Principal , Software Engineer, AI

About Us

At Cast & Crew, we’ve empowered creativity and supported the global entertainment industry for decades. Together with our family of brands - Backstage, CAPS, Checks & Balances, Final Draft, Media Services, Sargent-Disc, and The TEAM Companies – we operate as a combined entertainment technology and services provider offering industry standard screenwriting accounting software, digital payroll products, data & reporting, and a host of creative tools.  The industry continues to move faster than ever, and the need for our expertise, our technology, and our people has never been greater.  We are a production’s best ally every step of the way. #OneCastOneCrew

Position Overview
We are seeking a highly experienced and technically exceptional Principal Software Engineer, AI to drive the architecture and hands-on development of AI-powered solutions across our next-generation unified payroll and labor compliance platform. As a senior individual contributor, you will combine deep software engineering expertise with modern AI/ML capabilities—including large language models (LLMs), NLP, IDP, and the Model Context Protocol (MCP)—to build intelligent, scalable systems that power automation and decision-making.
This role is ideal for a self-driven engineer with mastery in Python, TypeScript, Node.js, and cloud-native architecture, capable of designing and delivering full-stack AI solutions that ingest, interpret, and operationalize complex business logic from contracts, policies, and structured/unstructured data.

Key Responsibilities

AI/ML System Architecture & Development

• Design and build AI/ML-powered services and APIs using Python, Node.js, and TypeScript within a microservices architecture on AWS.
• Integrate LLMs and agentic AI into real-time systems using Model Context Protocol (MCP) for enhanced context-awareness and traceability.
• Architect and implement intelligent document processing (IDP) pipelines for parsing labor union contracts, rate tables, deduction rules, and compliance logic.

Full-Stack AI Engineering

• Develop backend services and AI integration layers using Node.js, TypeScript, and REST/GraphQL APIs.
• Build ML pipelines and deploy models using SageMaker, Bedrock, or custom LLM agents in Python.
• Collaborate with frontend engineers to expose AI functionality through React-based UIs and workflow tools.

AI Platform & Data Operations

• Apply prompt engineering, embeddings, and semantic search to enable context-aware query and automation experiences.
• Operationalize LLM and ML models across distributed systems with strong observability, versioning, and fallback strategies.
• Implement event-driven data flow using Kafka, AWS SQS, or Step Functions.

Leadership, Innovation & Best Practices

• Lead technical design sessions, code reviews, and architectural decisions on AI/ML system components.
• Evaluate new tools, frameworks, and vendors for IDP, model orchestration, and intelligent agent execution.
• Drive adoption of AI development standards, including secure model APIs, responsible AI practices, and MCP-based context handling.

Required Qualifications

• 10+ years of software engineering experience, with at least 5 in AI/ML product development.
• Proficiency in Python and TypeScript, with strong backend experience using Node.js.
• Production experience deploying AI/ML models, LLMs, or IDP systems at scale.
• Hands-on experience working with or implementing Model Context Protocol (MCP) to manage contextual integrity in LLM systems.
• Expertise in NLP, embeddings, transformers, and AI-driven document processing.
• Strong understanding of AWS services including Lambda, SageMaker, DynamoDB, and API Gateway.
• Familiarity with PostgreSQL, Redis, and Elasticsearch for AI data workflows.
• Excellent communication skills and the ability to collaborate with cross-functional teams.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with payroll, HR tech, legal tech, or financial systems.
• Familiarity with union labor contract automation, rule engines, and compliance modeling.
• Hands-on experience with LLM platforms (e.g., OpenAI GPT, Claude, Cohere, Bedrock).
• Exposure to agentic AI orchestration frameworks (LangChain, AutoGen, etc.).
• Contributions to open-source AI tools, or published work in AI/ML systems architecture.

Special Work Conditions    

• Sedentary – Involves sitting most of the time but may involve wal