Principal AI & Data Engineer

ORION GROUPS is a professional services firm based in McKinney, Texas that provides experienced consultants to key organizations across the United States. We focus our talent expertise in both the financial and healthcare industries. Our capabilities in technology include application management, enterprise software systems, data strategies, integration, and IT infrastructure. We work diligently to listen and provide value to your unique needs. www.OrionGRPS.com OVERVIEW At Orion, we are seeking a Principal AI & Data Engineer with experience in Python-based AI integrations and POCs. This opportunity is a new initiative building out AI capabilities for enterprise healthcare that improve clinical workflows, patient experience, and operational efficiency across the healthcare system. OPPORTUNITY 6-month contract-to-hire; Fully Remote (U.S. – Central Time Zone) SALARY $170,000 – $180,000 W2 plus benefits KEY RESPONSIBILITIES • Act as a hands-on architect with strong systems thinking including hands-on engineering. • Lead and support AI-driven initiatives. • Design AI pipelines, guardrails, and patterns for GCP platform. • Integrate LLMs into microservices and healthcare workflows. • Evaluate emerging AI tools (LangChain, Vertex AI, MCP servers). • Provide architectural guidance and mentor development teams. • Distinguish between prototype vs. production-ready code. • Design and implement AI architecture patterns. • Support microservices integration with AI endpoints. • Contribute to long-term roadmap for consolidated workflows and guardrails. KEY EXPERIENCE • Hands-on AI experience with real production deployments. • Python expertise (primary language for development, AI toolkits, prototyping). • Experience building scalable, governed data pipelines. • Java (Spring Boot) and RESTful APIs experience. • Understanding of relational and NoSQL databases (e.g., Postgres, MongoDB, Neo4j), SQL, and database/schema design. • Experience with GCP compute platforms, including container orchestration (Google Kubernetes Engine - GKE) and serverless (Cloud Run, Cloud Functions). • Experience with message broker/event queue technologies (e.g., Rabbit, GCP Pub/Sub). • Experience working with API management platforms (e.g., Apigee X). • Experience with data warehousing and analytics platforms, particularly Google BigQuery. • Familiarity with LLMs (Gemini, GPT, Claude, etc.); Prompt engineering, RAG patterns and understanding of AI development lifecycle and integration into products. • Experience with healthcare data standards (HL7, FHIR). • Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science or related field. INTERVIEW PROCESS • Quick turnaround: preliminary interview followed by team interview including Glider AI assessment on Python. 2-3 rounds including: • Initial screening – Fit, experience, communication. • Technical deep dive – System design, architecture reasoning. • Hands-on exercise – Live coding or LLM problem-solving (focus on thought process, not take-home test). Orion Groups is an Equal Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, disability status, protected veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity or any other characteristic protected by law. If reasonable accommodation is needed to participate in the job application or interview process, to perform essential job functions, and/or to receive other benefits and privileges of employment, please contact Orion@OrionGRPS.com