Interested in this AI/ML Engineer role at Cotiviti?
Apply Now →Skills & Technologies
About This Role
Overview:
We are seeking a highly experienced Principal Software Engineer to design and build the backend infrastructure for our centralized AI platform. This role will focus on developing robust, scalable backend services that power our agentic framework and enable teams across the company to securely deploy, manage, and access AI agents through unified APIs and user interfaces.
Responsibilities:
- Design and implement scalable RESTful APIs endpoints for the AI platform.
- Design and develop Python/Java SDKs that provide intuitive interfaces for teams to interact with the AI platform.
- Build robust backend services using Python (FastAPI, Django, or Flask) to handle agent lifecycle management, deployment, and monitoring.
- Develop secure authentication and authorization systems supporting multi\-tenant architecture.
- Understand how an agentic solution works and create efficient data access layers and database schemas that enable AI agents to interact with various internal data sources.
- Implement asynchronous task processing systems for handling long\-running AI agent operations.
- Lead technical discussions, mentor junior engineers, and help set the technical vision for the AI platform roadmap.
- Ensure compliance with security, privacy, and regulatory requirements across the software development lifecycle.
- Provide technical guidance on backend architecture, Python development, and SDK design best practices.
- Complete all responsibilities as outlined in the annual performance review and/or goal setting.
- Complete all special projects and other duties as assigned.
- Must be able to perform duties with or without reasonable accommodation.
This job description is intended to describe the general nature and level of work being performed and is not to be construed as an exhaustive list of responsibilities, duties and skills required. This job description does not constitute an employment agreement and is subject to change as the needs of Cotiviti and requirements of the job change.
Qualifications:
- Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field.
- 12\+ years of backend development experience with 5\+ years building scalable Python applications and APIs.
- Experience in building large\-scale distributed systems and microservices.
- Strong programming skills in Python; proficiency in Java a plus.
- Expert\-level proficiency in Python and modern frameworks (FastAPI, Django REST Framework, Flask).
- Strong experience with database technologies (PostgreSQL, MySQL) and ORM frameworks (SQLAlchemy, Django ORM).
- Hands\-on experience with agentic AI frameworks such as LangChain, LangGraph, CrewAI, AutoGen, or similar.
- Proven experience developing and maintaining SDKs or client libraries for internal or external usage.
- Strong experience with version control (Git), CI/CD pipelines (GitHub Actions, GitLab CI, Jenkins), and automated testing.
- Experience with containerization and orchestration (e.g., Docker, Kubernetes).
- Cloud platform experience (AWS, GCP, or Azure).
Cognitive / Mental Requirements:* Ability to navigate complex and fast\-changing technologies and requirements.
- Ability to work independently as well as collaborate as a team with a sense of urgency.
- Professional with the ability to properly handle confidential information.
- Be value\-driven, understand that success is based on the impact of your work rather than its complexity or the level of effort.
- Ability to handle multiple tasks, prioritize, and meet deadlines.
Physical Requirements and Working Conditions:* Flexibility to work with global teams as well geographically dispersed US based teams.
- Remaining in a stationary position, often standing or sitting for prolonged periods.
- Repeating motions that may include the wrists, hands, and/or fingers.
- Must be able to provide a dedicated, secure work area.
- Must be able to provide high\-speed internet access/connectivity and office setup and maintenance.
Base compensation ranges from $217,000 to $258,000 per year. Specific offers are determined by various factors, such as experience, education, skills, certifications, and other business needs. This role is eligible for discretionary bonus consideration.
Cotiviti offers team members a competitive benefits package to address a wide range of personal and family needs, including medical, dental, vision, disability, and life insurance coverage, 401(k) savings plans, paid family leave, 9 paid holidays per year, and 17\-27 days of Paid Time Off (PTO) per year, depending on specific level and length of service with Cotiviti. For information about our benefits package, please refer to our Careers page.
Date of posting: 5/27/2026
Applications are assessed on a rolling basis. We anticipate that the application window will close on 8/27/2026, but the application window may change depending on the volume of applications received or close immediately if a qualified candidate is selected.
\#LI\-LL1
\#LI\-Remote
\#senior
Salary Context
This $217K-$258K range is above the 75th percentile for AI/ML Engineer roles in our dataset (median: $180K across 1937 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 3,823 AI roles we're tracking, AI/ML Engineer positions make up 69% of the market. At Cotiviti, 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 $181,170 based on 12,692 positions with disclosed compensation. Senior-level AI roles across all categories have a median of $227,400. This role's midpoint ($237K) sits 31% above the category median. Disclosed range: $217K to $258K.
Across all AI roles, the market median is $200,100. Top-quartile compensation starts at $253,500. The 90th percentile reaches $307,500. For comparison, the highest-paying categories include AI Engineering Manager ($275,000) and AI Safety ($274,200). By seniority level: Entry: $97,880; Mid: $165,000; Senior: $227,400; Director: $247,800; VP: $250,000.
Cotiviti AI Hiring
Cotiviti has 9 open AI roles right now. They're hiring across AI Software Engineer, AI/ML Engineer, Data Scientist, Data Engineer. Based in Remote, US. Compensation range: $54K - $258K.
Remote Work Context
Remote AI roles pay a median of $170,000 across 1,926 positions. About 15% of all AI roles offer remote work.
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 3,823 open positions tracked in our dataset. By seniority: 112 entry-level, 1,798 mid-level, 1,516 senior, and 397 leadership roles (Director, VP, C-Level). Remote roles make up 15% of the market (590 positions). The remaining 3,217 roles require on-site or hybrid attendance.
The market median for AI roles is $200,100. Top-quartile compensation starts at $253,500. The 90th percentile reaches $307,500. Highest-paying categories: AI Engineering Manager ($275,000 median, 41 roles); AI Safety ($274,200 median, 55 roles); Research Engineer ($260,000 median, 434 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 3,823 open positions across 15 role categories. The largest categories by volume: AI/ML Engineer (2,629), Data Scientist (322), AI Software Engineer (279). 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 (112) are outnumbered by mid-level (1,798) and senior (1,516) 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 397 positions, representing the bottleneck between technical execution and organizational strategy.
Remote work availability sits at 15% of all AI roles (590 positions), with 3,217 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 $200,100. Top-quartile roles start at $253,500, and the 90th percentile reaches $307,500. 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 Engineering Manager roles lead at $275,000 median, while Prompt Engineer roles sit at $140,000. 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 (1,979 postings), Aws (1,190 postings), Azure (899 postings), Rag (839 postings), Gcp (726 postings), Pytorch (595 postings), Prompt Engineering (595 postings), Claude (540 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
Get Weekly AI Career Intelligence
Salary data, skills demand, and market signals from 16,000+ AI job postings. Every Monday.