Senior AI Developer

Job Description

We are seeking a new colleague to drive the design and delivery of advanced AI solutions across our Central AI Organization (APEX CAIO). This is a senior individual contributor role focused on strong technical execution, cross‑organizational influence, and hands‑on development of enterprise‑grade AI products.

Our Custom AI Engineering team is responsible for the development of tailored AI products across all divisions while shaping analytic and AI capabilities across the company. You will work alongside AI engineers, data scientists, product managers, and domain experts to build reliable, scalable AI systems and help elevate the organization’s AI literacy and adoption.

This role is ideal for someone who excels as a deep technical contributor, systems thinker, and collaborative problem solver without direct people‑management responsibilities.

What Will You Do?

Technical Impact & Execution:

• Design and implement robust and scalable AI systems, including generative AI and RAG‑based solutions

• Lead significant AI development workstreams as a senior technical contributor

• Build high‑quality, maintainable code and apply engineering best practices across the team

• Select and integrate appropriate language models, vector databases, retrieval strategies, and evaluation frameworks

• Optimize and fine‑tune models for performance, reliability, security, and responsible AI use

• Contribute to continuous experimentation and improvement of RAG pipelines, prompt strategies, and model‑driven workflows

Cross‑Functional Collaboration:

• Work closely with tech leads, data scientists, platform teams, and SMEs to define requirements and translate them into production-ready AI solutions

• Communicate findings, risks, and trade-offs clearly to influence decisions within your scope

• Support adoption of AI products by partnering with business stakeholders and technical teams

Thought Leadership & Strategy Contribution:

• Serve as an experienced AI engineer who helps uplift engineering maturity through guidance and knowledge sharing

• Contribute to evolving our AI engineering patterns, architectural practices, and operational approaches

• Evaluate emerging AI technologies and provide input on their responsible use within the enterprise

• Advocate for solid observability, MLOps practices, reliability, and lifecycle management of AI systems

Ways of Working:

• Actively participate in Agile ceremonies and support planning of technical work

• Provide input into technical prioritization and roadmap discussions

• Maintain high standards of documentation, testing, and monitoring for AI components

Qualifications, Skills & Experience Required

Education & Experience:

• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Computer Science, or a quantitative discipline

• Relevant experience in AI engineering, ML engineering, or applied machine learning roles

• Proven track record of contributing to complex, production-grade AI systems as a senior individual contributor

Technical Expertise:

• Strong Python skills and experience building modern AI/ML pipelines

• Solid experience designing, implementing, and scaling AI solutions with cloud services, data pipelines, databases, APIs, and modern engineering tooling

• Hands-on experience with RAG systems, LLMs, vector databases, prompt engineering, and generative AI applications

• Solid understanding of ML fundamentals (deep learning, optimization, evaluation, monitoring)

• Experience with CI/CD, MLOps, automated testing, and model observability

• Ability to design and build RESTful APIs for AI-driven services

Collaboration & Communication:

• Excellent communication skills with the ability to translate technical concepts for diverse audiences

• Demonstrated ability to collaborate effectively and contribute to technical direction within a team

• Strong analytical and problem‑solving skills; comfortable working in complex, evolving environments

Nice to Have

• Experience with AWS or other cloud providers

• Work experience in Agile environments

• Experience with containerization (Docker) and orchestration tools

• Prior experience with prompt optimization or evaluation frameworks for generative AI

What We Offer

• Exciting work in a great team, global projects, international environment

• Opportunity to learn and grow professionally within the company globally

• Hybrid working model, flexible role pattern

• Pension and health (Canadian Medical) contributions

• Internal reward system plus referral program

• 5 weeks annual leave, 5 sick days, 15 days of certified sick leave paid above statutory requirements annually, 40 paid hours annually for volunteering activities, 12 weeks of parental contribution

• Cafeteria for tax free benefits according to your choice (meal vouchers, sport, culture, health, travel, etc.), Multisport card

• Vodafone, Raiffeisen Bank and Foodora discount programs

• Up-to-date laptop and iPhone

• Parking in the garage, showers, refreshments, massage chairs, library, music corner

• Competitive salary, incentive pay, and many more

Ready to take up the challenge? Apply now!
Know anybody who might be interested? Refer this job!

#joinAI

The date shown below is the earliest possible closing date for this posting. However, we sometimes extend the job posting period as needed, so please feel free to apply anytime you see the "Apply" button available. You may also reach out to the recruiter directly via https://www.linkedin.com/in/badumtss/

Required Skills:

API Integration, Artificial Intelligence (AI), Automated Testing, CI/CD, Computer Science, Data Pipelines, Deep Learning, Large Language Models (LLMs), Machine Learning (ML), Machine Learning Operations, Python (Programming Language), Retrieval-Augmented Generation, Vector Databases

Preferred Skills:

Current Employees apply HERE

Current Contingent Workers apply HERE

Search Firm Representatives Please Read Carefully 
Merck & Co., Inc., Rahway, NJ, USA, also known as Merck Sharp & Dohme LLC, Rahway, NJ, USA, does not accept unsolicited assistance from search firms for employment opportunities. All CVs / resumes submitted by search firms to any employee at our company without a valid written search agreement in place for this position will be deemed the sole property of our company.  No fee will be paid in the event a candidate is hired by our company as a result of an agency referral where no pre-existing agreement is in place. Where agency agreements are in place, introductions are position specific. Please, no phone calls or emails. 

Employee Status:

Regular

Relocation:

No relocation

VISA Sponsorship:

Yes

Travel Requirements:

10%

Flexible Work Arrangements:

Hybrid

Shift:

Not Indicated

Valid Driving License:

No

Hazardous Material(s):

N/A

Job Posting End Date:

04/6/2026

*A job posting is effective until 11:59:59PM on the day BEFORE the listed job posting end date. Please ensure you apply to a job posting no later than the day BEFORE the job posting end date.