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Principal Applied AI Engineer

Join Qualified Health as a Principal Applied AI Engineer to shape the future of AI in healthcare and influence technical strategy.

Location
Palo Alto, United States
Compensation
$230k–$280k/yr
Level
principal
Type
full time · Hybrid

Posted by employer 2 days ago

First seen on Joblaze 1 day ago

Last verified on the company career page 1 day ago

Apply at Qualified Health → Save job Scanned from qualifiedhealthai.com

Skills & Technologies

MLOps AI/ML Python Flexible on stack

What you'll build

  • Define multi-year technical strategy for agentic workflow infrastructure
  • Represent applied AI engineering in leadership decisions
  • Set engineering standards for LLM evaluation and deployment
  • Act as technical escalation point for high-ambiguity problems
  • Mentor and develop Staff-level engineers

Must have

  • Deep software engineering foundation (Python required)
  • 8+ years building production software
  • 4+ years building AI-powered applications
  • Proven experience setting technical direction across teams
  • Deep expertise in MLOps and model deployment

Nice to have

  • Bachelor's degree + 10 years OR Master's degree + 8 years in Computer Science
  • Recognized expertise in applied AI/agentic systems
  • Experience building AI infrastructure in regulated domains
  • History of founding or scaling a technical function in a startup
  • Experience mentoring Staff-level engineers

Role intensity

40% coding

AI in the day-to-day

Our infrastructure provides guardrails for safe AI governance and real-time algorithm monitoring.

Requirements

Experience
8+ years
Education
Master's degree

Not disclosed in this posting: visa sponsorship.

Benefits

Hybrid Work Options Equity/Stock Options Flexible Working Hours Health Insurance

Joblaze summary

The Principal Applied AI Engineer at Qualified Health is responsible for defining the technical strategy and architecture for AI systems across the company's product portfolio, while also engaging directly in coding and solving complex technical challenges. This role requires a strong foundation in software engineering, particularly in Python, along with extensive experience in building and scaling AI applications. Ideal candidates will have a proven track record of influencing technical direction at a leadership level and mentoring engineers. Qualified Health is focused on transforming healthcare through innovative AI solutions, making this position pivotal in shaping the company's future.

Joblaze insights

  • Listed yesterday — first seen on Joblaze October 9, 2026. Last confirmed on Qualified Health's careers page October 9, 2026.
  • Salary band is above the typical range for AI/ML roles (median ~$190,000).
  • Starts above 55% of 20 comparable principal ai/ml roles in United States that list AI/ML we track (median $222,500 across 12 companies). See AI/ML salary trends
  • AI/ML appears in 52.7% of 55 comparable principal ai/ml roles in United States; Python appears in 43.6% of 55 comparable principal ai/ml roles in United States.

Quick facts

Is the Principal Applied AI Engineer role remote?
It's hybrid — Qualified Health expects some on-site time in Palo Alto, United States.
What's the salary range?
Qualified Health lists $230,000–$280,000 for this role.
How much experience is required?
At least 8 years of relevant experience for this Principal Applied AI Engineer role.
Where is the role based?
Qualified Health is hiring for this position in Palo Alto, United States.
What's the tech stack?
Joblaze extracted these technologies from the posting: AI/ML, MLOps, Python.
What seniority level is this role?
Qualified Health targets principal-level candidates for this position.
Is this full-time or contract?
Full-time for this Principal Applied AI Engineer role at Qualified Health.

From the original posting

Transform healthcare with us.

At Qualified Health, we're redefining what's possible with Generative AI in healthcare. Our infrastructure provides the guardrails for safe AI governance, healthcare-specific agent creation, and real-time algorithm monitoring—working alongside leading health systems to drive real change.

This is more than just a job. It's an opportunity to build the future of AI in healthcare, solve complex challenges, and make a lasting impact on patient care. If you're ambitious, innovative, and ready to move fast, we'd love to have you on board.

Job Summary:

We're hiring a Principal Applied AI Engineer to set the technical vision for how Qualified Health builds agentic AI systems across the entire product portfolio. This is a company-level technical leadership role: you'll shape multi-year infrastructure strategy, represent engineering in decisions about AI direction at the leadership table, and set the bar for what "production-grade agentic AI in healthcare" means at QH. You'll still write code and dive into hard technical problems directly, but your primary impact will be through the systems, standards, and people you influence across teams.

Key Responsibilities:

  • Define the multi-year technical strategy and architecture for agentic workflow infrastructure supporting the full QH product portfolio (100+ workflows and growing).

  • Represent applied AI engineering in cross-functional and leadership-level decisions on product direction, build-vs-buy, and platform investment.

  • Set org-wide engineering standards for LLM evaluation, deployment, safety, and monitoring — informing QH's broader AI governance approach.

  • Act as a technical escalation point for the hardest, highest-ambiguity problems across product lines.

  • Mentor and develop Staff-level engineers; help shape the technical career ladder for applied AI roles.

  • Stay ahead of the frontier — evaluate emerging models, frameworks, and techniques (OpenAI, Anthropic, Mistral, etc.) and determine what's worth adopting at QH.

  • Partner with founders and engineering leadership on how AI infrastructure investment ties to company strategy.

Required Qualifications:

  • Deep software engineering foundation (Python required) with a track record of architecting systems used company-wide.

  • 8+ years building production software, including 4+ years building and scaling AI-powered/LLM-driven applications in production.

  • Proven experience setting technical direction and standards adopted across multiple teams, not just a single product line.

  • Deep expertise in MLOps, model deployment, and workflow automation at an organizational/platform level.

  • Demonstrated ability to operate with full autonomy on ambiguous, high-stakes technical and strategic problems.

  • Strong track record influencing technical decisions at the leadership level, including with non-technical stakeholders.

Desirable Skills:

  • Bachelor's degree + 10 years OR Master's degree + 8 years in Computer Science, Engineering, or related field (or equivalent experience).

  • Recognized expertise (internally or externally — talks, publications, open source, prior platform-level roles) in applied AI/agentic systems.

  • Experience building AI infrastructure in a regulated or high-stakes domain (healthcare, finance, etc.).

  • History of founding or scaling a technical function from the ground up in a startup environment.

  • Experience mentoring Staff-level engineers and shaping technical career ladders.

Why Join Qualified Health?

This is an opportunity to join a fast-growing company and a world-class team, that is poised to change the healthcare industry. We are a passionate, mission-driven team that is building a category-defining product. We are backed by premier investors and are looking for founding team members who are excited to do the best work of their careers.

Pay & Benefits: The pay range for this role is between $230,000 and $280,000, depending on skills, qualifications, experience, and location. This role is also eligible for equity and benefits.

Join our mission to revolutionize healthcare with AI. To apply, please send your resume through the application below.

Standard company text repeated across Qualified Health's postings is omitted here.

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