Hybrid AI Engineer

at Shipt

• Job title: AI Engineer
• Job type: Full Time
• Experience level: Junior, Mid level
• Salary: Not specified
• Degree requirement: Bachelor's Degree
• Tech skills: AWS, Cloud, Docker, Google Cloud Platform, GRPC, JavaScript, Kafka, Kubernetes, Next.js, Postgres, React, React Native, Redis, SQL, TypeScript, Go
• Location requirements: Hybrid, Birmingham, United States

About the role

• AI Engineer building customer-facing features powered by AI at Shipt. Collaborating across frontend and backend services with a focus on high-quality engineering.

Responsibilities

• Ship AI-Native Features: Design and implement full-stack features using LLMs (OpenAI, Anthropic, Gemini) and build "Generative UI" elements where AI renders interactive components.
• Architect the AI Ecosystem: Build and maintain Model Context Protocol (MCP) servers to expose internal databases and business logic as tools for LLMs, ensuring models have the right context to perform tasks.
• Optimize Performance: Use Google’s Agent Development Kit and streaming interfaces to deliver low-latency, responsive user experiences.
• Scale Backend Orchestration: Write high-performance Go code and use Kafka/Redis to build event-driven architectures that decouple AI agents and manage concurrent execution.
• Define the Future of Work: Pioneer an "AI-Enhanced" workflow, using tools like GitHub Copilot to accelerate development while serving as the ultimate gatekeeper for code quality, security, and performance.
• Ensure Reliability: Move beyond "vibe checks" by writing automated "Evals" to test AI performance against regressions and iteratively refining system prompts for safe, high-quality outputs.

Requirements

• 2+ years of professional experience, specifically with Go (goroutines, channels, and modules) and TypeScript/React (Next.js App Router).
• Proven experience integrating LLM APIs and a solid understanding of orchestration concepts (e.g., Vercel AI SDK, LangChain, or custom-built frameworks).
• The ability to design RESTful/gRPC APIs and write clean SQL (Postgres) to bridge the gap between AI models and business logic.
• Enthusiasm for using AI coding assistants to multiply your output, paired with the critical eye needed to debug and refine AI-generated code.
• A deep commitment to Git, CI/CD basics, and comprehensive unit testing to ensure our AI features are production-ready.
• Bonus: Experience with React Native/Expo for mobile deployment, or familiarity with Docker/Kubernetes and cloud infrastructure (AWS/GCP).

Benefits

• Employees (and eligible family members) are covered by medical, dental, vision and more.
• Employees may enroll in our company’s 401k plan.
• Employees will also be eligible to receive discretionary vacation for exempt team members, paid holidays throughout the calendar year and paid sick leave.
• Other compensation includes eligibility for an annual bonus and the potential for restricted stock units based on role.