Role overview
**Senior Vertex AI / MLOps Engineer (GCP, Python, Terraform)**
* **Job Title:**
Senior Vertex AI Engineer
* **Location:**
Houston, TX
* **Client:**
Cognizant / NRG Energy
**Job Summary**
We are seeking an experienced
**Senior Vertex AI Engineer**
with
**7+ years of experience**
to lead the design, development, and deployment of large-scale Machine Learning and AI solutions exclusively on
**Google Cloud Platform (GCP)**
. The role requires deep technical expertise in
**Vertex AI**
,
**MLOps**
, and end-to-end ML lifecycle automation. The engineer will own the solution architecture, provide hands-on implementation, and mentor junior engineers, focusing on operationalizing AI/ML initiatives using core GCP services.
**Key Responsibilities**
* **MLOps Architecture:**
Architect and optimize
**MLOps pipelines**
for model training, validation, deployment, and monitoring.
* **Vertex AI Development:**
Lead the development and deployment of scalable ML models using
**Vertex AI**
(Pipelines, Training Jobs, Feature Store, Model Registry, and Monitoring).
* **GCP Integration:**
Integrate core GCP components suchs as
**BigQuery, Dataflow, Cloud Run, Pub/Sub, and Cloud Functions**
.
* **Technical Leadership:**
Lead troubleshooting, performance optimization, and provide architectural guidance while mentoring team members.
* **Governance:**
Implement best practices in versioning, CI/CD, and governance for ML workflows.
**Required Skills & Experience**
1. **Vertex AI & GCP (3+ years hands-on):**
Practical experience with
**Vertex AI Pipelines, Training Jobs, Feature Store, and Model Monitoring**
.
2. **ML Development:**
Proven expertise in
**Python**
with libraries like
**TensorFlow, PyTorch, or Scikit-Learn**
.
3. **MLOps & DevOps:**
Strong understanding of
**MLOps, CI/CD, Docker/Kubernetes**
, and IaC tools (
**Terraform preferred**
).
4. **Integration:**
Experience integrating ML APIs and
**REST endpoints**
into business applications.
5. **Certification:**
Google Cloud ML Engineer or Architect certification
**highly preferred**
.
**Nice to Have**
* Exposure to
**Generative AI / LLM integration**
using Vertex AI or PaLM API.
* Experience working with data governance, model explainability, and bias detection tools.