Principal Innovation Engineer - Hybrid/Remote

Innovation Principal Engineer

Genesis10 is currently seeking an Innovation Principal Engineer for a Contract-to-Hire opportunity. This position can work hybrid or remotely in the footprint locations of Columbus, OH; Minnetonka, MN; Atlanta, GA; Dallas, TX; Detroit, MI; Chicago, IL; Charlotte, NC; Birmingham, AL; Tupelo, MS; Pittsburgh, PA; Cleveland, OH; Akron, OH and Cincinnati, OH. Compensation: $100.00 - $110.00 per hour, W2, based on qualifications.

Position Overview: This position will be responsible for driving this organization's most complex innovation initiatives by designing and building end-to-end, production-grade prototypes and reusable technology assets, including AI-enabled and agentic applications within Google Cloud, while setting high engineering standards for solution architecture, application design, security, governance, and delivery acceleration across the Technology Innovation portfolio. This role requires strong hands-on full-stack engineering skills, the mindset of a startup innovator in a large organization, deep experience building AI-integrated applications end-to-end, developing APIs and user experiences, and the ability to operate independently with limited supervision in a fast-paced innovation environment. The ideal candidate will bring demonstrated production experience with Vertex AI, Gemini, agent frameworks, AI gateway/model-proxy patterns, and enterprise-grade deployment of AI workloads.

Key Responsibilities:

Lead the design and delivery of high-impact innovation solutions aligned with the organization's business goals and technology trends in financial services

Architect and build end-to-end prototypes, production-ready solutions, and reusable assets, including AI-enabled applications, agentic workflows, APIs, workflow automations, and integrations

Translate AI innovation concepts, including GenAI, RAG, and agentic patterns, into production-grade applications using Google Cloud technologies such as Vertex AI and Gemini

Architect and implement agent-based and multi-agent systems using frameworks such as Google ADK, Agent Engine, LangGraph, or equivalent technologies

Design and oversee cloud-native deployment patterns for AI applications and agent services, ideally using Cloud Run, CI/CD, observability, logging, monitoring, and secure environment configuration

Architect or integrate with AI gateways and model-proxy layers supporting model routing, authentication, access controls, guardrails, policy enforcement, and usage governance

Define grounding and Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) patterns using Vertex AI Search / Discovery Engine or comparable enterprise retrieval technologies

Establish AI governance patterns covering token usage, model consumption, cost management, security controls, guardrails, evaluation, and observability

Build solutions with a future-proof mindset, laying a solid foundation for development and preventing the need for costly redesigns

Establish and evolve engineering standards for innovation delivery, including reference architectures, reusable templates, code quality, API patterns, agent orchestration patterns, integration patterns, and secure AI development standards

Partner with other technology teams to align on enterprise architecture, identity / access patterns, data access, compliance needs, private networking, and reuse opportunities

Evaluate emerging technologies and developer tooling, including Digital Assets, AI-assisted development, orchestration frameworks, app frameworks, integration approaches, and AI governance technologies, and assess applicability to the client's environment

Drive technical problem-solving across ambiguous domains; proactively decompose work into deliverable increments and lead execution to complete finished outcomes

Provide technical mentorship and guidance to engineers, helping improve development velocity, quality, architectural consistency, and confidence across the team

Contribute to innovation reporting by summarizing progress, decisions, tradeoffs, and outcomes in a clear way for senior stakeholders

Champion a culture of innovation and forward thinking, educating teams about new possibilities and bring an "art of the possible" mindset to problem-solving

Primary Requirements:

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, or a related technical field

Demonstrated hands-on experience building applications end-to-end (backend + integration + UI), including APIs and workflow automation solutions

Deep hands-on Google Cloud engineering experience with demonstrated production deployment of applications and AI workloads within GCP

Demonstrated production experience building AI-enabled applications using Vertex AI and Gemini; experience should extend beyond using Gemini or other GenAI tools solely as coding assistants

Demonstrated hands-on experience architecting and building agentic or multi-agent systems using Google ADK, Agent Engine, LangGraph, or comparable orchestration frameworks

Demonstrated experience building AI-enabled applications involving GenAI, RAG, model integration, evaluation, guardrails, and production deployment

Strong experience designing AI gateway, LLM gateway, or model-proxy patterns covering model routing, authentication, security, policy enforcement, and governance

Expert-level software engineering and application architecture skills with the ability to independently lead complex initiatives from concept to execution

Comfortable operating in a fast-paced, ambiguous environment while managing multiple priorities and driving workplans proactively

10+ years of experience in software engineering, technology architecture, and end-to-end innovative solution delivery

Desired Qualifications:

Experience building innovative digital products in a regulated environment (financial services preferred) with strong security and risk-awareness

Experience deploying AI solutions in highly controlled environments using technologies or patterns such as VPC Service Controls (VPC-SC), private networking, DLP, and secure service-to-service communication

Strong API design skills, integration patterns, and experience building services that can be reused across multiple use cases

Experience deploying agentic and AI-enabled applications using Google Cloud Run or comparable cloud-native container platforms

Experience implementing grounding/RAG solutions using Vertex AI Search / Discovery Engine or comparable enterprise retrieval technologies

Experience implementing AI safety and security controls using Model Armor or comparable technologies

Experience managing token usage, model consumption, observability, and AI-related cost governance

Experience with modern front-end frameworks and rapid prototyping approaches (e.g., React/Next.js or equivalent), plus strong backend development depth

Strong hands-on software engineering experience using one or more modern programming languages (e.g., Java, Python, TypeScript/JavaScript, or similar), with the ability to rapidly learn and apply new technologies as needed

Demonstrated success creating reusable accelerators, including templates, libraries, reference implementations, AI patterns, and governance frameworks that scale delivery across teams

Experience with AWS Bedrock, Azure OpenAI, or comparable AI platforms is beneficial when combined with demonstrated hands-on Google Cloud AI deployment experience

Strong communication skills with the ability to explain architecture decisions, tradeoffs, and outcomes to technical and non-technical audiences

Experience building with a product-centric mindset and ability to iteratively deliver; ability to create momentum while maintaining engineering discipline

Only candidates available and ready to work directly as Genesis10 employees will be considered for this position. If you have the described qualifications and are interested in this exciting opportunity, please apply!

Ranked a Top Staffing Firm in the U.S. by Staffing Industry Analysts for six consecutive years, Genesis10 puts thousands of consultants and employees to work across the United States every year in contract, contract-for-hire, and permanent placement roles. With more than 300 active clients, Genesis10 provides access to many of the Fortune 100 firms and a variety of mid-market organizations across the full spectrum of industry verticals.

For contract roles, Genesis10 offers the benefits listed below. If this is a perm-placement opportunity, our recruiter can talk you through the unique benefits offered for that particular client. Benefits of Working with Genesis10:

Access to hundreds of clients, most who have been working with Genesis10 for 5-20+ years

The opportunity to have a career-home in Genesis10; many of our consultants have been working exclusively with Genesis10 for years

Access to an experienced, caring recruiting team (more than 7 years of experience, on average)

Behavioral Health Platform

Medical, Dental, Vision

Health Savings Account

Voluntary Hospital Indemnity (Critical Illness & Accident)

Voluntary Term