LEAD CONVERSATIONAL AI PLATFORM ENGINEER (M/W/D)
Worldwide
IT
Remote
As a specialized recruiting firm, we are hiring on behalf of our client a hands-on Tech Lead who will own the technical core of a globally scaled AI platform. This is not a research role and not a prototype environment. You will work on a fast-growing, revenue-generating product used by millions of users worldwide, where AI is the core product — not a feature. The company combines real scale, strong growth, and a highly iterative product culture. Your work directly impacts how users interact with AI on a daily basis.
Your Responsibilities
Take full technical ownership of a production-grade conversational AI system
Actively contribute code and remain hands-on in the codebase
Lead a small senior team (3–4 engineers, player-coach approach)
Design and evolve LLM architecture (training, inference, deployment)
Define and execute fine-tuning and model alignment strategies (SFT, RLHF, DPO)
Improve context handling, memory systems, and response quality
Optimize systems for latency, scalability, and cost at multi-million token/day scale
Build context-aware moderation and classification systems
Your Profile
5+ years of experience in software engineering or applied AI roles
Hands-on experience fine-tuning LLMs for live, user-facing products — post-training experience is mandatory (SFT, RLHF, DPO, LoRA/QLoRA); pre-training is a plus
Fine-tuning must represent a significant portion of your AI experience — prompt engineering or RAG alone is not sufficient ❗
Proven ownership of user-facing AI products where the LLM or chatbot was the core product component, not an internal tool or support feature — ideally with 500K+ users or equivalent business impact ❗
Experience operating LLM systems at multi-million token/day scale in production (latency, throughput, cost optimization)
Strong Python skills and hands-on experience with PyTorch, Hugging Face, vLLM or equivalent inference frameworks
1–2+ years of technical leadership experience while staying hands-on in the codebase
Strong English communication skills (cross-functional and technical)
Comfortable working with explicit / NSFW content and moderation-related datasets in a professional context ❗
Proven managerial experience, including overseeing direct reports, making hiring decisions, conducting performance reviews & being accountable for team outcomes
Your Benefits
Fully remote role with long-term perspective
Flexible contract models (B2B or EoR)
SSalary up to $200K + $150K equity OR $250K + $80K equity (equity = total package, not annual)
20 days paid vacation and flexible working setup
Budget for learning, conferences, and development
Modern hardware and access to leading AI tools
Direct impact on a product used by millions of users daily
High level of autonomy, short decision paths, fast execution
You can expect a high-performance environment with real technical ownership and direct line to senior leadership. If you want to build and scale LLM systems under real production pressure — and lead a team of strong engineers from the front — we look forward to your application.
Please send your CV including salary expectations, preferred work model, and availability to: bewerbung@helle-koepfe-recruiting.de. (If we talked on LinkedIn please send your CV there in the chat.)