Staff Applied AI Engineer - Kalepa for Underwriting

Role overview Set the technical direction for systems that turn large volumes of unstructured insurance documents and data into structured, explainable information. You will lead applied AI architecture, model strategy, and evaluation, connecting engineering decisions to customer outcomes in underwriting workflows.

Responsibilities - Lead major applied AI initiatives spanning document extraction, classification, entity matching, and evaluation infrastructure. - Design reliable LLM systems and backend architecture, balancing accuracy, cost, latency, explainability, and operational reliability. - Establish benchmark datasets, regression tests, validation approaches, and release standards for model changes. - Guide decisions about model and vendor selection, fine-tuning, and when to replace existing pipelines. - Partner with product and business leaders to prioritize work and connect model performance to customer value. - Improve engineering practices through code review, technical debt management, and coaching across teams.

Requirements - At least 8 years of engineering experience, including 5 or more years building and operating production ML or LLM systems. - Technical leadership on at least one substantial applied AI product or initiative. - Deep experience with LLM-based extraction, classification, retrieval, embeddings, and evaluation at production scale. - Strong applied ML, NLP, statistics, Python, and data or machine learning library skills. - Experience with AWS, serverless services such as Lambda or EC2, asynchronous workflows, and cloud environments. - Independent ownership of complex work and clear communication with engineering, product, and business stakeholders.

Nice to have - Document AI experience involving OCR, layout analysis, or long and multi-page documents. - Experience fine-tuning or distilling models for production, or building shared evaluation and ML infrastructure. - Familiarity with insurance underwriting materials, such as application forms and loss histories.

Benefits and work setup - North America salary range: $270,000–$345,000 in New York and San Francisco, or $243,000–$310,500 in other US and Canadian locations; final compensation depends on experience, interview performance, and location. - Equity options, 20 days of annual paid time off, wellness and phone stipends, and continuing education support. - US employees receive medical, vision, and dental coverage for individuals and families, plus a 401(k) plan with an employer contribution. - The team works remotely across regions and holds global offsites.