Sr. AI Engineer (Applied AI & ML Systems)

Mitek (NASDAQ: MITK) is a global leader in digital & biometric identity authentication, fraud prevention, and mobile deposit solutions. Our verified identity platform and advanced image capture solutions are built on the latest advancements in biometric recognition, artificial intelligence, computer vision and machine learning, and trusted by over 7,500 organizations worldwide. We are headquartered in San Diego, California, with operations in the United Kingdom, Spain, France, Mexico, and the Netherlands. Visit us at www.miteksystems.com.

We are Virtual 1st! Whether you choose to work remotely from your home office or in-person from one of Mitek’s offices, our practices, processes and tools are designed to enable your success. At Mitek, the Future of Work is about flexibility and preference wherever and whenever we are working. Because we care about our candidates, employees and customers, we include an in-person meeting as part of our hiring process. It’s one of the ways we live our mission to “Protect What’s Real.”

At Mitek, we believe that teams are more resilient, effective, and innovative when they benefit from a wide range of ideas, lived experiences, and perspectives. The strength of our organization is deeply rooted in the people who power it.​ We know that a workforce reflecting the richness of our communities and customers helps us better serve their needs.

Summary 

We are looking for an AI Engineer with a strong foundation in machine learning (ML), data engineering, or both, and hands-on experience building modern AI systems. This role is best suited for someone who started their career in ML, applied modeling, data engineering, or software engineering for data-intensive systems and later expanded into large language models (LLMs), retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), and agentic AI systems. We are looking for someone with an evaluation-first mindset who believes AI systems should be designed with clear success criteria, testing strategies, and monitoring plans from the start.

The ideal candidate brings strong ML or data systems fundamentals, experience building LLM-powered applications, and practical experience designing and operating production-grade AI solutions that solve real business problems. This includes building multi-step AI workflows, integrating AI into enterprise systems, and balancing quality, latency, cost, reliability, and maintainability.

Humility, accountability, and a growth mindset are essential for success in this role. The right candidate is comfortable admitting mistakes, learning from feedback, challenging assumptions, and adjusting quickly when evidence suggests a better path forward.

Why This Role Matters

This role matters because we need more than someone who can build AI features. We need someone who can build AI systems in a thoughtful and reliable way. That means starting with a clear plan for how quality, risk, and business impact will be measured, and carrying that through design, launch, monitoring, and ongoing improvement. We are looking for someone who can help establish the engineering foundations that allow AI systems to operate safely, reliably, and at scale across ML, LLM, and agentic AI applications.

• Design, build, and deploy AI solutions powered by ML, LLMs, and agentic AI systems that solve real business problems.
• Define evaluation strategies upfront for each use case, including task success metrics, offline and online evaluation plans, error analysis, and production monitoring requirements.
• Build and improve LLM-based systems using prompt engineering, retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), context engineering, and multi-step agentic workflows.
• Design and implement reliable data, retrieval, and orchestration layers that support production AI systems, including data quality, governance, observability, and monitoring.
• Apply strong MLOps and LLMOps practices across AI systems, including experimentation, versioning, observability, alerting, model and prompt evaluation, and continuous improvement in production.
• Partner closely with product, engineering, data, and business stakeholders to prioritize AI use cases and align on success metrics, operational requirements, and delivery timelines.
• Monitor, troubleshoot, and improve production AI systems by balancing quality, latency, cost, reliability, and maintainability.

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or a related field, and knowledge, skills, and abilities typically associated with 6+ years of relevant experience, including:
• 4+ years of experience in one or more of the following areas:
  • Machine Learning or Applied Modeling
  • Data Engineering
  • Software Engineering for Data-Intensive Systems.
• Experience building and operating production data pipelines, data platforms, or large-scale data-intensive systems.
• 2+ years of experience building LLM-based applications, including at least 1 year building agentic AI systems as part of that experience.
• Hands-on experience building LLM-powered applications, including context engineering, retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), evaluation frameworks, prompt engineering and optimization. Experience with model fine-tuning is preferred but not required.
• Experience designing and implementing agentic AI systems, including multi-step workflows that incorporate planning, memory, handoffs, tool orchestration, and human-in-the-loop review.
• Strong track record of defining evaluation strategies upfront and operating AI systems in production, including deployment, monitoring, observability, versioning, experimentation, and continuous improvement.
• Advanced Python skills and experience taking AI solutions from prototype to production while balancing quality, latency, cost, reliability, and maintainability.

• Experience with vector databases, graph databases, retrieval quality tuning, and domain-specific optimization for LLM-based systems.
• Experience designing reusable AI platforms, shared services, internal tooling, or infrastructure that improves AI development speed, consistency, and reuse.
• Experience with cloud-native AI deployment, distributed systems, and scalable serving infrastructure for ML, LLM, and agentic AI applications.

We take pride in enabling career growth in an environment of innovation and teamwork.  Our commitment to all Mitekians is to do meaningful work that matters.  Our culture is defined by delivering our best to our customers by providing high value solutions and impactful outcomes, by continuously challenging convention, and by caring for each other through collaboration and celebrating our successes.  We are committed to creating competitive, equitable compensation & benefits programs and career development opportunities. 

Benefit offerings – may vary based on geographic location

Wellness: Universal, supplemental, and private healthcare plan choices based on country specifics 

Financial future: retirement/pension plan contributions, MTK stock plan participation  

Income protection: life event & disability coverage 

Paid time off: generous annual leave, company holidays, volunteer time off 

Learning: e-learning license, tuition reimbursement, hackathons 

Home office setup allowance

Additional/optional benefits: pet insurance, identity theft protection, legal assistance 

We sincerely appreciate your interest in Mitek. We know your time is valuable and look forward to the potential of speaking with you further!