Chief Software Engineer - AI-Powered, Python

We are looking for a Chief Software Engineer to build a next-generation AI-powered financial assistant platform that brings chat, reporting, and bespoke interfaces into sophisticated investment workflows. You will lead hands-on delivery in a small, highly capable team, shaping product direction while iterating quickly with business users.
Responsibilities
Lead end-to-end delivery of an AI-powered financial assistant from design through production rollout
Define system designs that balance quality, latency, reliability, and cost for AI features
Build backend services and APIs in Python using FastAPI to support chat and reporting workflows
Implement AI evaluation and quality engineering with automated tests, regression suites, and monitoring
Establish security controls for AI applications including privacy, access control, auditability, and safe handling of sensitive data
Validate and harden AI behavior in production through failure analysis and iterative improvements
Collaborate directly with business users to gather requirements, refine UX, and ship rapid iterations
Review, test, and verify AI-generated code using Gen AI assisted development and coding agents
Create guardrails against prompt-injection and other AI-specific risks within production constraints
Improve reliability and maintainability through disciplined engineering practices and clear interfaces
Contribute to a startup-style environment with lightweight process and high accountability
Partner with other senior engineers to align technical decisions and deliver cohesive platform outcomes
Requirements
7+ years of software engineering experience with Python or comparable languages
Strong leadership ability to drive technical direction in a small senior team
Strong ownership mindset to take loosely defined problems from discovery to production
Expert system design skills including edge cases, trade-offs, and scalable architectures
Advanced Python skills including API and service development
Strong FastAPI experience or deep experience with comparable Python web frameworks
Strong AI engineering skills with Large Language Models (LLM) and Gen AI Assisted Development
Strong AI evaluation skills including automated evals, test datasets, regression testing, and failure analysis
Strong AI security knowledge including data privacy, access controls, prompt-injection risks, and guardrails
Strong quality engineering mindset focused on reliability, maintainability, and monitoring in production
Strong performance optimization skills across latency, cost, and throughput for AI applications
High autonomy and self-governance with minimal process and high trust
Advanced English proficiency (C1, Advanced)
Flexibility to collaborate across US, LatAm, and CET time zones
Willingness to learn and adopt new technologies rapidly as the AI ecosystem evolves
Nice to have
Amazon Web Services experience
Kubernetes experience
Terraform experience
ReactJS or Next.js experience with TypeScript/JavaScript
Node.js experience
We offer
International projects with top brands
Work with global teams of highly skilled, diverse peers
Healthcare benefits
Employee financial programs
Paid time off and sick leave
Upskilling, reskilling and certification courses
Unlimited access to the LinkedIn Learning library and 22,000+ courses
Global career opportunities
Volunteer and community involvement opportunities
EPAM Employee Groups
Award-winning culture recognized by Glassdoor, Newsweek and LinkedIn

Work arrangement
Yes