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.
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.
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.
Run experiments to evaluate model performance, prompt variations, retrieval strategies, and end-to-end system behavior.
Participate actively in code reviews, design discussions, and team rituals, asking questions and offering perspectives.
Communicate progress, blockers, and trade-offs clearly in standups, written updates, and design documents.
Working knowledge of how large language models behave in practice, including experience calling LLM APIs (OpenAI, Anthropic, 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.
Bachelor's degree in Computer Science , Data Science, Machine Learning, Engineering, or a related field, or equivalent demonstrable experience.
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.
A portfolio of personal projects, open source contributions, hackathon work, or coursework that demonstrates curiosity and initiative in AI.
Coursework or self-directed learning in machine learning, deep learning, NLP, or information retrieval.
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 (Azure, or AWS).
Bonus: Notebook environments ( Jupyter , Colab ), evaluation tools (RAGAS, LangSmith , Weights and Biases), basic frontend development.
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
[email protected]. 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. This role is not eligible for visa sponsorship.
