Junior Data Scientist
nexacodePortland (ME)
About the role
Entry-Level Generative AI Engineer / AI Engineer We are looking for a motivated *Entry-Level Generative AI Engineer / AI Engineer* to join our team. You will work alongside experienced engineers to build, test, and improve AI-powered applications using Python, large language models (LLMs), and APIs. This role is designed for candidates beginning their careers in AI engineering who enjoy turning ideas into working applications. Who Should Apply? This opportunity is intended for candidates with 0–1 year of full-time professional AI engineering or software development experience. No prior full-time professional experience is required. Academic projects, internships, bootcamp projects, personal projects, GitHub portfolios, hackathons, and open-source contributions are valued. Candidates with more than 1 year of relevant full-time experience may be better suited for experienced-level roles.
Key Responsibilities: AI Application Development:
- Help build and maintain applications that use LLM APIs.
- Write Python code to process inputs, call APIs, validate responses, and handle errors.
- Assist in creating features such as chat assistants, document Q&A tools, and information extraction workflows.
- Prompting & Retrieval:
- Develop and test prompts for specific application tasks.
- Assist with document processing, embeddings, semantic search, and *retrieval-augmented generation (RAG)*.Help improve response quality by testing retrieval results and checking whether answers are supported by source material.
- Testing & Responsible AI:Create test cases and evaluate AI application outputs for accuracy, relevance, and reliability.
- Help identify issues such as hallucinations, prompt injection, and exposure of sensitive information.
- Document application limitations and escalate unexpected behavior.
- Collaboration & Documentation:
- Work with software engineers, data teams, and product stakeholders.
- Participate in code reviews and team meetings.
- Maintain clear documentation for assigned features, tests, and workflows.
- Required Skills & Qualifications
Education:
Bachelor's or Master's degree in Computer Science, Artificial Intelligence, Data Science, Software Engineering, or a related field. Equivalent practical training and strong project experience may also be considered.
Experience:
- 0–1 year of full-time professional AI engineering or software development experience.
Technical Skills:
Working knowledge of *Python*, including functions, data structures, packages, and JSON.Basic understanding of *REST APIs* and how applications send and receive data.
Familiarity with *LLMs*, prompt design, tokens, and common limitations of generated responses.
Introductory knowledge of *embeddings, vector search, and RAG*.Familiarity with *Git/GitHub* and basic testing or debugging practices.
Experience building an AI application or project, whether through coursework, a bootcamp, an internship, or independent work.
Nice to have:
Exposure to tool calling, AI agents, FastAPI, vector databases, cloud platforms, or application deployment.
Soft SkillsStrong problem-solving skills and attention to detail.
Ability to explain technical ideas clearly.
Good communication and collaboration skills.
Curiosity and willingness to learn new tools and techniques.
Equal Opportunity Employer:
We are an Equal Opportunity Employer. We consider all qualified applicants for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, disability, veteran status, or any other protected characteristic under applicable law.
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