Senior Python/AI Engineer

We are looking for a Senior Python/AI Engineer to design and build the knowledge, retrieval and evaluation foundations behind accurate, grounded, safe and maintainable AI solutions.

In this role, you will combine strong Python backend engineering with hands-on AI/GenAI expertise, particularly in retrieval, RAG, document understanding and evaluation. You will work closely with subject matter experts to transform domain knowledge and source material into robust knowledge pipelines, evaluation frameworks and production-quality AI services.

This is a hands-on engineering role for someone who is rigorous about AI quality and evidence while being able to design, build, test and operate maintainable software in production.

About Nortal:

About our client

Our client is a global mining company with a world-class portfolio of products that are used by a billion consumers every day. Our client relies on data and cutting-edge data science to enhance their operations. They also use advanced machine learning and artificial intelligence to optimize their processes.

• Design and implement knowledge pipelines for AI solutions, covering source inventory and authority, extraction, metadata, canonical preparation, chunking and indexing.
• Build and improve hybrid retrieval and RAG solutions, including provenance, citations, access-aware retrieval, refresh and lineage controls.
• Create reusable evaluation frameworks and test packs for RAG assistants, document-processing pipelines and tool-using AI agents.
• Develop realistic test scenarios, regression cases, golden datasets, deterministic checks, targeted LLM judges and clear release thresholds.
• Analyse and improve end-to-end AI answer quality across extraction, source data, indexing, ranking, grounding, prompting, orchestration and model behaviour.
• Design precision-first approaches, including appropriate abstention and fallback mechanisms.
• Build and maintain Python backend services, APIs and test harnesses supporting AI components.
• Apply strong software engineering practices including automated testing, version control, CI/CD, observability, telemetry, traceability, resilience and cost/latency optimisation.
• Work closely with SMEs to define expected answers, evidence requirements, authoritative sources, ambiguity, exceptions, out-of-scope scenarios and safety boundaries.
• Contribute reusable engineering patterns for retrieval, semantic metadata, evaluation, monitoring and safe operation of AI solutions in production.

• Strong hands-on Python backend development experience, using frameworks such as FastAPI or similar.
• Proven experience designing and developing APIs and integrating asynchronous or external services.
• Hands-on experience building and improving AI/GenAI solutions, particularly retrieval/RAG, document understanding or knowledge-intensive assistants.
• Strong understanding of information retrieval, embeddings, vector search and hybrid search.
• Practical experience evaluating AI solutions using benchmark or golden datasets, regression testing, error analysis, evaluation metrics or judges, and human/SME calibration.
• Experience building reliable production solutions with a strong focus on testing, debugging, observability and CI/CD.
• Good understanding of data quality, metadata, provenance and versioning.
• Ability to diagnose quality issues across the complete AI pipeline and identify whether problems originate from source data, extraction, retrieval, ranking, grounding, prompting, orchestration or the underlying model.
• Strong communication skills and the ability to explain AI quality limitations and technical trade-offs to both technical and non-technical stakeholders.
• Upper-intermediate or higher level of spoken and written English.

Nice to Have

• Experience with ontologies, taxonomies or other semantic knowledge artefacts.
• Data Science or Machine Learning experience alongside strong software engineering capabilities.
• Spanish or Portuguese language skills.

Nortal offers:

• 24 working days of paid vacation

• 11 paid national holidays

• Health care: up to 10 paid sick days, on-demand medical insurance, vaccinations

• Mental health support: webinars, resources, and compensation for therapy sessions

• Access to our corporate learning platform

• Language classes (English)

• Flexible benefits budget: a fixed monthly amount you can spend on what matters most to you - medical insurance, sports, leisure, fuel, and more

• 8-hour workday aligned with the client’s working hours

• Hybrid work options: work from home with the option to use our cozy office space whenever needed

• Engaging team events and thoughtful gifts throughout the year

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