Lead AI/ML Engineer – AI Agents Position Available In Montgomery, Pennsylvania

Job Description:

Upwork ($UPWK) is the world’s largest work marketplace,connecting businesses with highly skilled professionals worldwide.

From entrepreneurs to Fortune 100 enterprises, companies trustUpwork’s platform to access expert talent, leverage AI-powered worksolutions, and drive meaningful business outcomes. Upwork’sAI-powered platform has facilitated over $20 billion in economicopportunity for professionals worldwide. With professionalsspanning 10,000 skills, including AI and machine learning, softwaredevelopment, sales and marketing, customer support, finance andaccounting, and more, Upwork empowers businesses of all sizes toscale, innovate, and build agile teams. We’re looking for a LeadAI/ML Engineer to help shape the future of intelligent systems atUpwork. In this role, you’ll design and deliver cutting-edgeinfrastructure and models that power agentic LLM workflows acrossour platform. You’ll work at the intersection of research andproduction, owning the delivery of advanced ML solutions anddriving business outcomes through applied innovation. This roleoffers the chance to lead high-impact projects, support and mentorothers, and help shape the future of autonomous AI agents globally.

Youll work on cutting-edge machine learning initiatives that drivereal business results while contributing to the broader AI researchcommunity through publications at leading conferences.

Responsibilities

• Architect and implement core infrastructure tosupport agent-based LLM systems, including multi-agent pipelines,RAG, and real-time orchestration.
• Train and fine-tune custommodels, including LLMs and foundation models, to solve uniqueUpwork-specific challenges.
• Lead cross-functional collaborationacross engineering, product, and research teams to align technicalsolutions with business impact.
• Mentor and guide engineers andresearchers, helping foster a high-performing, inclusive teamculture grounded in AI excellence.
• Translate experimental ideasinto reliable, scalable production systems by applying bestpractices in AI engineering and deployment.
• Publish and shareinnovations where appropriate, contributing to Upwork’s visibilityin the broader AI/ML research community. What it takes to catch oureye
• Strong proficiency in Python and modern ML frameworks such asPyTorch or TensorFlow, with experience developing and deploying AIsystems.
• Deep understanding of core ML concepts, includingtransformers, generative models, and agent architectures such asMCP or A2A.
• Experience training large models on GPU clusters andintegrating LLMs with external tools via APIs or orchestrationframeworks.
• Comprehensive understanding of foundational deeplearning, machine learning concepts, and state-of-the-art GenAImodels.
• Hands-on experience training custom LLMs on GPUs andworking with Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) systems.
• Provenability to build end-to-end ML pipelines—from data prep andexperimentation to production deployment—in a cloud-nativeenvironment.
• A growth mindset, strong communication skills, andthe ability to translate complex technical work to stakeholdersacross functions.
• Demonstrated experience working in R Denvironments; publications in major AI/ML conferences are a plus,but not required.