Principal AI Software Engineer (m/f/x) — Industrial AI Heilbronn Heilbronn

The appliedAI Initiative elevates Europe’s industry to become shapers in the age of AI, creating a future that we desire to live in. Through our ecosystem of strong partners, comprehensive programs, services and solutions we advance companies holistically on their AI journey. With our uniquely diverse, interdisciplinary, and driven team, we build on deep technical expertise while specializing on applicability of the solutions. We share a mindset of collaboration and openness with our ecosystem of leading companies and tech players. Our common goal is to strengthen the European landscape, jointly creating unique knowledge for applying trustworthy AI. We believe that AI Agents will be the dominant topic for AI in the near future and that appliedAI with its partner ecosystem will impact how this technology is being used in industry and beyond in Europe.

You build the AI systems other engineers learn from. At appliedAI, our industrial engagements sit at the demanding intersection of regulated environments, plant-grade infrastructure, and rapidly evolving AI capability — and you thrive there. In this role, you take end-to-end ownership of production AI delivery for our most complex industrial clients, while setting the engineering standard that elevates the entire AI Engineering team.

Responsibilities

• Architecting and implementing production‑grade AI solutions for industrial clients — spanning classical ML, GenAI applications, validated RAG, and agentic systems — with deliberate attention to OT/edge constraints, validation gates, on‑prem and hybrid deployments, and MLOps maturity
• Defining and championing engineering excellence across the team: code quality, design reviews, evaluation harnesses, observability, security, and MLOps standards
• Leading technical delivery from target architecture through production hardening and client handover, working in close collaboration with engagement leads on scope and value
• Building reusable engineering accelerators — templates, libraries, and evaluation frameworks — that multiply the impact of the wider AI Engineering team
• Mentoring mid‑level and senior engineers, facilitating technical guilds, and driving a culture of shared knowledge and continuous improvement

Qualifications

• 10+ years of software engineering experience, with at least 5 years building and operating AI/ML systems in production environments
• Deep engineering foundation across distributed systems, APIs, data pipelines, cloud‑native architecture (Azure, AWS, or GCP), containers, CI/CD, and MLOps
• Strong command of Python and the modern AI stack — including PyTorch, LangChain/LangGraph, vector stores, evaluation frameworks, and platforms such as Azure AI Foundry
• A demonstrable track record leading complex, end‑to‑end AI engineering in client‑facing settings — experience in industrial or regulated contexts is a strong advantage
• Pragmatic and code‑first in your approach; opinionated about quality, evaluation, security, and operational maturity
• Fluent in English; working proficiency in German is a strong plus

Benefits

• Experience the best of both worlds with our hybrid work model: You can choose to work from our vibrant offices — either at the IPAI in Heilbronn or the House of Communication in Munich — while also enjoying the flexibility to work remotely a few days each week
• Opportunity to shape a variety of projects and the development of new, original content based on the latest developments in AI and its adoption in businesses
• An atmosphere that encourages to think and experiment in new ways with software, hardware, and processes
• A highly visible initiative that helps you build a large and high‑level network of start‑ups, partners, and tech companies
• No fixed budget for growth – you decide how you want to develop, whether through training, certifications, conferences, or new challenges
• Sports membership with Wellpass to access thousands of sports facilities all over Germany (and beyond), as well as online courses
• JobRad: Lease a bike for a cheaper rate via JobRad and we cover the bike insurance on top
• Sabbatical option: You can take a sabbatical of up to 3 months after min. 3 years of employment - because sometimes 30 vacation days are not enough to explore the beauty of this world
• PME Familienservice: A 24/7 support for a successful work & life in any life situation. Benefit from free support in areas like life coaching, child care and many other options
• Mobility budget: Every month we contribute to your individual mobility usage with public transport or shared mobility offers within the app Moovster
• Workation: Work from anywhere for up to 3 months per year - combining working at a nice place and spending your leisure time in the evening like vacation