SAN FRANCISCO AI ENGINEER RECRUITMENT
We work with some of San Franciscos' leading brands to provide recruitment solutions across the Data & AI industries.
Harnham is a leading AI Engineer recruitment agency, specializing in connecting top AI Engineers, Machine Learning experts, and Software Engineers with San Francisco’s most innovative companies.
We partner with AI-driven businesses across industries to provide cutting-edge AI recruitment solutions, ensuring they secure the best talent in Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, and Data-centric AI.
Our consultants are experts in AI engineering recruitment, offering in-depth market insights that they learn from staying up to date with trends and events, salary benchmarking, and guidance throughout the hiring process, including technical interviews, leadership assessments, and project management support for hiring managers.
With an extensive database of experienced engineers in San Francisco, we help companies fill key roles in platform engineering, technical leadership, and engineering excellence—critical for businesses leveraging generative AI applications and machine learning frameworks.
Whether you need professionals with systems hands-on expertise or those who understand technical direction for AI-driven projects, Harnham delivers the best talent.
If you need AI professionals with strong communication skills, practical skills, and coding assessment expertise, Harnham’s San Francisco AI recruitment team is ready to help.
DATA & AI RECRUITMENT AND STAFFING
HOW WE DO IT
At Harnham, our AI Engineering recruitment strategy aligns with the latest advancements in Artificial Intelligence and Emerging Technologies, allowing companies to scale efficiently.
Our San Francisco AI recruitment team specializes in hiring:
AI Engineers – Experts in machine learning frameworks, data-centric AI, and cutting-edge artificial intelligence solutions
Software Engineers – Skilled in integrating AI-driven solutions into existing technology systems Engineering Leaders & Technical Leaders – Professionals with strong prioritization skills, leadership assessments, and experience in platform engineering
We ensure our candidates demonstrate sound judgment, a crucial trait when making AI-driven business decisions. They also have experience working with external clients, helping organizations implement AI at scale.
We understand the importance of collaboration in AI projects. Our candidates excel in working within cross-functional product teams and the wider team, ensuring seamless AI adoption in your business operations.
Additionally, our focus on communication skills ensures that every hire is capable of articulating complex AI concepts to both technical and non-technical stakeholders.
Looking for AI Engineers in San Francisco? Contact us to access our network of top-tier AI and Machine Learning professionals.
WHAT SETS US APART FROM OTHER SAN FRANCISCO DATA & AI RECRUITMENT AGENCIES?
At Harnham, our recruitment consultants bring deep industry expertise, specializing in AI-driven businesses, Google Cloud AI, and Generative AI solutions. Whether you're building AI infrastructure on Google Cloud or another platform, we ensure that we source candidates who seamlessly align with your tech stack.
We also provide real-time salary benchmarking for AI Engineers in San Francisco, helping companies offer competitive compensation. Our leadership assessments are designed to identify engineering leaders who can drive AI and machine learning innovation within your organization. Additionally, we streamline the technical hiring process, conducting thorough technical interviews, coding assessments, and project management evaluations to ensure only top-quality hires.
As an Equal Opportunity Employer, we are committed to helping businesses build diverse AI teams that foster innovation and success.
We believe AI hiring should be as innovative as the industry itself. Our decade of innovation in AI and data recruitment ensures we stay ahead of market trends, our consultants also stay up to date on locally relevant events, garnering insights to provide companies with top-tier candidates.
Our deep understanding of AI recruitment trends in San Francisco, combined with our engineering excellence, makes us the preferred choice for companies looking to hire AI Engineer Talent in San Francisco.
JOBS
LATEST SAN FRANCISCO
Data & AI JOBS
Harnham are a specialist Data & AI Recruitment business with teams that only focus on niche areas.
AI Engineer
New York
$160000 - $220000
+ Data Science & AI
PermanentNew York
To Apply for this Job Click Here
AI Engineer
Location: New York
Compensation: $180,000 – $220,000 base salary + Equity
About the Company:
We are working with a pioneering fintech, as systems face mounting strain from increased complexity and a shrinking talent pool, there’s a growing need for tools that can adapt, learn, and act independently. Their platform introduces AI agents designed to support experts by handling routine tasks, adapting to diverse workflows, and freeing up time for more strategic work. Already proving effective in demanding environments, it’s now scaling quickly, reshaping how foundational work gets done in a rapidly evolving economy.
THE ROLE
As an Applied AI/NLP Scientist, you will be central to developing and deploying advanced natural language processing solutions that tackle complex challenges in the legal-financial domain. Reporting to senior technical leadership, your work will span early-stage research through production-grade implementation.
Key Responsibilities:
- AI Model Innovation: Design and implement novel NLP and LLM architectures tailored for domain-specific applications across legal and financial datasets.
- Research to Production: Own projects from prototyping through production, leading 0-to-1 development of scalable NLP systems.
- Model Optimization: Enhance model performance through fine-tuning, prompt engineering, retrieval augmentation, and inference optimization.
- Cross-Functional Collaboration: Work closely with product, engineering, and executive teams to align AI capabilities with strategic goals.
- Thought Leadership: Help shape internal best practices in applied NLP/LLM development, and contribute to research papers and IP generation.
- Mentorship & Guidance: Provide technical insight and mentorship to junior researchers and engineers.
YOUR SKILLS AND EXPERIENCE
We’re seeking an experienced, hands-on NLP practitioner with a deep understanding of AI system development:
- 2-8 years of professional experience in applied NLP or LLM-based system development.
- Strong foundation in building and deploying NLP models in production settings.
- Proficiency with Python and modern ML/NLP frameworks (e.g., PyTorch, TensorFlow, HuggingFace, spaCy, etc.).
- Demonstrated experience scaling models across large, unstructured datasets.
- Applied research background with a proven track record of translating research into real-world tools and platforms.
- Deep understanding of LLM architectures, fine-tuning, prompt engineering, and retrieval-augmented generation (RAG).
- Excellent communication skills and comfort working in agile, high-ownership environments.
- PhD or Master’s degree in Computer Science, AI, Computational Linguistics, or related field (PhD preferred).
- Publication record in respected AI/NLP venues (e.g., ACL, EMNLP, NAACL, NeurIPS, ICLR) is highly desirable.
THE BENEFITS
- Competitive Compensation: Base salary of $180,000 – $220,000 + performance bonus
- Innovation Ownership: Drive the development of novel NLP applications and contribute to IP
- Remote Flexibility: Work from anywhere in the U.S.
- Full Benefits: Health, dental, vision, 401(k), generous PTO, and more
HOW TO APPLY
To explore this opportunity, please submit your resume to Luc Simpson-Kent using the Apply link on this page.
To Apply for this Job Click Here
Lead AI Engineer
New York
$200000 - $220000
+ Data Science & AI
PermanentNew York
To Apply for this Job Click Here
Lead AI Engineer – Financial Services | $200,000-220,000 + Bonus + Benefits
Location: New York, NY (REMOTE)
Industry: Financial Services
Harnham is proud to partner with a dynamic and fast-growing financial services firm which works directly with people to help along their financial journey. They are looking to hire their first Lead AI Engineer, someone passionate about building innovative machine learning solutions and driving thoughtful AI & LLM initiatives at an enterprise level.
This is a unique opportunity to take a hands-on leadership role, building machine learning and LLM capabilities, while shaping a team and strategy that supports long-term innovation and responsible AI use.
THE ROLE
As Lead AI Engineer, you will:
-
Partner closely with engineering and business teams to design and deliver machine learning solutions that address complex challenges.
-
Build and deploy ML and LLM models that support key initiatives in chatbot, voicebot and customer support center agents.
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Lead development of NLP applications such as text classification, summarization, and information extraction to support customer engagement and insights.
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Help define meaningful performance metrics (KPIs) for AI solutions and foster an environment of transparency and learning.
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Contribute to a culture of innovation by mentoring others, sharing knowledge, and laying the groundwork for a growing AI team.
YOUR SKILLS & EXPERIENCE
We’re looking for someone with:
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5+ years of experience in applied data science, machine learning, or related AI fields. 2+ most recent years using LLM / RAG technologies.
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A degree in a STEM or quantitative field such as Computer Science, Engineering, Mathematics, or Statistics.
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A strong track record of translating technical work into business value, particularly with cross-functional or non-technical stakeholders.
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Experience leading projects end-to-end, with mentorship or team-building experience.
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Proficiency in Python and familiarity with LLM tools like LangChain, Hugging Face, Llama.
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Exposure to cloud platforms (AWS preferred, but not required) and data visualization tools.
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Comfort and familiarity working in fast-paced environments like hyper-growth startups is a plus.
THE BENEFITS
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Competitive salary range of $200,000-220,000
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Performance-based bonus
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Comprehensive health and wellness benefits
- Better than market average retirement match
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Opportunity to build a strategic AI function from the ground up in a highly respected firm
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Supportive, forward-thinking leadership team invested in responsible innovation
HOW TO APPLY
If you’re excited about building impactful AI solutions and leading with curiosity, care, and purpose, we’d love to hear from you.
Please submit your résumé to Tim Jonas using the “Apply” link on this page.
Keywords:
AI Engineering | Machine Learning | NLP | LLM | Large Language Models | Financial Services | Responsible AI | Python | Cloud | Data Science | Llama | Leadership | Agents | Cross-functional Collaboration | Team Management | LangChain | Hugging Face | Chatbots | Voicebots
To Apply for this Job Click Here
AI Engineer
Amsterdam
€70000 - €80000
+ Computer Vision
PermanentAmsterdam, North Holland
To Apply for this Job Click Here
Job Title: AI Engineer – Computer Vision & AI Specialist
Location: Amsterdam
Job Type: Full-time
About Them
This company are on a mission to redefine what’s possible with AI. They are building cutting-edge solutions that harness the power of artificial intelligence to solve real-world problems at scale.
They are a smalll but growing company who have won multiple awards and they are looking for an AI/Computer Vision specialist to support them on a new role in the team.
The Role
They are looking for a passionate AI Engineer with deep expertise in Computer Vision to join our growing R&D team.
You’ll be designing and developing intelligent vision-based systems that can perceive, understand, and make decisions-across diverse environments and datasets.
This is a hands-on engineering role, perfect for someone who loves solving hard problems with elegant algorithms and robust code.
What You’ll Do
- Design, build, and deploy computer vision models (object detection, classification, segmentation, tracking, etc.)
- Work with image, video, and sensor data across real-time and batch pipelines
- Develop and optimize deep learning architectures (CNNs, Transformers, GANs, etc.)
- Collaborate with cross-functional teams including data engineers, product managers, and ML ops
- Research and implement state-of-the-art techniques from academia and industry
- Continuously monitor and improve model performance in production
- Contribute to our AI platform infrastructure and help scale our solutions
What They Are Looking For
- Proven experience in computer vision and deep learning (e.g., PyTorch, TensorFlow, OpenCV)
- Strong software engineering skills in Python and/or C++
- Solid understanding of neural networks, image processing, and machine learning fundamentals
- Familiarity with cloud platforms (AWS, GCP, or Azure) and GPU acceleration
- Experience with production-grade AI/ML systems is a big plus
- Degree in Computer Science, AI, Mathematics, or a related field (Master’s or PhD preferred)
- Curiosity, creativity, and a love for solving complex challenges
Bonus Points For
- Experience with 3D vision, LiDAR, SLAM, or AR/VR
- Contributions to open-source CV or AI projects
- Experience with MLOps and model lifecycle management
- Publications or Kaggle competition wins
What They Offer
- Competitive salary + stock options
- Flexible remote-first work culture
- Learning budget for conferences, books, and courses
- Work with a team of passionate, world-class AI engineers and researchers
- Real impact on cutting-edge products used by thousands (or millions!) of people
To Apply for this Job Click Here
Director of AI Engineering
New York
$275000 - $300000
+ Data Science & AI
PermanentNew York
To Apply for this Job Click Here
Director of AI Engineering
New York, NY (option for fully REMOTE)
$275,000-$300,000 base + bonus + full benefits
The Company
Harnham is working with a boutique consulting firm, which helps Fortune 500 companies unlock growth through strategy, transformation, and innovation. Its team partners closely with executive stakeholders to solve complex challenges using cutting-edge technology. It’s now hiring its first Director of AI Engineering – someone passionate about applying machine learning and NLP to drive real business impact.
The Opportunity
As the Director of AI Engineering, you’ll play a hands-on role in building and delivering high-impact AI solutions while laying the foundation for a growing AI practice. You’ll work directly with internal teams and client executives to bring data-driven strategies to life-while also shaping the long-term vision of our AI offerings.
What You’ll Do
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Lead and build AI/ML solutions that support internal innovation and client transformation across financial services, healthcare, CPG, and Food & Beverage.
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Develop & Deploy NLP/LLM models for tasks like text summarization, classification, and insight extraction-turning data into actionable intelligence.
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Collaborate cross-functionally with engineers, consultants, and client stakeholders to design and deploy end-to-end solutions.
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Advise clients on responsible, strategic use of AI to help them stay competitive and future-ready.
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Mentor and grow a small team over the next 12-18 months as the AI function expands.
What You Bring
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10+ years of professional experience in AI, machine learning, or data science
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Expertise in NLP and LLMs (e.g., BERT, spaCy, NLTK, HuggingFace) preferred
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Experience leading projects from start to finish in fast-paced or client-facing environments
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Strong communication skills and the ability to engage technical and non-technical audiences alike
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Proficiency in Python and working knowledge of common ML and visualization libraries
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Background in a STEM or quantitative field (graduate degree a plus)
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Consulting exposure is a plus
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Experience with cloud platforms
Why Join Us
-
Competitive base salary: $275,000-$300,000 + performance bonus
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Opportunity to build and lead the firm’s AI capabilities from day one
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Work with smart, driven professionals on impactful, high-visibility projects
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Entrepreneurial, flexible environment with room to shape your role and grow
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Full benefits package and a collaborative workplace culture
Apply Now
Interested? Submit your résumé via the Apply link or reach out to Tim Jonas at Harnham for a confidential conversation.
KEYWORDS:
AI Strategy | NLP | LLM | Financial Services | Healthcare | Retail | CPG | Consumer Goods | Consulting | Machine Learning | Data Science | Python | Digital Transformation | Client Advisory | Boutique Consulting | Enterprise AI
To Apply for this Job Click Here
AI Engineer/ Machine Learning Engineer
London
£400 - £650
+ Computer Vision
ContractLondon
To Apply for this Job Click Here
Project Focus:
- Objective: Predict the success of marketing content (images, videos, and text) before campaigns go live using multi-modal AI models.
- Method:
- Apply customer research (survey/NLP data) alongside computer vision and text models.
- Build models that can take a new creative (image, video, or ad copy) and predict its expected performance.
- Reduce reliance on traditional lengthy A/B testing by using pre-testing AI models.
- Provide detailed post-campaign insights, including content attributes that worked (or didn’t) for different audience segments (e.g., high spenders).
- Backtesting:
- AI models should be able to simulate performance against historical data to validate predictions.
- Models should also score new content (ads/videos/copy) before it is launched.
Key Technical Requirements:
1. Multi-Modal AI Expertise
- Ability to work with images, video, and text data simultaneously.
- Experience building or applying multi-modal models (e.g., combining visual and textual inputs).
2. Experience with Open-Source Models
- Ideally familiar with OpenAI CLIP or similar vision-language models.
- Should know how to adapt and apply open-source AI models to real-world data (not just academic familiarity).
3. Computer Vision and NLP Skills
- Computer vision: Practical knowledge – but not traditional CV (e.g., object detection) – focus is on newer multimodal models.
- NLP: Able to process and leverage customer research data (e.g., surveys, text responses).
4. Programming and Statistical Foundation
- Strong coding skills – must be a programmer at heart, not just a “tool user.”
- Solid background in statistics and mathematics to build reliable, explainable models.
- Should understand model evaluation, backtesting, and simulation of campaign performance.
5. Content Performance Modeling
- Build models that:
- Predict creative success for new ads, videos, and text.
- Backtest models using historical data.
- Score and provide insights into what aspects of content perform best.
To Apply for this Job Click Here
We are the global leaders in Data & AI Recruitment
With over 15 years of experience working solely in the Data & AI sector, our San Francisco-focussed consultants are able to offer detailed insights and support into the industry.
Industry Hub
HARNHAM
News & Blog
With over 10 years experience working solely in the Data & AI sector our consultants are able to offer detailed insights into the industry.
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Testimonials
Client and
candidate
testimonials
A trusted partner of professionals
across the globe.
We understand the challenges our
customers face and offer the
recruitment solutions needed to drive
business success through Data &
AI.
Client – Director of People Operations
We’ve been collaborating with Harnham to recruit some key positions for our company, and they have been incredible partners. They team has been great and efficient. They understood our needs perfectly and provided us very talented candidates. We'll keep collaborating with them in the future. Thank you for your excellent job!
Client /
Director of People Operations
Client – Data Direction – Broadcast Media
I have worked with Harnham for over 2 years now as our main Analytics Recruiter partner and I am very pleased with the overall service and the people we have hired via Harnham. Harnham’s team is very good at understanding our recruitment needs and always come back with relevant and well scanned CVs, which saves me precious time.
Client /
Data Direction – Broadcast Media
Client – Director of Customer Data Science – Apparel
The team at Harnham have been outstanding in helping our company build a market-leading data science team. Harnham’s communication is great, and the recruiter’s take a consultative approach that’s really focused on provided value for both their clients and their candidates. They provide strong candidates that help us fill our roles with high achievers who are also a great fit for our culture.
Client /
Director of Customer Data Science – Apparel
Candidate – Data Analyst
I’ve had a great experience with Harnham. The recruiter provided great advice and ensured that I understood everything, and even followed up with me after I started my new role to see how I was settling in. I would recommend Harnham as a great recruitment company for anyone looking for a role in data and analytics.
Candidate /
Data Analyst
Candidate – Chief Data Officer
It was a real treat to work with Harnham. My recruiter consistently went above and beyond to ensure that I navigated through the recruitment process as smooth as possible. I had been in contact with other professional at Harnham in the past and I can attest that the level of professionalism is always top-notch.
Candidate /
Chief Data Officer
Candidate – Market Research Analyst
Thanks to Harnham, I am now in a role that suits me. My recruiter was able to quickly identify the skills I had to offer and match me up with his client. It was a win-win for everyone. I was given great advice throughout the process, and I also appreciated the follow-ups that I received.
Candidate /
Market Research Analyst
Candidate – Digital Media and Analytics
I've recently got a short-term contract role through Harnham, and things couldn't have gone better! My recruiter was incredibly helpful throughout the entire process. They also provided incredible admin support so that I could focus on the actual job in hand, rather than having to spend too much time dealing with these matters.
Candidate /
Digital Media and Analytics
Candidate – Senior Data Engineer
I've been a Senior Data Engineer for about 4-5 years and Harnham is one of the best recruitment agencies I worked with. There was a time when my offer fell through and the recruiter I was working with at Harnham jumped in to the rescue and scheduled interviews for me within a couple of days. Really good agency and some great people.
