Associate AI Engineer

Build real AI agents on a production platform, with senior engineers working alongside you. You will work in Python and FastAPI, build tool-calling agents on AWS Bedrock and AgentCore using the Strands Agents framework, and own technical decisions within the problems you take on, with your scope growing as you do. This role is fully in-office in Los Angeles because our mentorship model depends on it: pair programming, in-person code review, and a mentor a few desks away.

We hire for fundamentals, curiosity, and initiative. This is an early-career role. Engineers new to the field are welcome, and so are engineers with a year or two of experience who want to go deeper into AI and agentic systems. You do not need to know our stack on day one.

• Design, build, and improve AI agents, deciding how tool-calling loops, model configuration, and multi-step workflows are structured using Strands Agents and AWS Bedrock

• Build and integrate MCP tools and servers, and learn how tool names and descriptions shape what an LLM does

• Deploy and run agents on Bedrock AgentCore, working with the platform team and your mentor

• Build RAG pipelines over pgvector or FAISS, choosing chunking, embedding, and retrieval approaches based on what the results show

• Design, test, and iterate on prompts; evaluate answer quality, latency, and token cost, and decide which tradeoffs to make; learn how guardrails are applied in production paths

• Evaluate models, tools, and approaches, and recommend which to use, with your reasoning documented

• Ship features and bug fixes in FastAPI services (REST and WebSocket APIs backed by PostgreSQL and Redis), deciding how to design, implement, and test them

• Contribute to background jobs and queue consumers so agent work runs outside the API request path

• Apply our architectural standards, use your judgment on design choices within them, help keep design documents current, and flag where the standards should change

• Submit pull requests, respond to review feedback, and review teammates’ code as you grow

• Solid Python from coursework, internships, or work: functions, classes, type hints, error handling, testing basics

• Data structures and algorithms, with awareness of time and space complexity

• SQL fundamentals (joins, aggregations, indexes, schema design); PostgreSQL exposure preferred

• REST and HTTP concepts, and how a web API is structured

• Git and pull-request workflow

• Clear communication, comfort asking questions, and a habit of picking up new tools and asking for help when you’re stuck

• An agent project built with Strands Agents, LangChain, the OpenAI SDK, or a similar framework (coursework, personal, or professional), including how an LLM chooses and calls tools

• Model Context Protocol (MCP): building or using MCP tools and servers

• AWS Bedrock or Bedrock AgentCore, or AWS basics such as S3 and SQS

• RAG: chunking, embeddings, and vector stores

• Prompt engineering: writing, testing, and iterating on prompts

• FastAPI or a similar framework such as Flask or Django, SQLAlchemy or another ORM, and a willingness to learn async Python

• Bachelor’s or Master’s in Computer Science or a related field, or equivalent practical experience (bootcamp, self-taught, or on-the-job)

• Roughly 0–2 years of software engineering experience; internships, research, and substantial projects count

• A track record of learning quickly, shown through coursework, projects, work, open-source contributions, or community involvement

At Fuel Cycle, we embrace the values of diversity, equity, and inclusion and are committed to fostering an inclusive company culture. We believe that everyone, regardless of their background or identity, should have equal access to opportunities for growth and advancement. Our selection processes and career pathways are designed to be fair, transparent, and free from bias. We value the unique perspectives and contributions of each team member, knowing that this diverse range of experiences strengthens our team. Fuel Cycle stands firmly against discrimination based on disability, sex, race, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion, national origin, age, veteran status, or any other protected status under the law.

Fuel Cycle is an equal opportunity employer and fully comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). We will provide reasonable accommodations for qualified applicants and employees with disabilities, as needed, to enable them to perform the essential functions of their job and participate in the application and interview process. If you require accommodations during any part of the application process, please contact us at hr@fuelcycle.com to discuss your needs.