AI Engineer I

Chicago, IL

At FourKites we have the opportunity to tackle complex challenges with real-world impacts. Whether it’s medical supplies from Cardinal Health or groceries for Walmart, the FourKites platform helps customers operate global supply chains that are efficient, agile and sustainable.

Join a team of curious problem solvers that celebrates differences, leads with empathy and values inclusivity. 

We are seeking an experienced AI Engineer to join our AI team, where you'll play a pivotal role in building and scaling our next-generation AI workforce platform. You'll work on cutting-edge agent-based systems that are transforming supply chain operations for Fortune 500 companies, delivering real business value through intelligent automation.

What you'll be doing?

Technical Leadership

  • Implement production-scale AI agent systems and orchestration frameworks (LangGraph, LangChain, similar architectures)
  • Optimize deployment strategies using both LLMs and SLMs based on use case requirements
  • Build natural language-configurable business process automation frameworks
  • Implement multi-modal AI systems for document understanding (tables, charts, layouts)

AI/ML Implementation & Optimization

  • Deploy and optimize LLMs/SLMs in production with fine-tuning techniques (LoRA, QLoRA, DPO)
  • Implement quantization strategies (INT8, INT4) and model distillation for edge deployment
  • Build evaluation frameworks including LLM-as-judge systems and regression testing
  • Create semantic caching and embedding-based retrieval systems
  • Develop GraphRAG and long-context handling strategies (100k+ tokens)

System Architecture & Engineering

  • Develop scalable microservices with comprehensive observability (LangSmith, Arize, custom telemetry)
  • Build secure multi-tenant systems with prompt injection prevention and output validation
  • Implement cost optimization through intelligent model routing and fallback strategies
  • Develop document processing pipelines with OCR and layout understanding
  • Create event-driven architectures for real-time shipment tracking and exception handling

About the Team:

Our AI team is a fast-paced, high-impact group focused on building production-grade AI systems that power intelligent automation for global supply chain operations. We work at the intersection of cutting-edge research and real-world deployment, solving complex problems at scale for Fortune 500 customers. The team is highly collaborative, with strong ownership and a bias for execution, where engineers have the opportunity to shape architecture, influence product direction, and drive measurable business impact.

Technical Skills

  • 1+ years software engineering, 1+ years in production AI/ML systems
  • Expertise in Python, PyTorch/JAX, and AI frameworks (LangChain, Transformers, PEFT)
  • Exposure to LLMs (GPT-4, Claude, Gemini) and SLMs (Phi, Llama, Mistral)
  • Hands-on experience in any of the below:
    • Fine-tuning techniques (LoRA, QLoRA, DPO, RLHF)
    • Vector databases and RAG architectures
    • Streaming systems and real-time processing
    • (Bonus) Security measures (prompt injection prevention, jailbreak detection) 
    • (Bonus) Model optimization (quantization, distillation, pruning)
  • (optional) Background in distributed systems, Kubernetes, and cloud platforms 

Professional Skills

  • Good communication for technical and non-technical audiences
  • (Bonus) Data-driven decision making for model selection and cost optimization

Domain Knowledge (nice to have)

  • Experience with document intelligence and multi-modal AI systems
  • Understanding of supply chain operations, EDI/API integrations
  • Knowledge of token economics and consumption-based pricing models
  • Familiarity with enterprise compliance requirements (GDPR, CCPA, SOC2)

Preferred Qualifications

  • Knowledge of GraphRAG and knowledge graph integration
  • Contributions to open-source AI projects (Hugging Face, Ollama)
  • Experience reducing inference costs by 50%+ through optimization
  • Familiarity with MoE architectures and constitutional AI approaches
  • Exposure to OCR pipelines and document extraction at scale
  • Exposure to specialized tools (vLLM, TGI, Triton, ONNX, TensorRT) is a bonus.

What You'll Work On

  • Building specialized AI agents solving supply chain problems
  • Fine-tuning domain-specific models for supply chain terminology
  • Implementing hybrid architectures combining cloud LLMs with edge SLMs
  • Creating secure document intelligence systems for Fortune 500 clients
  • Developing real-time exception handling for shipment tracking
  • Building observability and evaluation frameworks for agent performance
  • Designing fallback strategies and multi-provider redundancy
  • Working with Customer facing teams to understand customer requirements and tuning AI solutions and providing support for customer queries.

Technical Environment

Models: GPT-4, Claude, Gemini, Llama 3, Mistral, Phi-3, custom fine-tuned models
Fine-tuning: LoRA/QLoRA, PEFT, DeepSpeed, bitsandbytes, Axolotl
Infrastructure: Kubernetes, AWS SageMaker/Bedrock, GPU clusters, edge devices
Frameworks: LangChain, LangGraph, vLLM, FastAPI, Transformers
Observability: LangSmith, Weights & Biases, custom telemetry
Data: PostgreSQL, Redis, Vector DBs, Kafka, feature stores

Impact & Growth

You'll directly contribute to AI initiatives generating millions in revenue while shaping systems processing millions of transactions daily. Be at the forefront of production AI optimization, balancing performance, cost, and latency for enterprise customers.

Compensation

The expected annual base salary range for this role is $50,000 - $70,000. Actual compensation will be determined based on several factors, including but not limited to experience, qualifications, skills, and business needs. In addition to base salary, this position is eligible for bonus and incentive compensation as well as participation in FourKites' employee stock option program.

Benefits

FourKites provides competitive compensation with stock options, outstanding benefits and a collaborative culture for all employees around the globe. To help you be your best, we have 5 global recharge days, in addition to generous PTO and standard holidays. Parental leave for all parents, an annual wellness stipend and volunteer days also provide you with time and resources for self care and to care for others. Throughout the year, FourKites sets aside time during the workday to learn and celebrate diversity. We're always listening for new ways to support everyone in and out of the office.

Benefits include:

  • Medical, Dental & Vision benefits starting on first day of employment
  • 401k Retirement savings with employer match
  • Bonus and incentive compensation as well as employee stock option program
  • Employer paid life insurance and short term disability insurance
  • Generous PTO, global recharge days, and volunteer days
  • Paid parental leave for all parents
  • Family planning and inclusive wellbeing resources
  • Technology reimbursement
  • Commuter benefits for in-office employees (Chicago)
  • Annual Wellness Stipend
  • Ongoing learning & development opportunities

About FourKites

FourKites, the leader in AI-driven supply chain transformation for global enterprises and pioneer of real-time visibility, turns supply chain data into automated action. FourKites Intelligent Control Tower® breaks down enterprise silos by creating a real-time digital twin of orders, shipments, inventory and assets. This comprehensive view, combined with AI-powered digital workers, enables companies to prevent disruptions, automate routine tasks and optimize performance across their supply chain. FourKites processes over 3.2 million supply chain events daily — from purchase orders to final delivery — helping 1,600-plus global brands prevent disruptions, make faster decisions and move from reactive tracking to proactive supply chain orchestration. For more information, visit www.fourkites.com.

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FourKites is an equal opportunity employer. We celebrate diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees. If you're excited about this role but don't meet every requirement, we encourage you to apply.

 

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