Principal Engineer - Partner with Customers AI Solutions

$125K - $183K Novi, MI, US Senior AI/ML Engineer

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Skills & Technologies

AnthropicAwsAzureBedrockDockerEmbeddingsFaissGcpHighspotJavascript

About This Role

AI job market dashboard showing open roles by category

Location:

Novi \- Michigan, USA \- Cabot Drive

Job Family:

Artificial Intelligence \& Machine Learning

Worker Type Reference:

Regular \- Permanent

Pay Rate Type:

Salary

Career Level:

T4

Job ID:

R\-54873\-2026

### Description \& Requirements

Introduction: A Career at HARMAN Automotive

We’re a global, multi\-disciplinary team that’s putting the innovative power of technology to work and transforming tomorrow. At HARMAN Automotive, we give you the keys to fast\-track your career.

  • Engineer audio systems and integrated technology platforms that augment the driving experience
  • Combine ingenuity, in\-depth research, and a spirit of collaboration with design and engineering excellence
  • Advance in\-vehicle infotainment, safety, efficiency, and enjoyment

About the Role

------------------

The AI Developer will design, build, and support practical AI and Generative AI solutions for the Partner with Customer business context, helping commercial, sales, marketing, strategy, and portfolio teams work faster and make better decisions. This role turns customer\-facing and opportunity\-management workflows into secure, measurable AI\-enabled products, including copilots, RAG\-based search experiences, document summarization, workflow automation, analytics assistants, and intelligent recommendations.

The role is hands\-on and delivery oriented. The AI Developer will work across enterprise data, Microsoft 365 collaboration content, Salesforce\-based processes, low\-code application platforms, and sales enablement platforms to create reliable solutions that save time, improve insight quality, and support consistent customer engagement.

Business Capability Focus

-----------------------------

This role supports the capabilities needed to partner effectively with customers across the commercial lifecycle. Rather than owning a single internal application, the AI Developer will help create reusable AI patterns that can improve major customer\-facing and commercial workflows.

  • Customer and account engagement: use CRM and collaboration data to improve account insight, customer follow\-up, escalation awareness, and service\-quality visibility.
  • Opportunity pursuit and pipeline support: help teams summarize opportunities, identify next actions, generate pursuit insights, and make customer\-facing work more consistent.
  • RFx and proposal support: automate document intake, requirements extraction, summarization, comparison, response drafting, and knowledge reuse for RFI, RFQ, RFP, and business case activities.
  • Business case and financial decision support: build AI\-assisted workflows for scenario analysis, assumptions review, risk surfacing, and decision\-ready summaries.
  • Market intelligence: transform market, competitor, customer, and product information into searchable knowledge, executive summaries, and recommendation\-ready insights.
  • Product and portfolio strategy: support solution positioning, portfolio planning, and strategic alignment by connecting customer needs with available products, platforms, and capabilities.
  • Sales and marketing enablement: improve discovery, creation, tagging, search, reuse, and personalization of customer\-facing content.

What You Will Do

--------------------

  • Build AI and Generative AI solutions that support customer engagement, RFx and business case development, opportunity analytics, market intelligence, strategic portfolio planning, and sales enablement.
  • Create production\-ready copilots, RAG search experiences, document summarization workflows, recommendation services, and automation tools for Partner with Customer stakeholders.
  • Use Microsoft 365 content and services, including SharePoint and Microsoft Teams, as trusted collaboration and knowledge sources for AI\-enabled workflows.
  • Apply Power Platform capabilities, including Power Apps, Microsoft Forms, and Power Automate, where they accelerate adoption, intake, approvals, and workflow orchestration.
  • Integrate with major enterprise platforms such as Salesforce, Microsoft 365, low\-code application platforms, sales enablement/content platforms, REST or GraphQL APIs, and structured or unstructured datasets.
  • Design and implement retrieval pipelines over heterogeneous business content, including RFx materials, business cases, lessons learned, market intelligence, strategy documents, customer care inputs, CRM records, and sales enablement assets.
  • Select and tune embedding models, chunking strategies, vector search configurations, rerankers, prompt patterns, and routing policies to improve relevance and answer quality.
  • Develop agentic workflows and automation patterns using tools such as LangChain, LlamaIndex, MCP, and model orchestration frameworks where appropriate.
  • Translate subject\-matter\-expert knowledge into maintainable prompts, reusable workflows, evaluation sets, and application logic.
  • Implement guardrails, access controls, content policies, safety checks, evaluation metrics, observability, and cost controls suitable for enterprise use.
  • Containerize and deploy applications using modern cloud, API, CI/CD, and monitoring practices in partnership with platform and operations teams.
  • Collaborate closely with sales, marketing, strategy, product portfolio, customer care, requirements, testing, validation, and platform teams; communicate progress, risks, and trade\-offs clearly.

What You Need To Be Successful

----------------------------------

  • 8\+ years of experience building production software, data products, automation solutions, or AI\-enabled applications, including hands\-on experience with LLMs or Generative AI.
  • Strong Python experience, preferably with FastAPI, Pandas, NumPy, Pydantic, Jinja2, and API development; working knowledge of Node.js or modern JavaScript is a plus.
  • Experience building AI applications using LLMs, embeddings, vector databases, RAG patterns, prompt engineering, model evaluation, and model\-provider APIs.
  • Familiarity with OpenAI, Azure OpenAI, AWS Bedrock, Anthropic, Meta/Llama, Mistral, or similar model ecosystems.
  • Working knowledge of Microsoft 365 services such as SharePoint and Microsoft Teams, plus Power Platform concepts including Power Apps, Microsoft Forms, and Power Automate.
  • Experience integrating with enterprise systems such as Salesforce, Microsoft Graph, low\-code platforms, content management platforms, sales enablement tools, workflow tools, REST APIs, GraphQL APIs, SQL databases, and search services.
  • Practical understanding of data storage and retrieval patterns, including SQL, NoSQL, Elasticsearch, and vector databases such as Pinecone, Weaviate, FAISS, Milvus, or pgvector.
  • Cloud and DevOps experience with AWS, Azure, GCP, Docker, Kubernetes, Terraform, CI/CD, monitoring, and logging tools.
  • Ability to work with ambiguous business processes, messy enterprise data, and multiple stakeholder groups while producing clear, reliable, maintainable solutions.
  • Strong communication skills, product\-oriented thinking, curiosity about commercial and customer\-facing processes, and the ability to learn quickly in a dynamic environment.
  • BS, MS, or equivalent professional experience in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Data Science, Mathematics, Electrical Engineering, or a related field.

Preferred Experience

------------------------

  • Experience supporting sales, commercial operations, marketing, customer care, market intelligence, product portfolio, or business case workflows.
  • Experience with Salesforce CRM or sales performance management processes.
  • Experience with low\-code platforms such as Microsoft Power Platform or OutSystems.
  • Experience with sales enablement or content management platforms such as Showpad, Seismic, Highspot, or similar tools.
  • Experience creating reusable AI patterns, prompt libraries, evaluation datasets, or internal developer tools for enterprise adoption.
  • Experience measuring AI solution value through hours saved, quality improvements, adoption, user reach, latency, reliability, and cost efficiency.

What Makes You Eligible

---------------------------

  • Ability to work from an office in Novi, MI, 3\+ days per week (hybrid)
  • Successfully complete a background investigation and drug screen as a condition of employment.

What We Offer

-----------------

  • Access to employee discounts on world\-class products, including JBL, HARMAN Kardon, AKG, and more.
  • Extensive training opportunities through HARMAN University.
  • Competitive wellness benefits.
  • Tuition reimbursement.
  • The Be Brilliant employee recognition and rewards program.
  • An inclusive and diverse work environment that fosters and encourages professional and personal development.

\#Hybrid

Pay Transparency

$ 125,250 \- $ 183,700

Dependent on the position offered, other forms of compensation are also available, such as bonuses or commission.

Pay is based on a wide range of factors, including, without limitation, skill set, experience, training, location, and business need. While the above range is a reasonable estimate of the wage range for this position, please note the disclosed range estimate has not been adjusted for the applicable geographical differential associated with the location where the position may be filled. Benefits

HARMAN is interested in the health and wellbeing of you and your family and offers a range of benefits designed to support your needs for holistic wellbeing. Benefits and perks may vary depending on the nature of your employment with HARMAN, and may include paid vacation and holidays, paid sick leave, volunteer leave, and paid bonding and care giver leave. Employees may also be eligible to participate in comprehensive medical, dental, and vision plans, fertility support and adoption assistance, Health Savings and Flexible Spending Accounts, retirement savings plan with employer match, short and long term disability coverage, life insurance, and more.

About HARMAN: Where Innovation Unleashes Next\-Level Technology

Ever since the 1920s, we’ve been amplifying the sense of sound. Today, that legacy endures, with integrated technology platforms that make the world smarter, safer, and more connected.

Across automotive, lifestyle, and digital transformation solutions, we create innovative technologies that turn ordinary moments into extraordinary experiences. Our renowned automotive and lifestyle solutions can be found everywhere, from the music we play in our cars and homes to venues that feature today’s most sought\-after performers, while our digital transformation solutions serve humanity by addressing the world’s ever\-evolving needs and demands. Marketing our award\-winning portfolio under 16 iconic brands, such as JBL, Mark Levinson, and Revel, we set ourselves apart by exceeding the highest engineering and design standards for our customers, our partners and each other.

If you’re ready to innovate and do work that makes a lasting impact, join our talent community today!

Important Notice: Recruitment Scams

Please be aware that HARMAN recruiters will always communicate with you from an '@harman.com', ‘@careers.harman.com’ or ‘@harmanglobal.avature.net’ email address. We will never ask for payments, banking, credit card, personal financial information or access to your LinkedIn/email account during the screening, interview, or recruitment process. If you are asked for such information or receive communication from an email address not ending in one of the above email domains about a job with HARMAN, please cease communication immediately and report the incident to us through: [email protected]. You Belong Here

HARMAN is committed to making every employee feel welcomed, valued, and empowered. No matter what role you play, we encourage you to share your ideas, voice your distinct perspective, and bring your whole self with you – all within a support\-minded culture that celebrates what makes each of us unique. We also recognize that learning is a lifelong pursuit and want you to flourish. We proudly offer added opportunities for training, development, and continuing education, further empowering you to live the career you want.

HARMAN is proud to be an Equal Opportunity employer. HARMAN strives to hire the best qualified candidates and is committed to building a workforce representative of the diverse marketplaces and communities of our global colleagues and customers. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, religion, color, national origin, gender (including pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions), sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, age, status as a protected veteran, status as an individual with a disability, or other applicable legally protected characteristics. HARMAN attracts, hires, and develops employees based on merit, qualifications and job\-related performance.(www.harman.com)

HARMAN is committed to providing reasonable accommodations to applicants with disabilities. If you need assistance or an accommodation during the application process, please contact us at [email protected]. Requests will be considered on a case\-by\-case basis in accordance with applicable law.

Salary Context

This $125K-$183K range is below the median 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

Company Harman
Title Principal Engineer - Partner with Customers AI Solutions
Location Novi, MI, US
Category AI/ML Engineer
Experience Senior
Salary $125K - $183K
Remote No

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 Harman, 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

Anthropic (6% of roles) Aws (28% of roles) Azure (22% of roles) Bedrock (6% of roles) Docker (10% of roles) Embeddings (7% of roles) Faiss (1% of roles) Gcp (15% of roles) Highspot Javascript (6% of roles)

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. Senior-level AI roles across all categories have a median of $227,400. This role's midpoint ($154K) sits 28% below the category median. Disclosed range: $125K to $183K.

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.

Harman AI Hiring

Harman has 5 open AI roles right now. They're hiring across AI/ML Engineer. Based in Novi, MI, US. Compensation range: $183K - $183K.

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

Based on 6,420 roles with disclosed compensation, the median salary for AI/ML Engineer positions is $214,900. Actual compensation varies by seniority, location, and company stage.
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.
About 15% of the 4,317 AI roles we track offer remote work. Remote availability varies by company and seniority level, with senior and leadership roles more likely to offer location flexibility.
Harman is among the companies actively hiring for AI and ML talent. Check our company profiles for detailed breakdowns of open roles, salary ranges, and hiring trends.
Common next steps from AI/ML Engineer positions include ML Architect, AI Engineering Manager, Principal ML Engineer. Progression depends on whether you lean toward technical depth, people management, or product strategy.

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