Job Description

What if the work you did every day could impact the lives of people you know? Or all of humanity?At Illumina, we are expanding access to genomic technology to realize health equity for billions of people around the world. Our efforts enable life-changing discoveries that are transforming human health through the early detection and diagnosis of diseases and new treatment options for patients.Working at Illumina means being part of something bigger than yourself. Every person, in every role, has the opportunity to make a difference. Surrounded by extraordinary people, inspiring leaders, and world changing projects, you will do more and become more than you ever thought possible.

Location

This role is located at our HQ in San Diego, CA.

The AI Engineer is an early-career role for engineers who are passionate about building with modern AI and ready to grow into the next generation of AI specialists. You will work alongside senior and principal engineers to build, ship, and improve production AI features, learning the craft of applied AI engineering on real systems that serve real users.

This role is hands-on from day one. You will write code, prototype ideas, evaluate models, integrate APIs, and contribute to the platform that powers AI across the organization. You will be supported with strong mentorship, clear scope, and the room to grow into more senior responsibilities over time.

Key Responsibilities

Build and Ship

• Implement features in production AI applications, including LLM integrations, prompt workflows, retrieval pipelines, and supporting backend services.
• Develop and maintain components of RAG systems, including data ingestion, chunking, embedding generation, and retrieval logic.
• Write clean, tested, well-documented Python code that meets team standards for quality and maintainability.
• Build internal tools, scripts, and prototypes that accelerate the team's ability to experiment and iterate.

Evaluate and Improve

• Run experiments to evaluate model performance, prompt variations, retrieval strategies, and end-to-end system behavior.
• Develop and maintain evaluation datasets, test cases, and regression checks for AI features.
• Analyze production logs and metrics to identify quality issues, latency bottlenecks, and cost optimization opportunities.
• Contribute to incident response and root-cause analysis for AI system issues.

Learn and Contribute

• Stay current with the AI ecosystem by following research, exploring new tools, and bringing useful ideas back to the team.
• Participate actively in code reviews, design discussions, and team rituals, asking questions and offering perspectives.
• Document your work clearly so that teammates can build on it and learn from it.
• Pair with senior engineers on complex problems and gradually take on larger scope as you grow.

Collaborate

• Work closely with product managers, designers, and other engineers to understand requirements and ship features that solve real user problems.
• Communicate progress, blockers, and trade-offs clearly in standups, written updates, and design documents.
• Support other teams by answering questions about AI capabilities and limitations.

Required Qualifications

• 1 to 2 years of professional software engineering experience (internships, co-ops, and substantial open source contributions count).
• Strong programming skills in Python, with familiarity in writing modular, testable code.
• Working knowledge of how large language models behave in practice, including experience calling LLM APIs (OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, or open-weight models) in at least one project.
• Familiarity with at least one of the following: RAG systems, prompt engineering, vector databases, embeddings, or basic agent patterns.
• Solid foundation in software engineering basics including Git, REST APIs, JSON, SQL, and at least one cloud environment.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills with a willingness to ask questions and engage in technical discussion.
• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Data Science, Machine Learning, Engineering, or a related field, or equivalent demonstrable experience.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with at least one AI framework such as LangChain, LlamaIndex, Hugging Face Transformers, or DSPy.
• Exposure to vector databases (Pinecone, Weaviate, pgvector, Vertex AI Vector Search) and embedding models.
• Familiarity with one major cloud platform (GCP, Azure, or AWS), particularly the managed AI services.
• Comfort with Docker, basic CI/CD workflows, and modern engineering practices.
• A portfolio of personal projects, open source contributions, hackathon work, or coursework that demonstrates curiosity and initiative in AI.
• Experience with web frameworks (FastAPI, Flask) or frontend basics (React, TypeScript) is a plus but not required.
• Coursework or self-directed learning in machine learning, deep learning, NLP, or information retrieval.

Technical Skill Profile

• Core Programming: Python (required), familiarity with JavaScript or TypeScript helpful.
• AI Tooling: Comfort calling LLM APIs, basic prompt engineering, familiarity with at least one framework (LangChain, LlamaIndex, Hugging Face).
• Data and Storage: SQL, JSON, basic familiarity with vector databases and traditional databases.
• Cloud and Engineering: Git, REST APIs, basic Docker, at least one cloud environment (GCP, Azure, or AWS).
• Bonus: Notebook environments (Jupyter, Colab), evaluation tools (RAGAS, LangSmith, Weights and Biases), basic frontend development.

Competencies We Value

• Curiosity Genuine interest in how AI works and a habit of digging into details rather than treating models as black boxes.
• Ownership Willingness to see problems through, even when the path is unclear.
• Communication Comfort asking questions, sharing progress, and explaining your thinking.
• Quality Mindset Pride in writing code that is clear, tested, and easy for others to work with.
• Learning Velocity A track record of picking up new tools, languages, and concepts quickly.
• Collaboration Generosity with teammates, openness to feedback, and willingness to help others succeed.

The estimated base salary range for the AI Engineer role based in the United States of America is: $82,500 - $123,700. Should the level or location of the role change during the hiring process, the applicable base pay range may be updated accordingly. The range reflects long‑term growth in the role; therefore, most candidates are hired between the minimum and middle of the range. Placement depends on experience, skills, location, and internal equity. Additionally, all employees are eligible for one of our variable cash programs (bonus or commission) and eligible roles may receive equity as part of the compensation package. We offer a wide range of benefits as innovative as our work, including access to genomics sequencing, family planning, health/dental/vision, retirement benefits, and paid time off.
We are a company deeply rooted in belonging, promoting an inclusive environment where employees feel valued and empowered to contribute to our mission. Built on a strong foundation, Illumina has always prioritized openness, collaboration, and seeking alternative perspectives to propel innovation in genomics. We are proud to confirm a zero-net gap in pay, regardless of gender, ethnicity, or race. We also have several Employee Resource Groups (ERG) that deliver career development experiences, increase cultural awareness, and offer opportunities to engage in social responsibility. We are proud to be an equal opportunity employer committed to providing employment opportunity regardless of sex, race, creed, color, gender, religion, marital status, domestic partner status, age, national origin or ancestry, physical or mental disability, medical condition, sexual orientation, pregnancy, military or veteran status, citizenship status, and genetic information. Illumina conducts background checks on applicants for whom a conditional offer of employment has been made. Qualified applicants with arrest or conviction records will be considered for employment in accordance with applicable local, state, and federal laws. Background check results may potentially result in the withdrawal of a conditional offer of employment. The background check process and any decisions made as a result shall be made in accordance with all applicable local, state, and federal laws. Illumina prohibits the use of generative artificial intelligence (AI) in the application and interview process. If you require accommodation to complete the application or interview process, please contact accommodations@illumina.com. To learn more, visit: https://www.dol.gov/ofccp/regs/compliance/posters/pdf/eeopost.pdf. The position will be posted until a final candidate is selected or the requisition has a sufficient number of qualified applicants.