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About This Role
We are seeking a highly skilled Platform Engineer \- AI \& Automation Platform to help scale and enable a governed AI\-accelerated engineering ecosystem across Microsoft Power Platform, Dynamics 365, Azure, AWS, and enterprise digital applications.
The ideal candidate combines strong platform engineering expertise with hands\-on experience supporting automation, AI\-enabled development workflows, cloud platforms, APIs, enterprise integrations, and DevOps practices. This role will help drive platform reliability, governance, scalability, and automation while enabling engineering teams to accelerate delivery through reusable platform services and AI\-powered capabilities. Key Responsibilities
Build and enhance platform engineering capabilities across Power Platform, Dynamics 365, Azure, AWS, APIs, integrations, and enterprise applications.
Design and support CI/CD pipelines, deployment automation, environment management, platform governance, and operational standards.
Enable AI\-driven engineering workflows through Copilot technologies, automation platforms, reusable services, and developer self\-service tools.
Implement platform security, observability, monitoring, automated testing, compliance controls, and operational excellence practices.
Partner with cross\-functional teams to drive platform reliability, scalability, performance optimization, onboarding, and adoption of enterprise platform services. Qualifications
8\+ years of experience in Platform Engineering, Cloud Engineering, DevOps, Automation Engineering, or related enterprise technology roles.
Hands\-on experience with Microsoft Power Platform, Dataverse, Dynamics 365 Finance \& Operations, Azure, AWS, and enterprise integrations.
Experience designing and supporting CI/CD pipelines, infrastructure automation, deployment processes, and cloud\-native solutions.
Knowledge of APIs, REST services, authentication protocols, platform security, governance, and operational controls.
Experience working with AI\-enabled engineering solutions, including Copilot technologies, Azure AI services, automation platforms, or agent\-based workflows.
Strong troubleshooting, problem\-solving, and collaboration skills with experience supporting Agile product delivery teams. Technical Skills
Microsoft Power Platform
Dataverse
Dynamics 365 Finance \& Operations
Microsoft Azure Services
Amazon Web Services (AWS)
Azure DevOps
GitHub
REST APIs and Enterprise Integrations
Power Platform Copilot Studio
Microsoft 365 Copilot
Azure AI Foundry
CI/CD \& Automation Tooling
Observability \& Monitoring Platforms
Automated Testing \& Quality Engineering Tools Why Apply?
We’re excited to meet people who share our mission and can make an impact in a variety of ways. Don’t hesitate to apply, even if you only meet the minimum requirements listed. Think about your transferable experiences and unique skills that make you stand out as someone who can bring new and exciting things to this role. Salary and Other Compensation
The annual salary for this position is between $63,000 \- $99,000 , depending on experience and other qualifications of the successful candidate.
This position is also eligible for Cognizant’s discretionary annual incentive program, based on performance and subject to the terms of Cognizant’s applicable plans. Benefits
Cognizant offers the following benefits for this position, subject to applicable eligibility requirements:
Medical/Dental/Vision/Life Insurance
Paid Holidays plus Paid Time Off
401(k) Plan and Contributions
Long\-term/Short\-term Disability
Paid Parental Leave
Employee Stock Purchase Plan Disclaimer
The salary, other compensation, and benefits information is accurate as of the date of this posting. Cognizant reserves the right to modify this information at any time, subject to applicable law. Important Disclaimers
Please note: A few of our roles may require in\-person interviews at Cognizant offices or client locations, depending on project or client needs.
Candidate must be legally authorized to work in the United States without the need for employer sponsorship, now or at any time in the future. Application Deadline
Applications for this position will be accepted until September 12, 2026 . Candidates are encouraged to apply as early as possible, as the posting may close sooner if a sufficient pool of qualified applicants is identified. Equal Opportunity Employer
Cognizant is an equal opportunity employer. We are committed to fostering a diverse, equitable, and inclusive workplace where all employees can thrive. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, national origin, disability, veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by applicable law.
Salary Context
This $63K-$99K range is in the lower quartile for AI/ML Engineer roles in our dataset (median: $175K across 2162 roles with salary data).
View full AI/ML Engineer salary data →Role Details
About This Role
AI/ML Engineers build and deploy machine learning models in production. They work across the full ML lifecycle: data pipelines, model training, evaluation, and serving infrastructure. The role has evolved significantly over the past two years. Where ML Engineers once spent most of their time on model architecture, the job now tilts heavily toward inference optimization, cost management, and integrating LLM capabilities into existing systems. Companies want engineers who can ship production systems, and the experimenter-only role is fading fast.
Day-to-day, you're writing training pipelines, debugging data quality issues, setting up evaluation frameworks, and figuring out why your model performs differently in staging than it did on your dev set. The best ML engineers are obsessive about reproducibility and measurement. They instrument everything. They know that a model is only as good as the data feeding it and the infrastructure serving it.
Across the 4,317 AI roles we're tracking, AI/ML Engineer positions make up 70% of the market. At Cognizant, this role fits into their broader AI and engineering organization.
Demand for AI/ML Engineers has been strong and consistent. Unlike some AI roles that spike with hype cycles, ML engineering is a foundational need. Every company deploying AI models needs people who can keep them running, and the gap between research prototypes and production systems keeps growing.
What the Work Looks Like
A typical week might include: debugging a data pipeline that's silently dropping 3% of training examples, running A/B tests on a new model version, writing documentation for a feature flag system that lets you roll back model deployments, and reviewing a junior engineer's PR for a new evaluation metric. Meetings tend to be cross-functional since ML touches product, engineering, and data teams.
Demand for AI/ML Engineers has been strong and consistent. Unlike some AI roles that spike with hype cycles, ML engineering is a foundational need. Every company deploying AI models needs people who can keep them running, and the gap between research prototypes and production systems keeps growing.
Skills Required
Python and PyTorch dominate the requirements. Most roles expect experience with cloud platforms (AWS, GCP, or Azure) and familiarity with ML frameworks like TensorFlow or JAX. RAG (Retrieval-Augmented Generation) has become a top-3 skill requirement as companies integrate LLMs into their products. Docker and Kubernetes show up in about a third of postings, reflecting the production focus of the role.
Beyond the core stack, employers increasingly want experience with experiment tracking tools (MLflow, Weights & Biases), feature stores, and vector databases. Fine-tuning experience is valuable but less common than you'd think from reading Twitter. Most production LLM work is RAG and prompt engineering, not fine-tuning. If you have both, you're in a strong position.
Companies that are serious about AI/ML hiring tend to post specific infrastructure details in the job description: the frameworks they use, their model serving stack, their data pipeline tools. Vague postings that just say 'ML experience required' without specifics are often companies that haven't figured out what they need yet.
Compensation Benchmarks
AI/ML Engineer roles pay a median of $214,900 based on 6,420 positions with disclosed compensation. Mid-level AI roles across all categories have a median of $194,400. This role's midpoint ($81K) sits 62% below the category median. Disclosed range: $63K to $99K.
Across all AI roles, the market median is $215,000. Top-quartile compensation starts at $266,300. The 90th percentile reaches $320,790. For comparison, the highest-paying categories include AI Safety ($287,500) and Research Engineer ($272,100). By seniority level: Entry: $110,000; Mid: $194,400; Senior: $227,400; Director: $274,554; VP: $241,000.
Cognizant AI Hiring
Cognizant has 24 open AI roles right now. They're hiring across AI Software Engineer, AI/ML Engineer, AI Architect, AI Agent Developer. Positions span Juno Beach, FL, US, Pleasanton, CA, US, Rockville, MD, US. Compensation range: $99K - $405K.
Location Context
Across all AI roles, 15% (635 positions) offer remote work, while 3,657 require on-site attendance. Top AI hiring metros: New York (1,650 roles, $220,000 median); San Francisco (1,335 roles, $265,000 median); Los Angeles (708 roles, $214,112 median).
Career Path
Common paths into AI/ML Engineer roles include Data Scientist, Software Engineer, Research Engineer.
From here, career progression typically leads toward ML Architect, AI Engineering Manager, Principal ML Engineer.
The fastest path into ML engineering is through software engineering with a self-directed ML education. A CS degree helps, but production engineering skills matter more than academic credentials. Build something that works, deploy it, and measure it. That portfolio project is worth more than a Coursera certificate. For career growth, the fork comes around the senior level: go deep on technical complexity (staff/principal track) or move into managing ML teams.
What to Expect in Interviews
Expect system design questions around ML pipelines: how you'd build a training pipeline for a specific use case, handle data drift, or design A/B testing infrastructure for model deployments. Coding rounds typically involve Python, with emphasis on data manipulation (pandas, numpy) and algorithm implementation. Take-home assignments often ask you to build an end-to-end ML pipeline from raw data to deployed model.
When evaluating opportunities: Companies that are serious about AI/ML hiring tend to post specific infrastructure details in the job description: the frameworks they use, their model serving stack, their data pipeline tools. Vague postings that just say 'ML experience required' without specifics are often companies that haven't figured out what they need yet.
AI Hiring Overview
The AI job market has 4,317 open positions tracked in our dataset. By seniority: 138 entry-level, 2,071 mid-level, 1,655 senior, and 453 leadership roles (Director, VP, C-Level). Remote roles make up 15% of the market (635 positions). The remaining 3,657 roles require on-site or hybrid attendance.
The market median for AI roles is $215,000. Top-quartile compensation starts at $266,300. The 90th percentile reaches $320,790. Highest-paying categories: AI Safety ($287,500 median, 34 roles); Research Engineer ($272,100 median, 227 roles); AI Engineering Manager ($244,000 median, 23 roles).
Demand for AI/ML Engineers has been strong and consistent. Unlike some AI roles that spike with hype cycles, ML engineering is a foundational need. Every company deploying AI models needs people who can keep them running, and the gap between research prototypes and production systems keeps growing.
The AI Job Market Today
The AI job market spans 4,317 open positions across 15 role categories. The largest categories by volume: AI/ML Engineer (3,004), Data Scientist (345), AI Software Engineer (309). These three account for the majority of open positions, though smaller categories often have higher per-role compensation because of specialized skill requirements.
The seniority mix tells a story about where AI teams are in their maturity. Entry-level roles (138) are outnumbered by mid-level (2,071) and senior (1,655) positions, reflecting that most companies are past the 'build a team from scratch' phase and need experienced engineers who can ship production systems. Leadership roles (Director, VP, C-Level) total 453 positions, representing the bottleneck between technical execution and organizational strategy.
Remote work availability sits at 15% of all AI roles (635 positions), with 3,657 requiring on-site or hybrid attendance. The remote share has stabilized after the post-pandemic correction. Senior and specialized roles (Research Scientist, ML Architect) are more likely to be remote-eligible than entry-level positions, partly because experienced hires have more negotiating power and partly because these roles require less hands-on mentorship.
AI compensation is structured in clear tiers. The market median sits at $215,000. Top-quartile roles start at $266,300, and the 90th percentile reaches $320,790. These figures include base salary with disclosed compensation. Total compensation (including equity, bonuses, and sign-on) runs 20-40% higher at companies that offer those components.
Category matters for compensation. AI Safety roles lead at $287,500 median, while Prompt Engineer roles sit at $145,000. The spread between highest and lowest-paying categories reflects the premium on specialized technical skills versus broader analytical roles.
The most in-demand skills across all AI postings: Python (2,249 postings), Aws (1,224 postings), Azure (938 postings), Rag (915 postings), Gcp (660 postings), Pytorch (640 postings), Prompt Engineering (624 postings), Kubernetes (559 postings). Python dominates, appearing in the vast majority of role descriptions regardless of category. Cloud platform experience (AWS, GCP, Azure) is the second most common requirement. The newer entrants to the top skills list (RAG, vector databases, LLM APIs) reflect the shift from traditional ML toward generative AI applications.
Frequently Asked Questions
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