AI Engineer (LLM & Automation)

Job title: AI Engineer (LLM & Automation)

Type of employment: Full-time

Shift Schedule: TBD

We are seeking a highly skilled, hands-on, and business-minded AI Engineer to design, develop, and implement AI-powered solutions that streamline business operations, improve accounting workflows, and drive company-wide efficiency.

This role will focus on building and maintaining AI agents, automations, and system integrations that reduce manual work, improve accuracy, and support scalable business growth. The successful candidate will initially prioritize Operations and Accounting before expanding AI solutions across Asset Management, Property Management, Acquisitions, Investor Relations, and other departments.

The ideal candidate is a proactive problem-solver with strong software engineering and automation experience, capable of translating complex business processes into practical, reliable AI solutions. This is a hands-on implementation role where success is measured by working automations, measurable time savings, improved accuracy, and successful adoption across the organization.

About the Employer:

The client is a fully integrated commercial real estate investment firm founded in 2015. The company focuses on acquiring, redeveloping, and managing retail shopping centers, industrial warehouses, and other commercial property types across the United States.

Objectives of this role:

Design, build, and maintain AI agents and automated workflows that improve efficiency across the organization.

Automate repetitive Operations and Accounting processes to reduce manual workloads and minimize errors.

Integrate existing business applications and systems to improve data accessibility, accuracy, and workflow efficiency.

Develop scalable AI solutions that can be implemented across multiple departments.

Establish reliable AI architecture, monitoring systems, documentation, and security controls.

Identify high-impact automation opportunities and recommend solutions based on business value, cost, and implementation complexity.

Enable employees to adopt AI tools effectively through training, documentation, and ongoing support.

Support Alakai Capital's transformation into an AI-first organization by delivering measurable improvements in productivity, accuracy, and operational performance.

Responsibilities:

AI Development & Automation

• Design, develop, deploy, and maintain AI agents that automate repetitive and complex business processes.
• Build AI-powered applications that support multi-step workflows, data processing, and business decision support.
• Develop and maintain integrations between AI platforms and existing company systems.
• Implement AI solutions using large language models (LLMs), APIs, and automation frameworks.
• Evaluate and improve the reliability, performance, and accuracy of deployed AI solutions.

Operations Process Automation

• Analyze existing operational workflows to identify opportunities for automation and process improvement.
• Automate task management, deadline tracking, approvals, document management, and reporting processes.
• Develop AI agents for email management, meeting summaries, action-item tracking, scheduling, and follow-up reminders.
• Streamline onboarding, offboarding, vendor communication, and tenant coordination processes.
• Integrate project management and communication platforms to eliminate duplicate data entry.
• Convert existing standard operating procedures into automated and measurable workflows.

Accounting & Financial Process Automation

• Develop AI-assisted workflows for accounts payable, including invoice processing, data extraction, general ledger coding recommendations, and approval routing.
• Automate recurring accounting processes such as accounts receivable follow-ups, reconciliation support, and month-end closing activities.
• Build automated financial reporting workflows using data from accounting systems, spreadsheets, and financial documents.
• Support budget variance reporting, portfolio reporting, and debt-related financial documentation.
• Assist with common area maintenance (CAM) reconciliation preparation, tenant billing reviews, and accrual schedules.
• Implement automated validation checks and exception reporting to improve financial accuracy while maintaining appropriate human review.

Systems Integration & AI Architecture

• Design scalable AI systems that connect applications, databases, documents, and internal workflows.
• Develop integrations using REST APIs, webhooks, and automation platforms.
• Work with business systems including Microsoft 365, Outlook, Teams, SharePoint, OneDrive, Dropbox, Notion, Smartsheet, HubSpot, Yardi, and InvestNext.
• Organize structured and unstructured data to improve AI-powered search, retrieval, and processing.
• Configure and maintain AI platforms, connectors, custom tools, and automated workflows.
• Evaluate third-party AI applications and recommend appropriate build-versus-buy solutions based on cost, scalability, and return on investment.

Company-Wide AI Implementation

• Expand successful AI automations beyond Operations and Accounting into Asset Management, Property Management, Acquisitions, Investor Relations, HR, and Marketing.
• Develop AI agents for lease abstraction, due diligence tracking, investor reporting, and internal coordination.
• Create and maintain a centralized library of reusable AI prompts, workflows, skills, and templates.
• Identify opportunities to standardize and improve business processes across departments.
• Collaborate with department leaders to prioritize and implement automation initiatives.

Quality Assurance, Security & Monitoring

• Develop testing and evaluation procedures to ensure AI-generated outputs are accurate, reliable, and consistent.
• Implement appropriate human approval processes for financial transactions, sensitive records, and external communications.
• Establish data security practices, access controls, and confidentiality standards.
• Monitor AI agents and automated workflows to identify failures, errors, and performance issues.
• Track AI usage, operating costs, and system performance.
• Maintain and improve deployed automations to ensure long-term reliability.

Documentation, Training & Collaboration

• Collaborate with internal teams to understand workflows, identify challenges, and develop practical automation solutions.
• Create clear technical documentation and standard operating procedures for AI agents and workflows.
• Train employees on new AI tools and support successful adoption across departments.
• Provide regular progress updates to leadership, including completed projects, time savings, implementation costs, and upcoming priorities.
• Maintain an organized roadmap of AI initiatives and continuous improvement opportunities.

Required skills and qualifications:

• Minimum of 3 years of experience in software engineering, automation engineering, data engineering, or a related technical field.
• Proven experience developing and deploying LLM-powered applications, AI agents, or production-ready automation solutions.
• Strong proficiency in Python and/or TypeScript/JavaScript.
• Experience integrating business applications through REST APIs, webhooks, and automation tools.
• Familiarity with automation platforms such as Microsoft Power Automate, Zapier, Make, or n8n.
• Experience extracting, processing, and organizing information from PDFs, spreadsheets, and other business documents.
• Strong understanding of software architecture, system integration, and workflow automation.
• Experience troubleshooting, testing, and maintaining deployed applications or automated systems.
• Knowledge of data security, access controls, and confidentiality practices.
• Strong analytical thinking, problem-solving, and process improvement skills.
• Excellent written and verbal English communication skills.
• Ability to communicate technical concepts clearly to non-technical stakeholders.
• Strong organizational skills and attention to detail.
• Ability to work independently in a remote environment with substantial overlap with U.S. Eastern Time business hours.
• Demonstrated ownership, accountability, and commitment to delivering measurable business results.
• Portfolio or examples of previously deployed AI applications or automation projects required.

Preferred skills and qualifications:

• Experience with LLM APIs and frameworks, including OpenAI and Anthropic Claude.
• Familiarity with AI tool use, function calling, Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG), and Model Context Protocol (MCP).
• Experience with Microsoft Graph API and Microsoft 365 integrations.
• Experience building AI agents capable of executing multi-step business workflows.
• Background in commercial real estate, property management, asset management, or related industries.
• Familiarity with accounting processes, including accounts payable, accounts receivable, reconciliations, and month-end close.
• Experience using Yardi or other real estate accounting and property management systems.
• Familiarity with HubSpot, Notion, Smartsheet, Dropbox, and InvestNext.
• Experience designing automated financial reporting and document-processing workflows.
• Experience with process mapping, workflow optimization, and standard operating procedure development.
• Knowledge of AI performance evaluation, monitoring, and cost optimization.
• Experience implementing AI solutions across multiple business departments.
• Demonstrated ability to evaluate new technologies and recommend practical, cost-effective solutions.