and non-technical teams

Technical Skills Required

• Large language model application development
• Agentic workflow design and orchestration
• Prompt engineering and prompt iteration
• Tool use and API integration for AI agents
• Multi-step workflow automation
• Rapid prototyping and productionization
• Evaluation, testing, and quality measurement for AI systems
• Application logging, monitoring, and observability
• Distributed systems and service integration
• Secure software development practices
• Enterprise application integration
• Cloud-based application development
• Version control, CI/CD, and deployment practices

Preferred Skills

• Experience using a forward deployed engineering or similar embedded delivery model
• Experience building internal copilots, assistants, or task-oriented AI agents
• Familiarity with orchestration frameworks, agent runtimes, tool-calling architectures, and retrieval patterns
• Experience integrating with enterprise collaboration tools, workflow systems, document platforms, or knowledge repositories
• Familiarity with evaluation frameworks for AI quality, groundedness, task completion, and reliability
• Experience designing human-in-the-loop workflows and safe failure or escalation mechanisms
• Exposure to AI observability, tracing, and operational analytics
• Experience in regulated industries such as biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, healthcare, or life sciences

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Pay Range:

$166,640 - $250,000

Disclosure Statement:

The range provided is based on what we believe is a reasonable estimate for the base salary pay range for this job at the time of posting. This role is eligible for an annual bonus and annual equity awards. Some roles may also be eligible for overtime pay, in accordance with federal and state requirements. Actual base salary pay will be based on a number of factors, including skills, competencies, experience, and other job-related factors permitted by law.

At Vertex, our Total Rewards offerings also include inclusive market-leading benefits to meet our employees wherever they are in their career, financial, family and wellbeing journey while providing flexibility and resources to support their growth and aspirations.  From medical, dental and vision benefits to generous paid time off (including a week-long company shutdown in the Summer and the Winter), educational assistance programs including student loan repayment, a generous commuting subsidy, matching charitable donations, 401(k) and so much more.

Flex Designation:

Hybrid-Eligible Or On-Site Eligible

Flex Eligibility Status:

In this Hybrid-Eligible role, you can choose to be designated as: 
1.    Hybrid: work remotely up to two days per week; or select
2.    On-Site: work five days per week on-site with ad hoc flexibility.

Note: The Flex status for this position is subject to Vertex’s Policy on Flex @ Vertex Program and may be changed at any time. 

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Company Information

Vertex is a global biotechnology company that invests in scientific innovation.

Vertex is committed to equal employment opportunity and non-discrimination for all employees and qualified applicants without regard to a person's race, color, sex, gender identity or expression, age, religion, national origin, ancestry, ethnicity, disability, veteran status, genetic information, sexual orientation, marital status, or any characteristic protected under applicable law. Vertex is an E-Verify Employer in the United States. Vertex will make reasonable accommodations for qualified individuals with known disabilities, in accordance with applicable law.

Any applicant requiring an accommodation in connection with the hiring process and/or to perform the essential functions of the position for which the applicant has applied should make a request to the recruiter or hiring manager, or contact Talent Acquisition at ApplicationAssistance@vrtx.com