Principal Data Scientist

Role Overview

This role leads the design and development of an advanced multi-agent AI platform that powers intelligent research, drafting, and reasoning capabilities for large-scale enterprise knowledge environments. You will architect agent frameworks, optimize retrieval-augmented generation pipelines, fine-tune language models, and build the infrastructure that enables AI systems to collaborate, plan, and execute complex tasks reliably. The work directly shapes the next generation of AI-driven professional tools used by experts in high-stakes domains.

Core Responsibilities

• Architect and implement multi-agent systems capable of planning, tool use, and coordinated task execution.
• Design and optimize RAG pipelines including embeddings, hybrid retrieval, reranking, and context-window strategies.
• Fine-tune and evaluate small, medium, and large language models for domain-specific reasoning and summarization.
• Develop prompt engineering frameworks, guardrails, and automated evaluation suites for agent reliability.
• Build scalable ML services and APIs for production deployment in distributed environments.
• Collaborate with product, engineering, and domain experts to translate complex workflows into agentic AI solutions.
• Establish best practices for model evaluation, observability, safety, and compliance.
• Mentor DS/ML engineers and contribute to long-term AI strategy and architecture.

Required Expertise

• 6-12+ years in Data Science / ML Engineering, with deep experience in LLM-based systems.
• Proven experience building agentic architectures (planner-executor, tool-use agents, ReAct-style reasoning).
• Strong background in RAG, embeddings, retrieval optimization, and evaluation.
• Expertise in NLP, transformers, deep learning, and model fine-tuning.
• Proficiency with PyTorch, HuggingFace, LangChain/LlamaIndex, Ray, Kubernetes, and vector databases.
• Experience designing production-grade ML systems with monitoring, evaluation, and observability.
• Strong communication skills and ability to lead technical direction.
• 7+ years of Python coding experience.
• Deep understanding of machine learning algorithms, classification models, and diagnostic testing.
• Experience with AWS, SageMaker, and SQL.

Preferred Qualifications

• Master's or PhD preferred.
• Experience in enterprise search, knowledge management, or high-compliance domains.
• Experience with model distillation, LoRA/QLoRA, PEFT, and model compression.
• Experience building evaluation frameworks for hallucination, grounding, and agent reliability.
• Familiarity with knowledge graphs, symbolic reasoning, or hybrid neuro-symbolic systems.
• Publications, patents, or open-source contributions in LLMs or agent systems.

Job Details

• Type: Contract to Hire
• Location: Cary, NC (Fully Remote)
• Pay Range: $50.00 - $85.00/hr
• Application Deadline: June 29, 2026

Benefits

If eligible, benefits may include medical, dental, vision, 401(k), life insurance, disability, HSA, and PTO.

About TEKsystems

We are partners in transformation, helping clients activate solutions to take advantage of new opportunities. As an industry leader in Full-Stack Technology Services and Talent Services, we work with progressive leaders to drive change.

TEKsystems is an equal opportunity employer.