Principal AI Software Engineer (.NET / Modernization / LLMs)

Peak Performers has partnered with a Texas State Agency to assist in their search for a remote Principal AI Software Engineer. In this contract position, you will be responsible for providing advanced technical leadership and hands-on development expertise to support the agency’s Mainframe Transformation initiative, including modernization of legacy applications, implementation of AI-assisted software engineering practices, and acceleration of application development, analysis, testing, and documentation activities.

Major duties

• Serve as a technical lead and subject matter expert for AI-assisted software engineering and modernization initiatives.
• Assist in defining and implementing AI development standards, governance, and best practices for agency use.
• Support modernization efforts involving migration of legacy mainframe applications and business processes to modern .NET and cloud-compatible architectures.
• Evaluate, prototype, and implement AI-assisted development tools and workflows, including but not limited to code generation, documentation generation, automated testing, code analysis, and developer productivity solutions.
• Design and develop secure AI-enabled solutions that comply with agency cybersecurity, privacy, and data governance requirements.
• Assist development teams in integrating AI capabilities into agency business applications where appropriate.
• Work closely with enterprise architecture and security teams to ensure alignment with approved standards and governance.
• Develop and maintain technical documentation, architectural diagrams, implementation standards, and operational procedures.
• Provide mentoring and knowledge transfer to agency staff regarding AI-assisted development practices and modern software engineering approaches.
• Participate in technical planning, backlog refinement, sprint activities, and solution reviews.
• Assist with evaluation of AI/LLM platforms, APIs, vector databases, orchestration frameworks, and related tooling.
• Support prompt engineering, retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), AI workflow orchestration, and model evaluation activities where applicable.
• Assist with establishment of guardrails for responsible AI usage, including validation, traceability, explainability, and security considerations.
• Perform hands-on development activities as required.

What are we looking for?

• 8 years of experience in in enterprise application development and software engineering.
• 5 years of experience leading software development teams or technical modernization initiatives.
• 5 years of hands-on experience with .NET application development and modern software architecture.
• 5 years of experience with relational databases and data integration concepts.
• 4 years of experience implementing secure software development practices and application security principles.
• 3 years of experience evaluating or implementing AI development tools, frameworks, or platforms
• 2 years of experience with prompt engineering, AI workflow orchestration, or retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) concepts
• 3 years of experience with AI-assisted software development, machine learning integration, or large language model (LLM) technologies
• Experience with cloud platforms, APIs, microservices, or distributed application architectures preferred.
• Experience supporting legacy modernization or mainframe transformation initiatives preferred.
• Experience with Azure OpenAI, OpenAI APIs, AWS AI services, Anthropic, Google Vertex AI, or equivalent AI platforms preferred.
• Experience with GitHub Copilot, Cursor, Windsurf, or other AI-assisted developer productivity tools preferred.

Exciting Opportunity Details

• Rate: $101.00/hour
• W2 Contract
• Remote
• 3 month contract with opportunity for extension

The Peak Performers difference

• Excellent medical health, dental & vision insurance at 60 days
• Our employees may choose to participate in a 403(b) retirement plan
• Qualified applicants with chronic medical conditions and/or disabilities receive priority placement
• We pay weekly through direct deposit
• In business since 1994 and thousands of job placements

All employment offers are contingent on the successful completion of a pre-employment criminal background check, in compliance with all applicable federal and state laws.

Applicants for employment with Peak Performers must possess work authorization that does not require sponsorship for a visa now or in the future.

Peak Performers is an equal opportunity employer and will consider all applicants without regard to race, marital status, sex, age, color, religion, national origin, veteran status, disability or any other characteristic protected by law. Peak Performers does not accept unsolicited resumes from headhunters, recruitment agencies or fee-based recruitment services.

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