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About This Role
Job Title: Sr. AI Agent / Prompt Engineer
Hyundai Capital America (HCA) helps people move forward. Through Hyundai Motor Finance, Genesis Finance, and Kia Finance, we deliver innovative financing, leasing, and insurance solutions to more than 3 million customers and businesses nationwide.
We’re a company driven by growth, innovation, and people. At HCA, you’ll find opportunities to build new skills, expand your career, and make a real impact—while working in a diverse, inclusive, and values‑driven environment. We’re proud to support our communities through volunteerism, philanthropy, and engaged Employee Resource Groups.
If you’re looking for a fast‑paced, collaborative workplace where your ideas matter, join us as we lead the future of financing freedom of movement. Apply today.
WORK MODEL
\#LI\-OnSite (4 days a week)
WHAT YOU WILL DO
The Sr. AI Agent / Prompt Engineer designs, builds, and hardens production grade AI agents that use large language models to reason, invoke tools, retrieve enterprise knowledge, and recover from errors. This role goes beyond prompt writing and owns agent behavior end to end, including prompt systems, tool orchestration, guardrails, evaluation, and reliability in real business workflows. This role will operate independently, partner closely with architecture, product, governance, and UX, and actively drive AI initiatives from prototype through production.
HOW YOU WILL MAKE AN IMPACT
1\. Agent and Prompt Engineering
- Design, build and deploy multi‑step prompt chains for complex of reasoning, planning, tool integration, and error recovery ensuring accuracy, reliability and contextual awareness.
- Author and maintain robust prompt libraries (system prompts, task prompts, tool prompts) with clear structure, constraints, and fallbacks.
- Develop agent workflows using function calling, graph‑based orchestration, or similar agent frameworks.
- Continuously iterate prompts and agent logic to improve accuracy, consistency, and grounded response.
2\. Tool Use and Integration
- Integrate agents with enterprise tools, APIs, and data sources (e.g. retrieval systems, workflow engines, internal services).
- Define safe tool use patterns, permissions, and auditing strategies in partnership with governance and security teams.
- Partner with data and platform engineers to ensure reliable RAG and agent execution paths.
3\. Evaluation, Quality, and Reliability
- Define and run offline and online evaluations for agent behavior (task success, tool success, error recovery).
- Diagnose failure modes such as hallucinations, prompt injection, and tool misuse.
- Partner with QA and Governance to harden agents prior to production release.
4\. Cross\-Functional Collaboration
- Partner with business teams and product managers to translate business use cases into agent behaviors and integrate AI agents into production systems.
- Ensure optimized design for interaction flows, transparency, and user trust
- Stay current of emerging AI research trends and recommend practical improvements to the enterprise AI stack.
Qualifications WHAT YOU WILL BRING TO THE ROLE
- Minimum 8 years’ progressive experience including 3\+ years in applied AI or backend engineering including strong proficiency with Python.
- Experience with agent frameworks (LangChain/LangGraph or similar patterns).
- Experience with AI content generation, chatbots, or automated workflows.
- Experience with multi‑agent coordination, RLHF/RLAIF, or feedback loops preferred.
- Knowledge of safety filters, jailbreak resistance, and red‑team tactics preferred.
- Automotive or financial services industries preferred.
- Bachelor’s degree in computer science, data science, engineering, or a related field.
- Proven expertise in building AI agents and orchestrating multi\-model workflows.
- Deep understanding of prompt design patterns, context management and model behavior tuning.
- Track record of delivering production\-grade AI solutions that balance innovation with reliability.
- Technical background, strong analytical skills and a creative mindset to shape AI interactions and improve automated systems.
- Exceptional attention to detail and quality.
- Ability to work autonomously and in a team environment.
- Excellent verbal and written communication, including presentation skills.
- Excellent interpersonal skills to successfully collaborate with cross functional departments.
- Strong orientation toward results coupled with reputation for integrity, creativity and good judgment
- Must have the ability to challenge, when appropriate, existing practices.
WE TAKE CARE OF OUR PEOPLE
At HCA, we know our success starts with our people. We offer a comprehensive rewards package designed to support your health, financial wellbeing, and life outside of work — so you can bring your best every day.
In addition to competitive pay, our benefits include:
- Hybrid work schedule offering 4 on\-site days and 1 remote day per week
- Vehicle benefits designed around your role, including monthly allowances and purchase and lease discounts
- Flexible health coverage with medical, dental, and vision plans, including no cost and low\-cost options
- Annual employer HSA contribution to help offset healthcare expenses
- 401(k) with company match and immediate vesting, so you can start building your future from day one
- 100% company paid life and disability insurance for added peace of mind
- Wellbeing programs at no cost to you, including gym benefits and health resources
- Generous parental leave to support growing families
- Paid Volunteer Time Off, plus a company donation to a charity of your choice
At HCA, our benefits are more than perks — they’re part of our commitment to supporting you at work and in life. Learn more about benefits at HCA!
WHAT HAPPENS NEXT
Express your interest by submitting an application. Once your application is received, our recruiting team will review your application to see if you meet the basic and preferred qualifications listed on the job description. For more information on our culture, visit our careers page.
OTHER DETAILS
Our Company is an equal opportunity employer committed to fostering a diverse, inclusive, and respectful workplace—because we believe diversity builds stronger teams. We comply with all applicable federal, state, and local equal employment opportunity laws and do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion or creed, color, national origin, ancestry, caste, citizenship, sex or gender (including pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions), sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, age, disability, medical condition, genetic information, marital status, family care or medical leave status, military or veteran status, political affiliation, or any other characteristic protected by law. Information provided during the application process is requested in good faith and will be used solely in accordance with applicable employment laws.
*California Privacy Notice*
*This notice only applies to our applicants who reside in the State of California.*
*Privacy Policy provides you with notice, at or before the point of collection, about the categories of personal information to be collected from you, the purposes for which your personal information is collected or used, and whether that information is sold or shared, so that you can exercise meaningful control over our use of your personal information. We are providing this notice to comply with the California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018, as amended as amended by the California Privacy Rights Act of 2020 (“CCPA”).*
*If you have any questions about CCPA regarding California residents or HCA team members, please contact the Privacy Team at* *[email protected]**.*
Primary Location: United States\-California\-IrvineWork Locations: Headquarters 1 3161 Michelson Dr. Ste 1900 Irvine 92612Job: Enterprise Data StrategyJob Type: RegularOvertime Status: ExemptSchedule: Full\-timeMinimum Salary: $132,000\.00Maximum Salary: $204,600\.00Job Posting: Jun 11, 2026
Salary Context
This $132K-$204K range is below the median for AI Agent Developer roles in our dataset (median: $192K across 41 roles with salary data).
View full AI Agent Developer salary data →Role Details
About This Role
AI Agent Developers build autonomous systems that can reason, plan, and take actions. They design multi-step workflows, tool-use frameworks, and orchestration layers that let LLMs interact with external systems. This is the frontier of applied AI engineering.
Agent development is where the most interesting (and hardest) problems in applied AI live right now. Making an LLM answer a question is straightforward. Making it reliably execute a 15-step workflow that involves calling APIs, reading databases, making decisions, and recovering from errors is an unsolved problem. You're building systems that have to work despite the fact that the underlying model is non-deterministic.
Across the 3,736 AI roles we're tracking, AI Agent Developer positions make up 1% of the market. At Hyundai Capital America, this role fits into their broader AI and engineering organization.
AI Agent Developer is one of the newest and fastest-growing AI role categories. The market is early but accelerating as companies move beyond simple chatbots toward AI systems that can take real actions. Compensation is high because the skill set is rare and the business impact is potentially enormous.
What the Work Looks Like
A typical week includes: designing the action space and tool definitions for a new agent use case, debugging why the agent chose the wrong action sequence on a specific input, building evaluation frameworks that test agent reliability across hundreds of scenarios, optimizing the prompt chain for cost and latency, and implementing safety guardrails to prevent the agent from taking destructive actions. The work is equal parts engineering and empirical science.
AI Agent Developer is one of the newest and fastest-growing AI role categories. The market is early but accelerating as companies move beyond simple chatbots toward AI systems that can take real actions. Compensation is high because the skill set is rare and the business impact is potentially enormous.
Skills Required
Deep experience with LLM APIs and agent frameworks (LangChain, CrewAI, AutoGen). Strong understanding of prompt engineering, function calling, and error handling for non-deterministic systems. Python is standard. Experience with orchestration patterns, state management, and workflow engines adds significant value.
The best agent developers think like systems engineers. They design for failure modes, build observability into every step, and understand that agent reliability is the product. Expertise in evaluation methodology for non-deterministic systems is the differentiator. Can you measure whether your agent works 'well enough'? Can you find the edge cases where it breaks?
Look for roles that describe specific agent use cases, mention evaluation methodology, and talk about production deployment. Early-stage companies exploring agents can be exciting, but be prepared for ambiguity. The most valuable roles are at companies that have already shipped a v1 and need to make it reliable.
Compensation Benchmarks
AI Agent Developer roles pay a median of $245,040 based on 106 positions with disclosed compensation. Senior-level AI roles across all categories have a median of $227,400. This role's midpoint ($168K) sits 31% below the category median. Disclosed range: $132K to $204K.
Across all AI roles, the market median is $200,100. Top-quartile compensation starts at $253,650. 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: $248,100; VP: $250,000.
Hyundai Capital America AI Hiring
Hyundai Capital America has 3 open AI roles right now. They're hiring across AI/ML Engineer, AI Architect, AI Agent Developer. Based in Irvine, CA, US. Compensation range: $204K - $204K.
Location Context
Across all AI roles, 15% (562 positions) offer remote work, while 3,158 require on-site attendance. Top AI hiring metros: New York (2,643 roles, $211,000 median); San Francisco (2,168 roles, $253,000 median); Los Angeles (1,792 roles, $191,580 median).
Career Path
Common paths into AI Agent Developer roles include Software Engineer, LLM Engineer, Prompt Engineer.
From here, career progression typically leads toward AI Architect, Principal Engineer, Head of AI Engineering.
Build agents. That's the portfolio. Take an open-source agent framework, build something that completes a non-trivial multi-step task, evaluate it rigorously, and document what you learned about reliability, cost, and failure modes. The field is new enough that practical experience counts for more than credentials.
What to Expect in Interviews
Interviews focus on systems thinking and reliability engineering. Expect questions about agent architecture: how you'd design a multi-step workflow with error recovery, how you'd evaluate agent performance, and how you'd prevent agents from taking destructive actions. Coding exercises often involve building a simple agent with tool use and evaluating its behavior across different scenarios. Discussion of safety and guardrails is increasingly common.
When evaluating opportunities: Look for roles that describe specific agent use cases, mention evaluation methodology, and talk about production deployment. Early-stage companies exploring agents can be exciting, but be prepared for ambiguity. The most valuable roles are at companies that have already shipped a v1 and need to make it reliable.
AI Hiring Overview
The AI job market has 3,736 open positions tracked in our dataset. By seniority: 109 entry-level, 1,755 mid-level, 1,486 senior, and 386 leadership roles (Director, VP, C-Level). Remote roles make up 15% of the market (562 positions). The remaining 3,158 roles require on-site or hybrid attendance.
The market median for AI roles is $200,100. Top-quartile compensation starts at $253,650. 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).
AI Agent Developer is one of the newest and fastest-growing AI role categories. The market is early but accelerating as companies move beyond simple chatbots toward AI systems that can take real actions. Compensation is high because the skill set is rare and the business impact is potentially enormous.
The AI Job Market Today
The AI job market spans 3,736 open positions across 15 role categories. The largest categories by volume: AI/ML Engineer (2,564), Data Scientist (311), AI Software Engineer (277). 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 (109) are outnumbered by mid-level (1,755) and senior (1,486) 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 386 positions, representing the bottleneck between technical execution and organizational strategy.
Remote work availability sits at 15% of all AI roles (562 positions), with 3,158 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 $253,650, 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 (1,942 postings), Aws (1,175 postings), Azure (881 postings), Rag (827 postings), Gcp (718 postings), Prompt Engineering (590 postings), Pytorch (586 postings), Claude (528 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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