Principal Software Engineer

Job DescriptionJob DescriptionPrincipal Engineer, Applied AI

Location: Columbia, MO Hybrid/Remote (with regular on-site presence)

Reports to: Chief Product Officer

Type: Full-time

The Role

We're looking for a hands-on AI engineer who thrives on turning ideas into production-ready tools fast. This role is about shipping, not just advising. You'll be the one prototyping, testing, and deploying AI-powered solutions that directly impact how we serve our customers.

If your favorite place is in VS Code (Cursor, or your AI-enabled IDE of choice) rather than PowerPoint, you'll feel right at home here.

What You'll Do

• Drive AI-focused initiatives from concept to launch.
• Design, build, and deploy AI/ML-powered tools into mortgage and customer service workflows.
• Rapidly prototype and iterate getting usable versions in front of real users quickly.
• Partner with product, design, and business teams to deliver solutions that solve real problems.
• Implement and optimize LLM-based systems, RAG pipelines, and other applied AI architectures.
• Build and integrate APIs with internal systems and external AI platforms (OpenAI, AWS, Azure, etc.).
• Write production-ready, secure, and reliable code that others can scale.
• Stay ahead of AI trends and bring back the ones that matter most.

What You Won't Do

• Spend months perfecting specs before writing code.
• Hand off concepts for someone else to make real.
• Get lost in AI theory without shipping.

What You Bring

• Strong programming skills (Python, JavaScript/TypeScript, or similar).
• Hands-on experience with LLM APIs, fine-tuning, and retrieval-augmented .
• Proven track record of delivering AI-powered applications or features in production.
• Ability to quickly connect AI capabilities to practical business use cases.
• Experience with cloud platforms (AWS, Azure, GCP) and secure API integration.
• Understanding of privacy, compliance, and data governance.
• A builder's mindset: quick, practical, and effective > perfect-but-late.

Success Looks Like

• Multiple AI tools in production that employees and customers rely on daily.
• Prototypes moving from cool demo to critical workflow fast.
• Shorter cycle time from idea to working solution with each project.
• Engineers across the company want to join your projects because they deliver results.