Lead AI/ML Engineer

Job Title: Lead AI/ML Engineer – GenAI, LLM, RAG Location: Remote (U.S.; Eden Prairie, MN time zone) Employment Type: Contract (W2 through ZipStaff — No C2C or 1099) About the Opportunity: ZipStaff is seeking a Lead AI/ML Engineer to design, build, and deploy enterprise Generative AI solutions at a major healthcare organization. You will sit with a cross-functional team (product, a senior lead, developers, data scientists, data engineers, and application developers) and own production LLM work plus Responsible AI controls. This is a hands-on lead seat — not a research-only role and not a prompt-only role. What You'll Do: - Architect and develop production Generative AI and LLM solutions. - Design and implement RAG, vector search, and knowledge-retrieval platforms. - Build scalable APIs, AI services, and cloud-native ML / LLM infrastructure. - Establish evaluation for quality, accuracy, groundedness, and safety. - Lead Responsible AI: bias mitigation, hallucination reduction, security, privacy, and compliance controls. - Partner with product, business, and engineering on high-value use cases. - Evaluate emerging AI technology and recommend what to adopt. - Influence and mentor engineers on the delivery team. Required Qualifications: - 10+ years in software engineering, machine learning, or AI engineering. - 5+ years building and deploying LLM or Generative AI solutions in production. - Bachelor's in Computer Science, Engineering, Data Science, or a related field. - Strong Python and modern software-engineering practices. - Cloud platforms ( Azure or AWS ). - Hands-on RAG, vector databases, prompt engineering, and AI application development. - Proven lead of complex technical initiatives across functions. - Responsible AI, governance, privacy, and security in a regulated environment. - Must be legally authorized to work in the United States without sponsorship now or in the future. Preferred Qualifications: - Healthcare or another regulated industry. - Production evaluation frameworks (groundedness, safety, accuracy). - Mentoring and platform-building, not only feature delivery. Benefits: - Health Insurance. - Dental Insurance. - Vision Insurance. - 401(k). - 401(k) matching. - Paid time off. - Referral Program. About ZipStaff: ZipStaff partners with leading organizations to connect skilled technology professionals with high-impact contract opportunities. We focus on quality matches, clear communication, and long-term success for candidates and clients. To apply: Submit your resume highlighting production LLM or RAG systems you deployed, the cloud and vector stack, and how you measured quality or safety. Notebook-only or prompt-only backgrounds will not be considered.