Brilliant® · 2 weeks ago
Principal Agentic AI Engineer
St Louis, MO
Contract
Hybrid
Senior Level, Lead/Staff
$80/hr - $100/hr
7+ years expBrilliant® is a large enterprise organization seeking a Principal Engineer to lead the transformation of its software development lifecycle by building an AI-enabled engineering platform. The role involves orchestrating and operationalizing tools for AI agents to assist with various software engineering tasks within a secure and efficient operating model.
Staffing & Recruiting
No H1B
Responsibilities
Define the strategic roadmap for the internal AI engineering platform, treating code-assist agents as first-class products
Architect systems for AI agent invocation, context retrieval, and action execution through custom tools and APIs
Manage and extend a Model Context Protocol (MCP)-aligned toolset to enable agent interactions with internal and third-party systems
Engineer scalable context pipelines that shape agent behavior through centralized, version-controlled custom instructions and connectors
Design, test, and optimize prompts, contextual data frameworks, and agent guidance to improve accuracy, efficiency, and reliability
Define and monitor KPIs for agentic system performance and implement a comprehensive observability stack
Establish platform security, including safeguards for custom tools and APIs, and implement human-in-the-loop guardrails for critical actions
Define and enforce code-driven RBAC and least-privilege controls for all agent-invoked actions
Demonstrate expertise in cloud-native, distributed microservices architectures
Deliver software solutions aligned with standard SDLC practices
Build strong relationships with internal stakeholders across product, business, engineering, and operations
Communicate complex technical concepts clearly to both technical and non-technical audiences
Build and manage high-performing engineering teams that deliver scalable, reliable systems
Lead troubleshooting efforts for production and customer issues under pressure
Leverage full-stack development skills and extensive experience with public cloud environments
Mentor and coach junior engineers and contribute to talent development
Drive a data-driven engineering culture with a focus on efficiency and optimization
Ensure adherence to secure software development best practices and maintain engineering KPIs across quality, security, and cost
Define and report SLAs, SLOs, and SLIs in partnership with product and architecture teams
Collaborate with architects, SRE leaders, and other technical stakeholders to shape long-term technical direction
Maintain up-to-date technical documentation and runbooks
Make architecture decisions related to new features, refactoring, and end-of-life transitions
Create and deliver technical presentations to a range of audiences
Qualification
Required
Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or equivalent experience
7+ years of hands-on software engineering experience
7+ years of experience with Java, Spring Boot, TypeScript/JavaScript, HTML, and CSS
7+ years designing and developing cloud-native solutions
7+ years building microservices using Java, Spring Boot, cloud SDKs, and Kubernetes
3+ years of experience with advanced code-assist tools, ideally at an expert level
3–5+ years building or architecting intelligent agent systems integrated with LLMs
Hands-on experience with CI/CD pipelines, GitHub Actions, Jenkins, infrastructure-as-code, Helm, and Terraform
Preferred
Deep expertise across the GitHub ecosystem, including Actions, Apps, webhooks, and APIs
Senior-level proficiency in Python, Go, or Node.js
Strong experience designing and consuming RESTful APIs and integrating complex SaaS systems
Familiarity with the Model Context Protocol (MCP) and experience creating MCP-aligned services
Extensive experience with cloud platforms and Kubernetes
Strong systems-thinking ability across the entire SDLC
Experience with event-driven architectures, especially those triggered by GitHub events
Hands-on experience building LLM-integrated applications
Expertise in building tools, APIs, and function-calling interfaces for AI agents
Practical experience designing or optimizing RAG systems
Ability to orchestrate workflows around existing code-assist agents
Benefits
Healthcare
Company
Brilliant®
About Brilliant® Brilliant is an award-winning staffing and recruiting firm that provides direct-hire and contract staffing services in accounting, finance, technology, and business operations serving businesses across the continental U.S.
51-200 employees
Funding
Current Stage
Growth StageLeadership Team
Jim Wong, (Inactive CPA)
Founder and Board Member
Company data provided by crunchbase