UP

Lead AI Engineer, NLQ & Agentic Systems

Upwork
Lisbon, Portugalfull_timePosted 21 May 2026

About the role

<p>Upwork Inc.’s (Nasdaq: UPWK) family of companies connects businesses with global, AI-enabled talent across every contingent work type including freelance, fractional, and payrolled. This portfolio includes the Upwork Marketplace, which connects businesses with on-demand access to highly skilled talent across the globe, and Lifted, which provides a purpose-built solution for enterprise organizations to source, contract, manage, and pay talent across the full spectrum of contingent work. From Fortune 100 enterprises to entrepreneurs, businesses rely on Upwork Inc. to find and hire expert talent, leverage AI-powered work solutions, and drive business transformation. With access to professionals spanning more than 10,000 skills across AI & machine learning, software development, sales & marketing, customer support, finance & accounting, and more, the Upwork family of companies enables businesses of all sizes to scale, innovate, and transform their workforces for the age of AI and beyond.</p> <p>Since its founding, Upwork Inc. has facilitated more than $30 billion in total transactions and services as it fulfills its purpose to create opportunity in every era of work. Learn more about the Upwork Marketplace at<a href="http://upwork.com/"> Upwork.com</a> and follow us on<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/company/upwork"> LinkedIn</a>,<a href="https://www.facebook.com/upwork"> Facebook</a>,<a href="https://www.instagram.com/upwork/"> Instagram</a>,<a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@upwork"> TikTok</a>, and<a href="https://twitter.com/upwork"> X</a>; and learn more about Lifted at<a href="http://go-lifted.com/"> Go-Lifted</a> and follow on<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/company/go-lifted/"> LinkedIn</a>.</p> <hr> <p>As a Lead AI Engineer on our Data Platform & Services (DPS) team, you will bridge deep data engineering expertise with emerging AI capabilities to build production-grade AI-powered systems. You’ll design and deploy agentic frameworks, natural language querying (NLQ) capabilities, and prompt/LLM evaluation strategies that unlock insights at scale across Upwork. This is an opportunity to deliver tangible impact, enabling faster decision-making, democratizing data access, and empowering analysts and stakeholders throughout the company.</p> <h4><strong>Responsibilities:</strong></h4> <ul> <li>Design and implement scalable agentic frameworks that coordinate multiple AI agents to deliver accurate and reliable outcomes.</li> <li>Build and optimize natural language query solutions that provide compliant, intuitive, and self-service access to enterprise data.&

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Upwork

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