Lead AI Agent Developer

Role: Lead AI Agent Developer
Location: Irvine, CA- Hybrid work (3 days office, 2 days remote) - only locals
Duration: 12 Months of Contract to hire

Key Responsibilities:
• Design, develop, and deploy AI agents using Microsoft Azure, Microsoft Foundry, and Azure OpenAI.
• Build agentic workflows, tool calling, multi-agent orchestration, and human-in-the-loop processes.
• Develop MCP clients and servers to integrate AI agents with enterprise APIs, tools, and data sources.
• Integrate AI agents with enterprise systems, databases, REST APIs, and business applications.
• Implement secure authentication, authorization, data protection, and responsible AI guardrails.
• Develop scalable, reliable, and maintainable solutions using Python and/or C#.
• Establish reusable AI components, engineering standards, and best practices.
Mandatory Skills:
• Strong hands-on experience with Microsoft Azure and Azure OpenAI.
• Experience building and deploying LLM-powered AI agents and agentic workflows.
• Working knowledge of Microsoft Foundry and relevant agent-development frameworks.
• Strong programming skills in Python and/or C#.
• Experience with MCP, function calling, tool integration, and API orchestration.
• Hands-on experience with vector search, and Azure AI Search or equivalent.
• Knowledge of identity management, access controls, secrets management, and AI security.
• Strong troubleshooting, problem-solving, and technical communication skills.

Preferred Skills:
• Microsoft Agent Framework, Microsoft Fabric, Microsoft Graph, and SharePoint integration.
• Azure Functions, Logic Apps, API Management, and Azure Service Bus.
• Experience with agent evaluation, LLM observability, and prompt-injection mitigation.
• Familiarity with LangGraph or comparable agent orchestration frameworks.
• Experience delivering enterprise AI solutions at scale.
Experience and Qualifications:
• 8+ years of software engineering, cloud development, or enterprise integration experience.
• 3+ years of relevant AI/ML or Generative AI experience preferred.
• Demonstrated experience delivering AI agents beyond proof of concept into production.
• Proven ability to work independently, lead technical implementation, and collaborate across teams.