Senior AI Product Engineer (1043) - Department OF Technology

Senior Ai Product Engineer

We are a small, mission-driven Emerging Technologies team leading responsible AI adoption across City government within DT.

We work on:

1. Testing and making AI tools available to other departments,
2. Setting technical standards for safe and responsible AI use, and
3. Building and experimenting with prototypes that demonstrate the potential of applied AI

As our AI Product Engineer, your primary focus will be designing and building prototypes that showcase how AI can solve real challenges in government. You'll create end-user applications that surface retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) and LLM features, making them usable, transparent, and trustworthy.

Because we are a small team, you'll also need to flex into other areas: contributing to standards, supporting tool evaluations, and helping translate AI's potential to departments across the City. This role is hands-on, creative, and highly collaborative — ideal for someone who enjoys working at the intersection of technology, product, and impact.

Position Responsibilities

• Prototype and ship applied AI tools (chat interfaces, knowledge assistants, workflow integrations) that demonstrate new use cases for City departments.
• Design and implement front-end applications to surface RAG/LLM outputs with transparency and usability
• Collaborate with the team to connect prototypes to retrieval pipelines, APIs, and model orchestration.
• Experiment rapidly: run pilots, gather feedback from staff, and iterate on features to improve adoption.
• Flex into other areas of the team's mandate as needed — contributing to tool evaluations, standards-setting, and AI adoption guidance.
• Help make technical choices that balance innovation, safety, and responsible use in a public sector context.

Education:

An associate degree in computer science, computer engineering, information systems, or a closely related field from an accredited college or university OR its equivalent in terms of total course credits/units [i.e., at least sixty (60) semester or ninety (90) quarter credits/units with a minimum of twenty (20) semester or thirty (30) quarter credits/units in one of the fields above or a closely-related field].

Experience:

Three (3) years of experience analyzing, installing, configuring, enhancing, and/or maintaining the components of an enterprise network.

License and Certification:

Substitution:

Additional experience as described above may be substituted for the required degree on a year-for-year basis (up to a maximum of two (2) years). One (1) year is equivalent to thirty (30) semester units/ forty-five (45) quarter units with a minimum of 10 semester / 15 quarter units in one of the fields above or a closely related field.

Completion of the 1010 Information Systems Trainee Program may be substituted for the required degree.

DESIRABLE QUALIFICATIONS:

• Strong front-end engineering and UX background and modern design frameworks.
• Proven experience building interactive prototypes or applications (e.g., chat apps, dashboards, or AI-powered tools).
• Familiarity with AI/LLM APIs and RAG workflows.
• Comfort working across product and engineering boundaries — listening to users, iterating quickly, and experimenting with design ideas.
• Adaptability and willingness to wear many hats in a small, high-impact team.

Nice-to-Have Skills

• Some backend experience.
• Exposure to AI governance, safety, or public sector requirements (privacy, accessibility, compliance).
• Experience contributing to standards, documentation, or technical adoption guides.
• Background in rapid prototyping environments (startups, labs, hackathons).

Who You Are

• Motivated by public impact and eager to shape how AI can responsibly improve services for residents.
• A builder and experimenter who takes a human-centered approach and loves creating prototypes that make AI real and useful.
• Excited by the challenge of making AI safe, transparent, and practical in government.
• Flexible and collaborative, comfortable stepping outside your core skill set to help the team succeed.
• Keen to stay current with emerging technologies

Note: Applicants must meet the minimum qualification requirement by the final filing date unless otherwise noted.