Senior Implementation Engineer

About the Job:

We are looking for a highly accomplished Senior Implementation Engineer to join our Solutions team. You will play a critical role in architecting, delivering, and optimizing complex technical solutions for Sama’s customers. As a senior individual contributor, you bring deep technical expertise, cross-functional collaboration experience, and a strategic mindset to drive innovation in AI data annotation services.

In this role, you’ll own and lead the most challenging customer implementations from end to end, influence technical strategy, and mentor other engineers. Your ability to independently navigate ambiguity, simplify complexity, and drive customer success through scalable, high-impact solutions will be key to elevating Sama’s platform and services globally.

Key Responsibilities:

• Cross-Functional Collaboration: Partner with Solutions Engineers, Product Managers and Delivery teams to co-design scalable and innovative solutions for clients. Seamlessly manage all stakeholder relationships and communications.
• Technical Leadership & Deep Expertise: Serve as a trusted technical advisor with in-depth knowledge of Sama’s platform and the AI/ML data ecosystem. Lead complex deployments and integrations, considering scalability, security, observability, and long-term maintainability.
• Infrastructure & Workflow Orchestration Management: Design, manage, and optimize infrastructure across major cloud providers—AWS, GCP, and Azure—with a strong focus on reliability, scalability, and cost-efficiency. Deploy and maintain data pipelines and orchestration frameworks using Prefect. Ensure end-to-end monitoring, security compliance, and operational readiness.
• Customer-Centric Problem Solving: Work closely with customers and solutions engineers to uncover underlying challenges and design tailored, high-impact solutions. Balance technical feasibility with business value while navigating ambiguity.
• Solution Architecture & Delivery: Architect and implement sophisticated technical workflows, custom integrations, and automation that meet both functional and non-functional requirements. Drive delivery of implementation projects with minimal supervision.
• Mentorship & Thought Leadership: Mentor and guide junior and mid-level engineers. Lead knowledge-sharing initiatives, influence best practices, and contribute to the technical growth of the team.
• Innovation & Continuous Improvement: Identify opportunities for technical and process improvements. Propose and implement innovative approaches that elevate Sama’s implementation methodologies and technology offerings.
• Simplifying Complexity: Clearly articulate complex technical concepts to both technical and non-technical stakeholders. Influence customer decisions and internal alignment through clear communication.
• Scalable Impact: Contribute to internal tooling, frameworks, and documentation to ensure the scalability and repeatability of customer implementations. Enhance automation and deployment pipelines to improve operational efficiency. 

Minimum Qualifications:

Education & Experience:

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field with at least 8 years of relevant experience
• OR Master’s degree with 6+ years of experience
• OR PhD with 3+years of experience in a related field.

Technical Expertise:

• Strong software development background with proficiency in Python
• Extensive experience managing cloud infrastructure across AWS, GCP, and Azure, including deploying and maintaining AI/ML services and APIs
• Proficiency with workflow orchestration tools, particularly Prefect
• Proven ability to architect and scale reliable, secure cloud-native solutions with logging, monitoring, and alerting best practices
• Track record of solving complex technical problems and delivering enterprise-scale implementations.

Leadership & Collaboration:

• Demonstrated ability to lead cross-functional initiatives and influence decision-making
• Experience mentoring peers and driving technical excellence across teams

Communication & Problem Solving:

• Excellent verbal and written communication skills; capable of influencing and negotiating with technical and non-technical audiences
• Strong analytical thinking and a global problem-solving mindset

Flexibility & Collaboration Across Time Zones:

• Willingness to work flexible hours, including late evenings, to collaborate with North American and global teams
• Availability during core hours:
• India: 2:00 PM to 10:00 PM IST
• Kenya: 1:30 PM to 9:30 PM EAT

Preferred Qualifications:

• Experience working with globally distributed teams
• Prior experience in fast-paced startup or hyper-growth environments
• Proven contributions to improving implementation workflows, tooling, and documentation
• Strong initiative, self-direction, and a proactive approach to internal improvement initiatives
• Passion for ethical AI and a commitment to Sama’s mission to drive social impact through technology