Role: Principal AI Agent Engineer Duration: 12 months + extension (long term project)Engagement: Contract/freelance (full time, 5 days per week, 8 hour days)Location: Onsite in Cork 3-4 days per week, remaining remoteGeneral Summary: This position exists to lead the design, development, and deployment of advanced AI agent systems that solve complex business problems through autonomous reasoning and decision-making capabilities. The Principal AI Agent Engineer will architect scalable agentic solutions, establish technical standards, and drive innovation in multi-agent systems and autonomous workflows. This role is critical to advancing the organization's AI capabilities and delivering high-impact intelligent automation solutions.Duties & Responsibilities:Design and implement production-grade AI agent architectures using large language models, reasoning frameworks, and tool-use capabilities 30%Lead technical strategy for agentic AI systems, including multi-agent orchestration, memory systems, and autonomous workflow design 25%Develop and optimize agent evaluation frameworks, performance metrics, and quality assurance processes for autonomous systems 15%Collaborate with cross-functional teams to identify use cases, define requirements, and integrate AI agents into enterprise systems 15%Research and prototype emerging agentic AI technologies, frameworks, and methodologies to maintain technical leadership 10%Mentor engineers and data scientists on agentic AI best practices, design patterns, and implementation strategies 5%Knowledge, Skills and Abilities (KSAs):Deep expertise in large language models (LLMs), prompt engineering, and agentic AI frameworks (e.g., LangChain, AutoGen, CrewAI)Strong software engineering skills with proficiency in Python and experience building production-grade AI systemsAdvanced understanding of agent reasoning patterns including ReAct, chain-of-thought, tree-of-thought, and reflectionKnowledge of vector databases, retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), and knowledge management systemsAbility to design and implement complex multi-agent systems with coordination, communication, and task delegationExperience with cloud platforms (AWS, Azure, GCP) and MLOps practices for deploying and monitoring AI agentsStrong problem-solving skills with ability to translate business requirements into technical agent architecturesExcellent communication skills to explain complex agentic AI concepts to technical and non-technical stakeholdersUnderstanding of responsible AI principles, including safety, alignment, and ethical considerations for autonomous systemsWork Experience &/or Education:Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or related technical field required; Master's or Ph.D. preferredMinimum 7 years of software engineering experience with at least 3 years focused on AI/ML systemsDemonstrated experience building and deploying AI agents or autonomous systems in production environmentsTrack record of technical leadership in AI/ML projects with measurable business impactExperience with modern LLM APIs (OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, etc.) and agentic frameworks requiredPublications, open-source contributions, or speaking engagements in AI/ML community preferred