Senior AI Engineer

Senior AI Engineer 📍 Warsaw-based | Occasional travel to Amsterdam | Project-based engagementWe're Altura, an ambitious SaaS startup, and we just raised our Series A.At Altura, we're making it easier for organisations to win complex deals (tenders and RfPs). With our AI-powered platform, we simplify bid management by turning it into a smooth, strategic process. We connect workflows, automate tasks, and make knowledge accessible, so teams can work more efficiently and effectively.But we're not stopping there.We're building the first AI-powered Agentic Virtual Bid Management Assistant, designed to automate the entire bid lifecycle. With fresh funding, big ambitions, and a fast-growing team across Amsterdam and London, we're just getting started.If you value innovation, enjoy high ownership, and want to shape the AI backbone of a Series A SaaS company, we'd love to talk.TL;DRAs a Senior AI Engineer (Contractor), you'll join a high-caliber team building the agentic layer that powers Altura's next evolution.This is not a 'plug prompts into an API' role.You'll design and ship real agentic workflows: context-aware, production-grade systems that sit on top of our proprietary data graph and become a core technical moat.You'll work in a small, fast-moving team with freedom to experiment: Claude Code, Cursor, Copilot, and new frontier models the day they drop. If something meaningfully advances the state of the art, we use it.You'll drive high-impact AI initiatives end-to-end, owning outcomes across:Discovery and greenfield prototypingModel evaluation and multi-model strategyProduction rollout, observability, and continuous improvementBeyond product capabilities, you'll help shape foundational AI platform components: context engineering, agent orchestration, evaluation frameworks, tone monitoring, and online observability.No corporate red tape. No endless committees. Just ownership, speed, and real technical influence.You'll deliver AI systems that are:Reliable in productionScalable across customersMeasurable in impactCost-aware by designAnd you'll help define what 'great AI engineering' looks like inside a Series A company operating at the leading edge.Engagement ModelThis is a B2B contractor engagement, intended for experienced independent professionals or those operating through their own registered entity.Location: Warsaw, Poland (remote-first)Scope: Deliverable- and milestone-based; we estimate a high-intensity engagement for the foreseeable project horizonSchedule: Flexible — we care about outcomes, not hours loggedTravel: Occasional visits to our Amsterdam office for on-site collaboration and strategic working sessionsNon-exclusive: We welcome contractors who maintain a broader client portfolioLong-term collaboration preferred, subject to mutual agreement and scope renewalSalary (Monthly Range): Based on a 40-hour work week €7K – €9K per monthCandidates are expected to be registered as a sole trader (jednoosobowa działalność gospodarcza) or operate through their own legal entity, and are responsible for their own tax and social security (ZUS) obligations in Poland.Our Tech StackAI: PythonFrontend: Vue.js and Next.jsBackend: C# — ASP.NETInfrastructure: Azure, GitHub, LinearWhat You'll DeliverDesign and deliver an agentic layer and a rich context graph that automates complex work with deep integration into customers' knowledge repositoriesDrive architecture & delivery of production LLM/GenAI systems across context engineering, agentic workflows, model evaluations, and multi-model strategiesDefine and implement evaluation: offline and online metrics, gold sets and regression tests, human review loops, and A/B experimentsOperationalize LLMOps: deployment patterns, observability and monitoring, incident response, and performance and cost optimization (latency, throughput, token spend)Build guardrails & security: prompt-injection defenses, data-exfiltration prevention, tool permissions and action constraints, safe handling of sensitive dataEstablish engineering standards: reference implementations, reusable libraries, review practices, and documentation that accelerates the teamRaise the bar on system design and code quality; align workstreams on outcomes and timelines as a technical force multiplierWhat We're Looking ForMinimum qualificationsExtensive experience in AI/ML software engineering with multiple production launchesStrong software engineering fundamentals (system design, testing, reliability, APIs)Proven experience with LLM application patterns (context engineering, embeddings/vector search, structured outputs, prompt design)Hands-on experience building evaluation and monitoring systems for model quality in productionComfortable in cloud environments (Azure), containers, CI/CD, and modern observabilityExcellent cross-functional communication skills — you turn ambiguity into plans, tradeoffs, and shipped outcomesNice to haveExperience optimising inference (caching, batching, routing, quantization)Experience serving or fine-tuning open-source modelsExperience building internal AI platforms (evaluation harnesses, prompt/version management systems)What Success Looks Like in 90–180 DaysDelivery of AI-native capabilities aligned with product goals and risk constraintsA repeatable evaluation and release process that prevents regressions and enables fast iterationAI systems in production with monitoring, guardrails, and measurable business impactClear technical standards that elevate the entire engineering organisationHiring ProcessRecruiter Screen (30 min)Meet the Team & System Design (60 min)Pair Programming Session (60 min)CEO FinalOfferWhat We OfferCompetitive market rates, invoiced on a B2B basisHigh-impact role shaping the AI backbone of a Series A SaaS companyFull ownership and technical influenceFlexible, remote-first work setup with no fixed hours requirementOccasional travel to Amsterdam for in-person collaborationModern tooling and the freedom to experiment with frontier AI systems