Senior Principal AI Engineer, Agentic AI Platform & Control Tower Ops

Job Description

Position Summary

Vertex is seeking a Sr. Principal AI Engineer, Agentic AI Platform & Control Tower Ops to define and build the foundational enterprise AI platform that powers intelligent applications across the enterprise. This role will lead the design and implementation of scalable, secure, and reusable capabilities for agentic AI, with a strong focus on retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), orchestration frameworks, evaluation systems, and platform architecture.

In addition to building out the core platform, this leader will own the vision for a centralized AI Control Tower / Control Plane / Gateway that enables agent monitoring, observability, policy enforcement, governance, and operational controls across AI solutions at Vertex. This is a highly strategic and hands-on role for an experienced AI engineering leader who is excited to shape enterprise AI architecture, standards, and long-term technical direction.

Key Responsibilities

• Define the technical vision, architecture, and roadmap for Vertex’s enterprise agentic AI platform
• Design and build reusable platform services that accelerate development of safe, reliable, and scalable AI-powered applications
• Lead architecture and implementation for RAG pipelines, knowledge retrieval systems, prompt workflows, tool use, and agent orchestration
• Establish core frameworks for agent lifecycle management, including deployment, monitoring, observability, evaluation, and continuous improvement
• Build and evolve a centralized AI Control Tower / Gateway to provide:
  • Agent monitoring and health visibility
  • Operational observability and telemetry
  • Policy enforcement and guardrails
  • Security, governance, and compliance controls
  • Usage analytics, auditability, and operational reporting
• Develop scalable infrastructure patterns for enterprise AI workloads, including model integration, data access, and orchestration services
• Partner closely with product, engineering, data, security, and UX teams to deliver common AI platform capabilities that support multiple use cases across Vertex
• Establish best practices for AI reliability, evaluation, safety, and performance measurement
• Drive technical standards for platform APIs, service contracts, architecture patterns, and reusable components
• Evaluate emerging technologies, frameworks, and vendors in the AI/agentic ecosystem and make strategic recommendations
• Mentor engineers and influence cross-functional technical teams through architectural leadership and hands-on guidance
• Ensure platform solutions align with enterprise requirements for scalability, resilience, security, and maintainability
• Contribute to Vertex’s long-term AI strategy by identifying opportunities to expand platform capabilities and increase enterprise adoption

Required Qualifications

• Advanced degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, or a related technical field; or equivalent combination of education and experience
• 10+ years of experience designing and building enterprise-grade AI/ML platforms and distributed systems
• Deep expertise in agentic AI architectures, LLM-based applications, and platform engineering
• Proven experience with retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) systems, vector search, document retrieval, and knowledge integration patterns
• Strong experience with AI orchestration frameworks, workflow engines, and multi-step agent execution patterns
• Demonstrated experience designing centralized operational platforms for monitoring, governance, observability, and control
• 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
• Experience defining architecture, standards, and reusable services for large-scale enterprise environments
• Strong understanding of AI system evaluation, quality measurement, and performance optimization
• Experience partnering with cross-functional stakeholders and influencing technical direction across teams
• Excellent communication, leadership, and problem-solving skills
• Ability to balance strategic architecture leadership with hands-on technical execution

Technical Skills Required

• Agentic AI platform architecture
• Large Language Models (LLMs)
• Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG)
• AI orchestration and workflow design
• Agent monitoring and observability
• AI governance, policies, and controls
• Control plane / control tower / gateway architecture
• Evaluation frameworks for AI systems
• Platform engineering and reusable service design
• Distributed systems architecture
• API and service design
• Knowledge retrieval systems
• Telemetry, logging, and operational analytics
• Scalability, reliability, and performance engineering
• Security and enterprise controls for AI platforms

Preferred Skills

• Experience building enterprise AI platforms in regulated or highly governed environments
• Familiarity with human-in-the-loop workflows and responsible AI practices
• Experience implementing policy engines, guardrails, and audit frameworks for AI applications
• Knowledge of ML infrastructure, model serving, and production AI operations
• Experience with cloud-native architectures and modern DevOps/MLOps practices
• Exposure to user experience considerations for AI-powered applications and intelligent systems
• Ability to translate complex technical capabilities into scalable enterprise adoption strategies
• Experience leading technical teams through platform transformation initiatives

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Pay Range:

$188,000 - $282,000

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.

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