Lead AI Engineer

About the Position

Lead AI Engineer · Remote · Turkiye, Armenia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Georgia

We are seeking a Lead AI Engineer to lead AI projects, develop AI solutions, and mentor the team in AI technologies.

About the Role

You still get a kick out of understanding a tricky system, tracking down a stubborn bug, or shipping something people actually use. AI has made you more ambitious about what you can build. At EPAM, we’re looking for engineers who love the craft and know how to use AI to move faster. You’ll solve real client problems, make architectural decisions, and help your team find better ways to build software.

Responsibilities

• Take a goal and make it happen. Understand the problem, challenge assumptions, choose an approach, and follow through. The result might be a production feature, a validated architecture, or an AI workflow that makes the team more effective.
• Put coding agents to work. Use them to explore codebases, implement features, test, debug, and review changes. Decide what to delegate, where to intervene, and how to verify the result.
• Make agents more useful. Configure and extend their harnesses: context, skills, specialized agents, hooks, tools, execution environments, and feedback loops. Connect them to real repositories and engineering workflows.
• Help good ideas spread. Try things on real problems, measure what improves, and help teammates adopt approaches that work.

Requirements

• Engineering depth. You've shipped and maintained production software. You can write code, reason about architecture, debug unfamiliar systems, and explain your technical decisions.
• Daily experience with coding agents. You're fluent with tools such as Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, or equivalents. You understand their capabilities, limitations, and failure modes.
• Hands-on harness experience. You've configured and adapted the systems around an agent, using building blocks such as skills, specialized agents, hooks, and tool integrations. You understand context, execution loops, state, failure recovery, and how to verify completion.
• A focus on outcomes. You turn an open-ended goal into practical steps, work through blockers, and bring others along. You take responsibility for the result, including code an agent wrote.
• Building a coding-agent harness from scratch is a big plus. So are custom tools or MCP integrations, agent evaluations, and experience coordinating multiple agents.

What We Offer

Continuous Upskilling, Learning & Development

• Diversity of tasks and projects
• Assessment center for objective review of competency level
• Personal development plan
• Mentoring programs and leadership development
• Certification and professional development support
• Access to learning platforms including more than 2,500 internal courses
• English courses taught by certified teachers

Corporate Benefits

• Extra leave days
• Referral bonuses

Compensation Package

• Competitive compensation paid in USD
• Regular salary and performance reviews

Medical & Healthcare

• Private health insurance
• Well-being events

Working Environment

• Recreation areas and kitchens
• Tea, coffee, and snacks
• Sports equipment and game consoles
• IT Equipment
• Microsoft’s Software Assurance Home Use Program (HUP)

We connect like-minded people: Delivering innovative solutions to industry leaders, making a global impact. Enjoyable working environment, whether it is the vibrant office or the comfort of your own home. Opportunity to work abroad for up to two months per year. Relocation opportunities within our offices in 55+ countries. Corporate and social events.

We invest in your growth: Leadership development, career advising, soft skills, and well-being programs. Certifications, including GCP, Azure, and AWS. Unlimited access to EPAM's internal learning database. Free English classes with certified teachers.

We cover it all: Participation in the Employee Stock Purchase Plan. Monetary bonuses for engaging in the referral program. Comprehensive medical & family care package. Trust days per year for personal needs. Discounts for fitness clubs, dance schools, and sports programs. Benefits package (sports activities, a variety of stores and services).