Lead AI Software Engineer

Lead AI Software Engineer Fulcrum Digital — AI Engineering Grade: 3A Department: AI Engineering Experience Required: 5–8 years Location: Pune, India Employment Type: Full-Time As a Lead AI Software Engineer, you'll provide technical leadership for a workstream building complex, multi-agent AI systems — owning the architecture, setting the technical bar, and acting as the bridge between engineering, product, security, and compliance. Key Responsibilities Provide technical leadership for a team/workstream building multi-agent and multi-model AI systems Own architecture decisions and lead design reviews (Architecture Decision Records) for key AI initiatives Architect scalable, full-stack AI solutions spanning data engineering, model training/fine-tuning, and LLMOps Drive cost and performance optimization for AI systems running at enterprise scale Partner cross-functionally with Product, Data Science, Security, and Compliance to shape solution design Evaluate and select AI tools, frameworks, and vendors for the team Mentor and upskill engineers, fostering technical growth within the team Balance hands-on technical contribution with team-level planning and delivery accountability Skills & Key Competencies Must-Have Technical Skills Technical leadership of AI engineering workstreams or a small team Architecting complex multi-agent/multi-model AI systems at scale Full-stack AI expertise: data engineering, model training/fine-tuning, LLMOps, infrastructure Owns architecture decisions and design reviews (ADRs) Cross-functional partnership with Product, Data Science, Security, and Compliance Cost and performance optimization of AI systems in production Mentors and upskills engineers Good-to-Have Technical Skills Experience building/owning internal AI platforms or agent frameworks Vendor and AI tool evaluation/selection Contribution to AI governance and compliance frameworks (GDPR, SOC 2, HIPAA-aware design) Experience in regulated or highly audited environments Key Competencies Balances big-picture architectural thinking with a willingness to get into the weeds Decisive under ambiguity — can make an 80%-confidence call and move the team forward Strong stakeholder management across technical and non-technical audiences Builds trust quickly with both engineers and cross-functional partners Invests genuinely in growing people, not just shipping features Holds a high technical bar without being a bottleneck