The Data Science team at Penguin Random House is seeking a Senior AI Solutions Engineer to provide technical leadership and architectural direction for AI-powered marketing and discovery platforms. 

At the senior level, this role goes beyond delivering individual solutions. You will define technical roadmaps, design durable multi-team systems, and ensure AI applications scale reliably across products and workflows. You will partner closely with senior stakeholders to translate business goals into long-term technical strategy, while remaining hands-on enough to guide critical implementations and unblock teams. 

This role sits at the intersection of strategy, architecture, and execution, with responsibility for systems that support multiple teams and products over extended time horizons.  
 
This role may be filled at the Senior or Staff level depending on experience and interview performance. 

While hybrid NYC is strongly preferred, we will consider remote (US) candidates with the right skills/experience/interest.

Specific responsibilities include:  

• Propose, design, and deliver AI systems and architectures aligned with long-term marketing and discovery roadmaps. 

• Define and evolve reusable LLM-based application patterns (e.g., RAG architectures, evaluation strategies, retrieval systems) that can be shared across teams. 

• Ensure AI solutions are robust, observable, and adaptable as business needs and AI capabilities evolve. 

• Lead development of end-to-end software systems spanning APIs, automation pipelines, internal tools, front-end applications, and cloud infrastructure. 

• Establish engineering standards and shared platforms that enable teams to safely and effectively leverage AI capabilities. 

• Ensure AI systems are reliable, observable, and cost-effective in production, and resolve cross-team operational issues as they arise. 

• Define technical roadmaps aligned with business priorities and guide teams on model selection, system design, and technical trade-offs. 

• Partner with Product, Marketing, and senior leaders to assess feasibility, align on strategy, and communicate progress. 

• Increase organizational efficiency by reducing duplicated effort through shared AI platforms and standardized engineering processes. 

• Promote a collaborative, high-performing technical environment through strong architectural guidance, documentation, and best practices. 

• Mentor engineers and data scientists, influencing technical direction beyond immediate projects and contributing to the overall maturity of the Data Science organization 

Please apply if you meet the following qualifications: 

• 8–12+ years of experience in software engineering, machine learning engineering, or full-stack development, with demonstrated progression into technical leadership roles. 

• Proven track record of designing and delivering production systems used by multiple teams or products over long time horizons. 

• Expert proficiency in Python, with strong experience designing APIs, automation frameworks, and backend services. 

• Significant experience building internal platforms or tools using modern front-end frameworks (React, Next.js, or similar). 

• Hands-on experience with LLMs and modern AI tooling, including embeddings, vector databases, RAG pipelines, and evaluation workflows. 

• Strong architectural judgment with the ability to balance speed, reliability, cost, and long-term maintainability. 

• Demonstrated ability to lead without authority, influence roadmap decisions, and operate effectively in ambiguous problem spaces. 

Preferred Qualifications:  

• Experience with search, discovery, metadata systems, or relevance optimization. 

• Background in consumer-facing AI platforms. 

• Familiarity with experimentation frameworks and measurement of business impact. 

• Prior experience operating explicitly at a Staff or equivalent level, supporting multiple teams or domains. 

• Master’s degree or higher in Computer Science, Engineering, Data Science, or a related field. 

Please be advised that candidates selected to advance to the 1st round of interviews will be required to show photo ID on camera, and final interviews for this role will be in person at a Penguin Random House location. 

The salary range for this position is $160,000 - $210,000.  All positions are currently eligible for annual profit award or bonus, subject to company results.  

Please apply by February 10th, 2026 and include your resume and cover letter for consideration. Before applying for any role at Penguin Random House, we recommend you review our applicant resources page and our FAQs page.   

Penguin Random House job postings include a good faith compensation range for each open position. The salary range listed is specific to each particular open position and takes into account various factors including the specifics of the individual role, and candidate's relevant experience and qualifications.

Full-time employees are eligible for our comprehensive benefits program. Our range of benefits include, but are not limited to, Medical/Prescription drug insurance, Dental, Vision, Health Care/Dependent Care Flexible Spending Account, Health Savings Account, Pre-Tax and Roth 401(k), Short and Long-Term Disability Insurance, Life/AD&D Insurance, Commuter Benefits, Student Loan Repayment Program, Educational Assistance & generous paid time off.

Penguin Random House is the leading adult and children's publishing house in North America, the United Kingdom and many other regions around the world. In publishing the best books in every genre and subject for all ages, we are committed to quality, excellence in execution, and innovation throughout the entire publishing process: editorial, design, marketing, publicity, sales, production, and distribution. Our vibrant and diverse international community of nearly 300 publishing brands and imprints include Ballantine Bantam Dell, Berkley, Clarkson Potter, Crown, DK, Doubleday, Dutton, Grosset & Dunlap, Little Golden Books, Knopf, Modern Library, Pantheon, Penguin Books, Penguin Press, Penguin Random House Audio, Penguin Young Readers, Portfolio, Puffin, Putnam, Random House, Random House Children's Books, Riverhead, Ten Speed Press, Viking, and Vintage, among others. More information can be found at http://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/.

Penguin Random House values the array of talents and perspectives that a diverse workforce brings. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, national origin, religion, age, color, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability, or protected veteran status.

 Company: Penguin Random House LLC | Job ID: 285779