Principal Large Language Model Engineer

About SmartAsset:

SmartAsset is an online destination for consumer-focused financial information and advice, whose mission is helping people make smart financial decisions, reaching over an estimated 59 million people each month (as of January 2025) through our educational content and personalized calculators and tools. To extend our mission, we also operate SmartAsset Advisor Marketing Platform (AMP), which helps connect consumers with fiduciary financial advisors. SmartAsset has earned recognition on the Inc. 5000 (#2574 in 2023) and Deloitte Technology Fast 500™ (#250 in 2022) lists. Currently, SmartAsset ranks on Y Combinator’s list of Top 100 Companies. A successful $110 million Series D funding round in 2021 valued the company at over $1 billion.

*Other than application and licensing fees, SmartAsset did not provide compensation for the aforementioned awards.

About the Team: 

At SmartAsset you will join a team of data scientists, analysts and ML engineers that are at the forefront of AI/ML application for the company. You will have the opportunity to work cross-functionally with leaders from different teams (Marketing, Product, Sales, and Technology), and with our growing Data team.

About the Job: 

Responsibilities: 

• Design and implement a high-performance, scalable and reliable LLM service using Python, LLM Services (including OpenAI, Antropic’s Claude, and Meta’s LLaMA) and Cloud technologies to power applications and business needs including building services that can serve hundreds of concurrent users in a second. 
• Design and develop RAG pipelines Building Search Engines and Recommendation engines on domain specific corpus. 
• Collaborate with business leaders to understand their needs and challenges, and identify potential LLM use cases. 
• Monitor LLM performance and make improvements to ensure acceptable response times based on use cases. 
• Participate in code reviews and provide guidance to junior developers. 
• Mentor LLM and AI Engineers to help deliver the AI use cases across the company. Perform LLM modeling, fine tuning and deployment of advanced AI technology solutions. 
• Collaborate with cross functional teams to understand how to build LLM software solutions, including fine-tuning LLM models. 
• Utilize strong communication skills (written and verbal) to convey technical concepts and collaborate technical concepts and collaborating with cross-functional teams. 
• Collaborate with other developers and data scientists within the organization to share knowledge, ideas, and best practices. 
• Design, develop and deploy Large Language Models (LLM) software solutions to facilitate AI needs for all enterprise and business use cases. 
• Implement software best practices to ensure seamless development, testing, and deployment of LLM software solutions. 
• Collaborate with business leaders to understand their needs and challenges, and identify potential LLM use cases that provide best ROI opportunities. 
• Stay up-to-date with the latest advancements in LLM technologies, and continuously explore ways to integrate these advancements into existing solutions. 
• Develop and maintain comprehensive documentation, including technical specifications, user guides, and best practices. 
• Ensure data privacy and security compliance while working with LLMs. 
• Provide support and training to internal teams as needed. 

Skills / Experience You Have: 

MINIMUM REQUIREMENTS: Bachelor’s degree or U.S. equivalent in Computer Engineering, Computer Science, Data Science, or related field, plus 5 years of professional experience as a Software Developer, Software Engineer, or any occupation/position/job title involving developing Large Language Model (LLM) applications.

In lieu of a Bachelor's degree plus 5 years of experience, the employer will accept a Master's degree or U.S. equivalent in Computer Engineering, Computer Science, Data Science, or related field, plus 3 years of professional experience as a Software Developer, Software Engineer, or any occupation/position/job title involving developing Large Language Model (LLM) applications.

Must also have experience in the following: 

• 3 years of professional experience utilizing Python programming, building ETL pipelines, and working with Transformer architecture models
• 3 years of professional experience working with Cloud Platforms (including AWS, GCP and Azure) and Vector databases (including MongoDB)
• 3 years of professional experience utilizing LLM concepts including model fine-tuning and transfer learning
• 3 years of professional experience utilizing LLM frameworks (including Hugging Face Transformers) and integrating with Python
• 3 years of professional experience automating and scaling web frameworks (including FastAPI and Django) for building production ready applications
• 3 years of professional experience building conversational chatbots using LLM's as per business needs
• 3 years of professional experience presenting complex concepts to both technical and non-technical audiences
• 3 years of professional experience working in a cross-functional team and collaborating with stakeholders at various levels of the organization 
• 3 years of professional experience with DevOps toolsets and working with RDBMS databases including MySQL, SQL Server, and PotstgreSQL
• 3 years of professional experience utilizing Docker, Kubernetes and CI/CD tools and writing clean, maintainable, and testable code following best practices and industry standards
• 3 years of professional experience building machine learning models including Random Forest, Logistic Regression, Linear Regression, Support Vector Machines (SVM), XGBoost, and LightGBM
• 3 years of professional experience working with clustering models, including K-Means, DBSCAN, Gaussian Mixture Models, and Agglomerative Clustering

Available Benefits and Perks

• Position allows telecommuting from anywhere in the U.S. and reports to HQ in New York. 
• Medical, Dental, Vision - multiple packages available based on your individualized needs
• Life/AD&D Insurance - basic coverage at 100% company paid, additional supplemental available 
• Supplemental Short-term and Long-term Disability
• FSA: Medical and Dependant Care 
• 401K
• Equity packages for each role
• Time Off: Vacation, Sick and Parental Leave
• EAP (Employee Assistance Program)
• Pet Insurance
• Home Office Stipend

SmartAsset is an equal opportunity employer committed to fostering an inclusive, innovative environment with the best employees. We are committed to equal employment opportunity regardless of race, color, ancestry, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, age, citizenship, marital status, disability, gender identity or Veteran status. If you have a disability or special need that requires accommodation, please contact us at [email protected].

California, Colorado, Connecticut, Maryland, Nevada, Rhode Island, Washington, and New York City residents* Salary: $190,000 - $236,000 per year + RSUs + benefits.

Salary at SmartAsset is determined based on permissible, non-discriminatory factors such as skills, experience, and geographic location within the contiguous United States.

CONTACT: Apply online at https://smartasset.com/careers