Contract to start, with opportunity for full-time

New York or Remote (EST preferred)

Contract rate: $125–$175/hr | Full-time base salary: $135,000–$165,000 (base)

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We are hiring an AI engineer to build the systems, integrations, and infrastructure that power our AI-native brand work.

At Little Plains, AI is part of how we design, how we build, and increasingly how our clients operate their brands after handoff. This role exists to make that real, technically.

This is a hands-on role. You design and build AI systems.

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Why This Role Exists

We deliver brand systems in two formats: human-facing (Figma, guidelines, decks) and agent-readable (Markdown, YAML, JSON, structured knowledge bases, prompt libraries). That means our clients can run AI workflows directly on top of their brand systems, and our studio can use AI to move faster at every layer of the work.

The quality of the underlying architecture matters as much as the quality of the creative output. Right now, most of it is being designed by creative and strategy teams working close to the technology. We need someone who lives in it.

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About Little Plains

Little Plains is a modern brand and product studio. Our work is built in context, alongside design and product, guided by strong points of view and supported by AI-driven systems that make speed and rigor compatible. Strategy only matters if it shows up in the work itself.

We work primarily with early-stage companies, often from pre-launch through Series A, at moments where clarity, speed, and conviction matter most. Our partners are founders and small senior teams building new products, categories, and narratives under real constraints.

We operate as an embedded creative partner rather than a traditional digital agency, building brand, product, and go-to-market work into cohesive systems that can scale as companies grow. Our work spans healthcare, biotech, SaaS, and consumer products.

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What You Will Do

This is a hands-on role building systems that sit at the intersection of AI and brand.

Day to day, you will:

• Design and build AI-native brand infrastructure: structured knowledge bases, prompt libraries, and agent-readable brand artifacts in Markdown, YAML, and JSON
• Build and maintain multi-agent systems with distinct roles, tooling, and guardrails across studio functions
• Develop LLM integrations, RAG pipelines, and tool-use architectures that connect AI agents to external software via MCP and API integrations
• Design structured output schemas that produce consistent, machine-readable deliverables from unstructured creative inputs
• Build internal tooling that helps creative and strategy teams work faster and more consistently
• Evaluate new models, frameworks, and architectures as they emerge and help the studio stay ahead

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How We Work

We build alongside design and strategy, not downstream of it.

AI engineering at Little Plains is a creative function as much as a technical one. You are involved in shaping what we build, not just how. Work is shared early, iterated on quickly, and expected to hold up under real use.

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The Bar for Craft

We care about systems that are clean, durable, and actually used.

This role requires strong engineering fundamentals, genuine curiosity about AI, and the ability to build things that creative and strategy teams can actually work with. Technical quality matters. So does practical usefulness.

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What We're Looking For

• 3–5 years of software engineering experience, with hands-on work building LLM-based applications or AI systems
• Experience building with LLM APIs (OpenAI, Anthropic, etc.), including prompt engineering, structured outputs, and RAG architectures
• Familiarity with agent frameworks and tool-use patterns: function calling, MCP integrations, multi-agent coordination
• Strong proficiency in Python and/or TypeScript
• Experience designing and deploying production-grade AI pipelines
• Comfort with vector databases, embedding pipelines, and retrieval optimization
• Familiarity with structured output schemas (JSON Schema, Pydantic) and context window management strategies
• Genuine interest in brand, design, and how companies communicate: you do not need to be a designer, but you need to care about the output
• Experience with event-driven or webhook-based architectures for connecting AI systems to external tools is a plus

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Benefits (Full-Time)

• Quarterly profit share tied to studio performance
• Equity participation for long-term team members
• Medical, dental, and vision insurance (50% employer-covered)
• 15 days PTO (Year 1, increases by 2 days/year)
• Parental leave: 12 weeks (birth parent), 6 weeks (non-birth parent) at full pay
• Prenatal leave: 20 hours paid per year
• $1,000/year craft and tools stipend
• $200/month coworking stipend

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What to Submit

• Resume or LinkedIn profile
• Links to relevant work, repos, or projects
• A short note on what you think is underexplored at the intersection of AI and brand

If you want to build the infrastructure that makes AI-native branding actually work, let's talk.

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Equal Opportunity & Fair Chance

Little Plains is an equal opportunity employer. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, marital status, veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by applicable federal, state, or local law, including the New York State and New York City Human Rights Laws.

In accordance with the NYC Fair Chance Act, we consider applicants with criminal histories. Any background check will occur only after a conditional offer of employment has been made.

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Apply Now

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Thank You.

‍We appreciate your consideration. We will do our best to view every submission carefully, and in a timely manner. Please allow a few business days for us to get back to your submission, and we look forward to hopefully talking more.‍

Cheers,
Little Plains