Tech Lead / AI Architect
About the role
Position Overview
We're looking for a Tech Lead / AI Architect to serve as the primary technical authority on an AI-native vehicle assistant engagement for a leading technology client. This is a hands-on architecture role. You will architect, implement, and ship — making system-level decisions and contributing code, often on the same day. The engagement centers on an in-vehicle AI assistant for a commercial fleet operations context, built for real-world use in constrained, connectivity-variable environments.
You will lead a focused Engineering POD building a dual-mode agentic AI assistant that operates fully offline on constrained edge hardware and cloud-connected via AWS Bedrock — integrating voice and chat interfaces, edge-optimized inference, a local SQLite data layer, cloud data mirroring, and a proactive alert and recommendation engine. You will own implementation directly across cloud infrastructure, data synchronization, STT/TTS integration, and agentic orchestration, while serving as the primary technical authority from architecture through delivery.
Why This Role Matters
At Robots & Pencils, we design AI systems for a human world — engineering paired with creativity, because every agent we ship has to work for real people in real workflows. This engagement sits at the frontier of applied AI: conversational, agentic intelligence that operates in constrained edge environments and scales to the cloud. The architecture decisions made here will define how our client expands their AI platform from proof-of-concept to production. You are not filling a seat. You are setting the direction.
What You'll Do
- Architect and implement a dual-mode AI assistant for edge and cloud environments
- Lead a small, focused engineering POD
- Make system-level decisions and contribute production code daily
- Integrate voice interfaces, local inference, and cloud synchronization
- Serve as primary technical authority from architecture through delivery