AI Engineer – Agentic Systems

Robots & Pencils is seeking an outcome-oriented AI Engineer to build and deploy high-impact, agentic AI systems in a real-world logistics environment. You’ll work hands-on across the full product lifecycle, from implementation and iteration through production hardening and scale.

You will actively code, integrate, optimize, and debug an on-device, voice-enabled AI co-pilot running on Android fleet tablets. The system must reason, diagnose device and connectivity issues, orchestrate tools, and verify resolution, even in low-connectivity environments.

You’ll partner closely with product, design, and engineering teams to translate business goals into reliable agentic workflows that deliver measurable operational value. This is not research. This is delivery.

Key Responsibilities

Agentic AI Development & Delivery

• Build and evolve RAG pipelines, including semantic chunking, embeddings, metadata enrichment, and retrieval optimization

• Implement prompt strategies and structured agent workflows (planning + tool execution)

• Integrate LLM runtimes and optimize inference for edge/on-device execution

• Implement hallucination detection and grounding strategies appropriate for safety-sensitive environments

• Architect deterministic behaviors and guardrails for predictable autonomous workflows

• Rapidly iterate based on real driver usage and operational feedback

Voice & Edge Runtime Systems

• Implement speech-to-text pipelines (Whisper-like systems) optimized for on-device use

• Integrate text-to-speech engines (Piper/Coqui-style) into low-latency push-to-talk flows

• Handle degraded-connectivity and offline-first scenarios

• Monitor device telemetry and system health to support proactive diagnostics

• Debug across AI reasoning, Android OS behavior, network state, and application logic

Production Ownership & Reliability

• Contribute to evaluation frameworks for quality, task completion, and reliability

• Implement observability and telemetry for AI runtime performance

• Monitor live systems and resolve reasoning, latency, and accuracy issues

• Optimize cost, performance, and resource utilization on constrained hardware

• Contribute to CI/CD pipelines and production deployment practices

Platform & Integration

• Build backend and edge services in Python

• Integrate vector databases for retrieval and semantic workflows

• Interface with REST APIs (ELD/HOS systems), messaging platforms, and device sensors

• Ensure solutions meet enterprise expectations for security, maintainability, and scalability

Collaboration & Execution

• Partner cross-functionally with product, engineering, and design

• Translate operational requirements into technical implementation plans

• Contribute reusable patterns and frameworks back to the broader team

• Communicate clearly with technical and non-technical stakeholders

• Operate effectively in evolving, ambiguous environments

Required Skills & Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in computer science, Engineering, or equivalent practical experience

• 5–8 years of professional software development experience

• 2+ years building and operating production AI/ML systems

• Hands-on experience with LLM applications, including RAG and prompt engineering

• Experience working with vector databases (Weaviate, Pinecone, pgvector, or similar)

• Strong Python proficiency

• Familiarity with embeddings, semantic search, and retrieval optimization

• Experience debugging multi-layer systems (application, network, OS, AI runtime)

• Exposure to LLM evaluation, observability, or quality measurement frameworks

• Upper-intermediate English for cross-functional collaboration

Nice to Have

• Experience optimizing AI models for edge or on-device deployment

• Android systems or mobile development experience

• Experience with speech systems (Whisper or similar)

• Familiarity with logistics, compliance, or regulated operational systems

• Experience with AWS services or cloud-based AI infrastructure

• Prior consulting or professional services experience

Personal Competencies

Accountability – Owns feature delivery through production with attention to reliability and quality.

Adaptability – Thrives in evolving environments with technical and operational ambiguity.

Collaboration – Builds strong partnerships across distributed teams.

Execution-Focused – Delivers maintainable, scalable solutions without overengineering.

Systems Thinking – Understands how AI, mobile systems, network conditions, and human behavior interact.

Craftsmanship – Cares deeply about code quality, documentation, testing, and runtime behavior.

Why This Role Matters

At Robots & Pencils, we build smart systems for the human world. This role contributes directly to defining how agentic AI operates beyond the cloud, in moving vehicles, under connectivity constraints, and in safety-sensitive environments. The system you help build transforms a fleet tablet from a passive device into an intelligent co-pilot that proactively detects issues, guides drivers, and verifies outcomes.

This is real production deployment with measurable operational impact. The patterns established here will influence how embedded, voice-enabled AI systems are built across industries.

Why Join Robots & Pencils?

We don’t ship experiments. We build production systems that matter.

You’ll work on agentic AI applications deployed in the real world, collaborate with a senior engineering team, and gain exposure to edge-based AI architecture, voice systems, and autonomous workflows operating at scale.

You’ll grow through hands-on ownership, high standards of craft, and meaningful delivery outcomes.