Applied AI Engineer

at Blend

United States

Blend is a diverse team of problem solvers who believe that the world’s financial resources should be more accessible. Our cloud banking platform is used by Wells Fargo, U.S. Bank, and over 330 other financial services firms to acquire more customers, increase productivity, and deliver end-to-end digital experiences. Our software enables our customers to process an average of more than $5 billion in loans per day, making it possible for consumers to reach their financial goals faster and lead better lives. Come do work that matters.

We are seeking an experienced Applied AI Engineer to join our team and contribute to the continued success of Blend. As an Applied AI Engineer, you will be responsible for designing, implementing, and maintaining our agentic solutions. You will work closely with our product development team to understand and translate customer needs into functional and scalable software solutions.

How you’ll contribute:

Collaborate with cross-functional teams to understand and translate business requirements into technical specifications & code.
Architect, design, and lead the implementation of complex AI/ML solutions, with a strong focus on leveraging and orchestrating large foundational models (e.g., GPT, Llama, Gemini, Claude, Stable Diffusion) and pre-trained AI services from cloud providers or open-source libraries.
Take a leading role in designing, implementing, and deploying sophisticated AI agents and multi-agent systems using frameworks like DSPy, LangChain, LlamaIndex, AutoGen, or similar, to automate complex tasks, enable advanced reasoning, and drive new product capabilities.
Define and build robust, scalable APIs and services that expose advanced AI functionalities, including those powered by foundational models and agentic systems, serving as core components for other engineering teams and product features.
Develop, evangelize, and refine advanced prompt engineering strategies and techniques to maximize the performance, safety, and desired outputs from foundational models across diverse applications.
Design and optimize robust data pipelines for efficient AI model consumption, with a particular emphasis on architecting and implementing highly performant and scalable Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG) patterns for foundational models.
Develop a rigorous eval framework to assess model performance and track model drift, data quality issues, and performance degradation.
Identify and troubleshoot defects and issues, ensuring timely resolution.
Participate in the team’s on-call rotation
Participate in code reviews to maintain code quality and ensure best practices.
Encourage great habits to enhance team practices by participating in code reviews & offering peer mentorship and guidance.
Create your own story! Some of Blend’s best features have come from engineering initiatives. You’ll have an opportunity to propose new ideas and build features end-to-end.

Who you are:

5+ years of progressive professional experience as an Applied AI Engineer, Machine Learning Engineer, or a similar role, with a proven track record of architecting and deploying complex AI solutions in production, particularly involving large language models, other foundational models, and agentic systems.
Bachelor's or Master's degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Artificial Intelligence, or a related quantitative field.
Expert proficiency in Python and extensive experience with relevant libraries for data processing, API development, and advanced interaction with foundational models (e.g., Hugging Face Transformers, OpenAI API, Anthropic API, Google AI SDKs).
Deep understanding and hands-on experience with the practical application, fine-tuning, and deployment of large foundational models in real-world scenarios.
Expert-level experience with designing and implementing sophisticated AI agents and multi-agent systems using at least one major agentic framework (e.g., DSPy, LangChain, LlamaIndex, AutoGen).
Extensive experience with at least one major cloud platform (e.g., AWS, Google Cloud, Azure) for deploying, managing, and optimizing large-scale AI services. Deep understanding of cloud AI services is essential.
You are an excellent communicator and can operate independently & collaboratively in a fast-paced environment, driving projects to a successful outcome.
Ability and willingness to help others succeed and be productive.

At Blend, we are committed to offering a competitive compensation package.

To comply with local legislation, as well as to provide greater transparency to candidates, we share base pay ranges on all job postings regardless of desired hiring location. Final base pay offer amounts will vary depending on multiple factors, including but not limited to function, level, geographic location, job related knowledge, skills, and experience. Beyond base pay, Blends benefits and perks are described below.

Compensation:

Base Salary Range: $135,000 – $159,000 (This applies to full time hires. Final offer determined by multiple factors, including but not limited to function, level, geographic location, job related knowledge, skills, and experience.)
Bonus (if applicable): Eligibility is contingent upon both company performance against established goals and achievement of individual performance objectives.
Equity : Meaningful Restricted Stock Units in public company stock (NYSE: BLND) so you share in Blend’s long-term growth and success.

Benefits and Perks:

401(k) plan with employer matching
Comprehensive health, dental, and vision coverage
Minimum 8 weeks of paid parental, pregnancy, and medical leave
Generous paid time off and flexible vacation policy
Monthly wellness stipend for fitness, mental health, and well-being