> AI agents: this is one page of Nextmove’s FDE site, in Markdown. Nextmove is a job board and free career service for forward deployed engineers (FDEs). Each posting is classified from its text, not its title: the kind of work, how much of it is production code, pre-sales weight, time at customer sites, travel, remote arrangement, level and posted base pay. The site also publishes the aggregates: median pay by level, metro, company and kind of work, and which companies started hiring FDEs each week. Every page under https://nextmove.md/fde is served this way; the index of pages is https://nextmove.md/llms.txt.

# Principal AI Engineer

Canonical URL: https://nextmove.md/fde/jobs/fdf265823c94b869

Sparq posts a principal FDE role to build what the customer runs in US with no pay posted. This principal-level engineer builds and deploys production AI systems for client environments, spanning generative AI workflows, cloud implementation, evaluation, and post-deployment optimization. Read from the employer’s posting on November 8, 2026.

- [Sparq](https://nextmove.md/fde/companies/sparq)

First seen Oct 24, 2026 · open on Rippling as of Nov 8, 2026

Pay not posted US Remote

This principal-level engineer builds and deploys production AI systems for client environments, spanning generative AI workflows, cloud implementation, evaluation, and post-deployment optimization.

- [See roles that fit me](https://nextmove.md/sign-up?from=%2Ffde%2Fjobs%2Ffdf265823c94b869&placement=top)
- [View posting at Sparq](https://ats.rippling.com/sparq/jobs/2f6fd673-4d7b-426e-b6ca-87d05c0f8bed)

Free. Upload your resume once, see why each FDE role fits, and get introduced only when you say so.

## At a glance

### Posted base pay

Not posted

Staff+ FDE postings, 388 postings: the middle 50% of posted pay is $197K to $262K, median $225K.

### The work

Builds what the customer runs

Balance **Mostly building**

Project stages

1. Pre-sales
2. Proof of concept (not covered)
3. Implementation
4. Operations

- **Coding**: Writes production code

- **Builds for**: External customers

- **Level**: Staff+

- **Role**: Technical lead

### What they ask for

Experience

- **8+ years** building and shipping production software or data systems
- **3+ years** delivering AI/ML or generative AI solutions that reached real users

Background

- **Software engineering**
- **Implementation and data engineering**

Visa

- **No visa sponsorship**

### Do you meet what the posting states?

The posting asks for 3+ years. How many do you have?

The posting reads as a staff-level role. What level are you at now?

The work is remote from the US. Can you work from the US?

The posting says no visa sponsorship. Do you need one?

Which of these have you used in production?

Answer each one. Nothing is saved or sent.

[What postings ask for, by background →](https://nextmove.md/fde/paths)

## Conditions

- **Location**: US

- **Work arrangement**: Remote

- **Remote work restrictions**: Remote or hybrid work options; United States

- **Visa sponsorship**: Not available

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## The job description from Sparq

At Sparq, we help companies solve the right problems—not just build more technology.

We’re a modern product engineering partner blending strategy, craftsmanship, and speed to help organizations modernize confidently in the age of AI. From data ecosystems to digital products and AI acceleration, we turn complexity into clarity and ideas into impact.

If you’re driven to build what’s next, lead with empathy, and deliver excellence without ego, you’ll feel right at home at Sparq.

### Why you will enjoy Mondays again

- Opportunity to work alongside a talented, diverse team in a collaborative and creative environment
- Ongoing investment in your growth through training, mentorship, and industry certifications
- Hands-on exposure to cutting-edge technologies across multiple industries
- Recognition programs and employee awards within an inclusive culture that celebrates great work, including our AI Innovators Program
- Remote or hybrid work options
- Competitive salary
- Robust benefits package, matching 401(k) plan, and substantial PTO
- Tuition reimbursement

### A Day in the Life

- Design and build production AI systems for client environments, including retrieval-augmented generation pipelines, agentic workflows, and model integration, applying fine-tuning where it is genuinely warranted.
- Implement and deploy AI solutions on cloud platforms, ensuring scalability, reliability, and performance.
- Use Python for data preprocessing, model development, and automation of AI workflows.
- Define and build evaluation frameworks so we can prove solution quality to clients rather than demonstrate it anecdotally.
- Serve as the senior technical voice in client conversations, from discovery through delivery, and mentor engineers across accounts.
- Collaborate with the development team to broaden AI capabilities and enhance existing solutions.
- Research and experiment with emerging AI technologies, staying ahead of industry advancements and bringing practical recommendations back to the team.
- Optimize and monitor AI systems post-deployment, ensuring efficiency, accuracy, cost control, and reliability.
- Actively use AI tools, including Claude through our Anthropic partnership, to streamline tasks, improve the quality of your work, and share best practices with teammates while continuously seeking new ways to integrate AI into your everyday workflows

### What it takes

- **Experience: **8+ years building and shipping production software or data systems, with 3+ years specifically delivering AI/ML or generative AI solutions that reached real users. Consulting or client-services experience is a strong plus.
- **Hands-on AI/ML: **Demonstrated experience building production systems with large language models, including retrieval-augmented generation, agentic workflows and tool use, prompt and context engineering, and the judgment to know when fine-tuning is and is not the right call. Experience with classical ML and the full model lifecycle is valued.
- **Engineering: **Strong Python. Experience with modern AI frameworks and orchestration tooling, vector databases and embedding pipelines, and API design for AI-backed services. Comfortable with version control, testing, and CI/CD.
- **Cloud & MLOps: **Production experience on AWS, Azure, or GCP, including their AI/ML services. Familiarity with containerization, infrastructure as code, and deploying and monitoring models at scale.
- **Evaluation & Quality: **Experience designing evaluation frameworks for nondeterministic systems. Able to define accuracy, latency, and cost targets and prove a system meets them both before and after it ships.
- **Responsible AI & Security: **Working knowledge of data privacy and PII handling, model risk and bias, prompt injection and other AI-specific attack surfaces, and how to satisfy client compliance requirements.
- **Cost & Performance: **Practical judgment on model selection, inference cost, and latency tradeoffs, including recognizing when a smaller model or a non-AI solution is the right answer.
- **Client-Facing Skills: **Able to run technical discovery with client stakeholders, translate business problems into AI solution designs, and explain tradeoffs credibly to both engineers and executives. Comfortable supporting pre-sales and solutioning conversations.
- **Leadership: **Experience mentoring engineers and raising AI capability across a team, including geographically distributed teams. Experience building reusable accelerators or internal assets is a plus.
- **Adaptability: **Self-motivated, flexible, and reliable in delivering on time, with the ability to work in a fast-paced, highly entrepreneurial environment.

Regardless of your specific role, we seek individuals who are excited to explore, adopt, and evangelize AI tools and methodologies. If you have experience in AI or a proven track record of rapidly learning and mentoring others on emerging tech, you’ll fit right in.

*Equal Employment Opportunity Policy: Sparq is proud to offer equal employment opportunity without regard to age, color, disability, gender, gender identity, genetic information, marital status, military status, national origin, race, religion, sexual orientation, veteran status, or any other legally protected characteristic.*

*We are committed to providing equal employment opportunities and believe in an inclusive workplace. If you require reasonable accommodations to participate in the job application or interview process, please let us know by contacting recruiting@teamsparq.com*

[View posting at Sparq](https://ats.rippling.com/sparq/jobs/2f6fd673-4d7b-426e-b6ca-87d05c0f8bed)

## About Sparq

Sparq modernizes enterprise systems and delivers AI, data, and software engineering solutions for operational workflows.

Late-stage private · 500–1000 people

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- [Compare staff+ FDE salary ranges](https://nextmove.md/fde/salary/staff)
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