Senior AI Systems Engineer – LLM & Agentic Systems

StockStory, now part of CNBC under VERSANT, is building the next generation of AI-powered equity research for individual investors. This is a chance to build products that can shape how millions of consumers understand markets and make investing decisions. VERSANT is an independent, publicly traded company that brings together powerhouse brands such as CNBC, MS NOW (formerly MSNBC), USA Network, Oxygen, E!, SYFY, and Golf Channel along with dynamic digital and direct-to-consumer brands such as Fandango, Rotten Tomatoes, GolfNow, and GolfPass. We offer the best parts of a startup environment - small team, high ownership, fast execution, and room to experiment - with the backing and stability of VERSANT, an independent publicly traded media company. Senior AI Engineer We're looking for a highly capable Senior AI Engineer to join our team to build the next generation of AI-powered equity research. This role is hybrid, 3 days in office. This role is for engineers who enjoy turning LLM and agentic AI capabilities into reliable product systems embedded in real-world workflows. It is especially well suited to people who want to work hands-on across architecture, implementation, and operations while helping define how AI capabilities get integrated into products used by individual investors. You will be joining a team of exceptional engineers, analysts, and investors working at the intersection of AI and public markets. A particularly rare part of this role is the level of direct access to experienced market professionals, including former hedge fund managers and top-tier analysts, whose insights can directly inform how you think about modeling, signals, and product design. For an ambitious AI engineer, it is an unusual opportunity to work with cutting-edge LLMs and advanced data systems while learning firsthand how sophisticated investors analyze businesses and markets. You will design, build, and operate core components of our AI platform: distributed agentic workflows, retrieval and reranking systems, model integrations, and the infrastructure required to make these systems reliable, observable, and scalable in production. This role sits within a small and growing, high-caliber team where individuals are expected to operate with a high degree of ownership and autonomy, contributing directly to core product, engineering, and AI systems decisions while working closely with peers, product stakeholders, and senior leadership in a highly collaborative, low-bureaucracy environment with direct access to decision-makers. A genuine interest in investing, public markets, and fundamental business analysis is expected. What We're Looking For: Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science or equivalent practical experience Minimum of 5 years of experience designing, building, and maintaining software systems Strong backend expertise in at least one strongly typed language, preferably TypeScript Solid understanding of cloud computing primitives, especially AWS Strong understanding of agentic AI concepts such as tool use, function calling, state machines or graphs, retrieval and reranking, structured outputs, memory, guardrails, and evaluation Experience developing and deploying agentic workflows using frameworks such as LangChain, Mastra, or LangGraph Experience contributing to system design and technical decision-making Experience shipping and operating multiple GenAI or LLM-powered systems in production Hands-on experience debugging scaled LLM systems and participating in incident response Experience building RAG pipelines using embeddings and vector databases Familiarity with fine-tuning or adapting models for specific tasks Experience implementing evaluation pipelines, including human-in-the-loop workflows Experience building or maintaining evaluation suites for agentic systems in production What You'll Do: Build end-to-end distributed agentic AI solutions that are reliable and scalable Own complex features or subsystems from design through deployment and operation Collaborate cross-functionally to integrate AI capabilities into products and data pipelines Contribute to architectural decisions and technical standards for AI systems Maintain observability and operational health, including cost metrics, quality monitoring, drift detection, alignment, alerting, and incident response Support the team’s overall technical growth Identify and mitigate risks in AI systems, including performance regressions, bias, and operational issues Use and improve model lifecycle management, monitoring, and evaluation frameworks Location: At CNBC Headquarters in Englewood Cliffs, NJ, you’ll have access to great perks and amenities: • Sweat it out -- Free onsite fitness center with state-of-the-art equipment, plus daily group classes • Eat up -- Gourmet cafeteria with daily specials plus soup and salad bars • Extras -- Dry cleaning, shoe shining and sneak peeks • Don’t have a car? No problem! We offer free shuttle transportation to and from multiple locations in Manhattan, Brooklyn, Hoboken and Jersey City In addition to these benefits, employees in this group will be joining at a time of meaningful and continued investment in data, technology, and product development, with the opportunity to contribute to a growing team within CNBC that is expected to scale significantly over time, offering meaningful exposure to senior leadership and the ability to influence how the platform evolves. What We're Looking For: Minimum of 5 years of experience in software engineering, with a strong track record of building and shipping production systems Proven experience designing and deploying LLM-based or GenAI systems in real-world applications Strong programming skills in Python and experience with modern backend architecture and distributed systems Understanding of LLM workflows, including prompting, tool use, retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), and evaluation methodologies Experience building scalable data pipelines and working with large, messy, or unstructured datasets Ability to design systems with strong observability, reliability, and performance characteristics in mind Experience working in cross-functional environments and leading technical projects end-to-end Strong problem-solving skills and ability to operate independently in ambiguous, fast-moving environments Excellent communication skills, with the ability to explain complex technical concepts to non-technical stakeholders Demonstrated interest in financial markets, investing, or business analysis As part of our selection process, external candidates may be required to attend an in-person interview with a VERSANT Media employee at one of our locations prior to a hiring decision. VERSANT Media's policy is to provide equal employment opportunities to all applicants and employees without regard to race, color, religion, creed, gender, gender identity or expression, age, national origin or ancestry, citizenship, disability, sexual orientation, marital status, pregnancy, veteran status, membership in the uniformed services, genetic information, or any other basis protected by applicable law. If you are a qualified individual with a disability or a disabled veteran and require support throughout the application and/or recruitment process as a result of your disability, you have the right to request a reasonable accommodation. You can submit your request to [email protected] . VERSANT Media is committed to fair and equitable compensation practices. We include a good faith pay range for each position to comply with applicable state and local pay transparency laws and to promote equity across our organization. Actual compensation will be based on factors such as the candidate's skills, qualifications, experience, and location and may include additional forms of compensation and benefits such as health insurance, retirement plans, paid time off, etc. VERSANT Media is not accepting unsolicited assistance from search firms for this employment opportunity. All resumes submitted by search firms to any employee at VERSANT via-email, the Internet, or in any form and/or method without a valid written Statement of Work in place for this position from VERSANT's Talent Acquisition team will be deemed the sole property of VERSANT. No fee will be paid in the event the candidate is hired by VERSANT as a result of the referral or through other means.