Upwork
Lead AI Engineer, NLQ & Agentic Systems
Toronto, Ontario, Canada · Contract
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About the role
- Upwork Inc.'s (Nasdaq: UPWK) family of companies connects businesses with global, AI-enabled talent across every contingent work type including freelance, fractional, and payrolled.
- Learn more about the Upwork Marketplace at Upwork.com and follow us on LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and X; and learn more about Lifted at Go-Lifted and follow on LinkedIn.
- Upwork is establishing an operational hub in Toronto, Canada.
Responsibilities
- Design and implement scalable agentic frameworks that coordinate multiple AI agents to deliver accurate and reliable outcomes.
- Build and optimize natural language query solutions that provide compliant, intuitive, and self-service access to enterprise data.
- Develop and maintain evaluation frameworks for LLMs and prompts, driving measurable improvements in accuracy, scalability, and resilience.
- Partner with data engineering peers to integrate AI orchestration with Python, SQL, and Snowflake pipelines.
- Collaborate cross-functionally with product, analytics, and business teams to ensure solutions meet measurable business goals.
- Demonstrated ability to design agentic orchestration frameworks that scale across diverse business scenarios.
- A collaborative problem-solver with strong communication skills, able to align stakeholders and create clarity across teams.
- Growth mindset-excited to learn, iterate, and deliver measurable business outcomes through applied AI.
- This position will initially be employed through a partner to ensure a seamless hiring process while we establish the hub.
- Upwork is committed to building a diverse, inclusive, and equitable workforce.
Requirements
- Strong foundation in modern data engineering, with proficiency in Python, SQL, and platforms such as Snowflake.
Compensation
- The annual base salary range for this position is displayed below.
- The range displayed reflects the minimum and maximum salary for this position, and individual base pay will depend on your skills, qualifications, experience, and location.
Benefits
- Our partner will offer competitive benefits.
- When Upwork's hub is established, we will be excited to offer employment and benefits directly as business needs require.
- Employment decisions are made without regard to race, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, or any other status protected by applicable law.
Company info
- While employed by the partner, you'll work as part of Upwork's team, with access to our resources, culture, and growth opportunities.
Visa & Work Authorization
- Candidates who prefer not to have their interview recorded through BrightHire can opt out when the interview is scheduled.
This listing is sourced directly from Upwork's careers page and normalized into a canonical job model.