BlankMetal.ai is a professional services organization that helps enterprises build and integrate state-of-the-art AI to transform operations, enhance customer experiences, and drive innovation.

We are growing and adding an AI/ML Engineering Practice Lead to our Minneapolis team. As the Lead you will own Blank Metal’s AI‑enabled application and machine‑learning capabilities end‑to‑end. In the near term you will also lend hands‑on leadership to the emerging Full‑Stack Development and MLOps practices—bridging architecture, code standards, and deployment workflows—until dedicated leads are established. Expect roughly 50 % hands‑on application engineering, 30 % ML engineering & research, and 20 % technical leadership & evangelism.

You will architect user‑facing products powered by AI services (e.g., OpenAI, Anthropic, open‑source LLMs) while maturing the underlying ML platform and scaling best practices across practices.You will be joining a seasoned professional services team who excel at providing high-touch, quality, memorable services that move the needle for companies.

Our office is filled with open conversations that get us to the best solution. We want to hear your voice as we evolve our services. You’ll also find our office infused with laughter, so bring your jovial nature and entrepreneurial spirit and join us on our journey.

Our office is headquartered in Minneapolis, MN and we offer a hybrid working model. This role is not eligible for visa sponsorship. Read on to learn what you will do in your new role!

Hands-on AI/ML Delivery

• Prototype and ship AI‑powered features and predictive models using modern languages & frameworks (e.g., Python + PyTorch/TensorFlow, TypeScript + LangChain, Java + DJL).
• Package models/agents behind well‑documented service interfaces using standard protocols (e.g., REST, gRPC, GraphQL).
• Instrument and monitor performance with experiment dashboards, online A/B tests, and drift alerts.
• Build reusable data/feature pipelines on cloud‑native platforms (e.g., BigQuery, Snowflake, Delta Lake).

Technical Leadership

• Define technology roadmap, coding standards, and responsible‑AI governance (fairness, privacy, compliance).
• Lead architecture for enterprise and agile/startup-style applications/products & code reviews across backend, data, and ML stacks.
• Champion CI/CD, MLOps, and DevOps workflows with infrastructure‑as‑code (e.g., Terraform, GitHub Actions, Cloud Build).
• Act as interim architectural voice for Full‑Stack Dev and MLOps practices, aligning patterns and tooling; transition to close partnership with those practice leads over time.

Team Building & Mentoring

• Recruit, coach, and level up engineers across domains.
• Foster a culture of rapid, hypothesis‑driven experimentation with scientific rigor and human-centered design.

Client & Cross-Team Collaboration

• Translate product and customer problems into end‑to‑end AI system designs.
• Partner with Full‑Stack Dev teams to integrate model APIs into web/mobile apps and with MLOps teams to ensure scalable, cost‑efficient deployment.
• Evangelize AI capabilities and roadmap to internal stakeholders and clients.

Qualifications & Skills for Success in the Role:

• 8 + years building production software and ML systems using at least one major language (e.g., Python, Java, Go) and public‑cloud ML services (AWS/GCP/Azure).
• 2 + years leading engineers or cross‑functional delivery teams.
• Demonstrated success shipping AI/ML solutions to production with measurable impact.
• Deep understanding of data structures, statistics, and model evaluation; adept at selecting the right tool for the job.
• Comfortable in dynamic, client‑facing environments—startup or consulting experience a plus.

Nice-to-Haves

• GenAI/LLM fine‑tuning, retrieval‑augmented generation, and vector database expertise (e.g.,Weaviate, Pinecone).
• Experience meeting compliance or model‑risk requirements in regulated industries.
• Familiarity with streaming data platforms (e.g., Kafka, Pub/Sub) and real‑time inference patterns.

Equal Employment Opportunity

We’re proud to be an equal opportunity employer and welcome our employee’s differences, regardless of race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, disability, or Veteran status. Difference makes us better. Join us.