Lead AI Developer (Hybrid)

About Parsec

Parsec Automation, LLC is a global leader in manufacturing operations management software. Recognized by Gartner, IDC, and numerous industry awards, Parsec’s flagship MES platform, TrakSYS™, powers efficiency, quality, and compliance improvements at over 11,000 plants across 140+ countries. Manufacturers such as Johnson & Johnson, Merck, Toyota, Procter & Gamble, Hershey, Siemens, and DuPont rely on TrakSYS to manage complex operations with clarity and precision.

Parsec is backed by BVP Forge, part of the $20B Bessemer platform, known for supporting category-defining companies such as LinkedIn, Procore, Shopify, and Toast. 

About the Role

The Lead AI Developer will architect and implement advanced AI capabilities inside our Microsoft-based, customer-network (on-prem) platform. A primary focus of this role is building production-grade agentic AI functionality, including an MCP-based tool ecosystem and secure integrations with hosted LLM providers.

This role goes beyond experimentation. You will design AI systems that are safe, observable, scalable, and supportable in regulated manufacturing environments. You will be hands-on in architecture and development while also providing technical leadership, mentorship, and design oversight across AI-related initiatives within the platform.

Key Responsibilities

AI Architecture & Implementation (80%)

• Define the reference architecture for AI capabilities within an on-prem Microsoft stack (ASP.NET, .NET services, SQL Server).
• Design and implement a production-grade agent runtime integrated into web and service layers with clear boundaries, policy controls, and auditability.
• Build agent/orchestrator services to manage:
  • Conversation and task state
  • Tool routing and execution
  • Retries, timeouts, and step limits
• Integrate with hosted LLM providers (Azure OpenAI, OpenAI, others) using function/tool calling patterns and response quality guardrails.
• Establish patterns for MCP servers/clients, tool contracts (schemas, semantics), versioning, and backward compatibility.
• Build and maintain locally hosted MCP tool servers to securely access:
  • SQL Server (stored procedures, parameterized queries, row limiting)
  • Internal REST APIs and service endpoints
  • File/report generation subsystems
• Implement safety boundaries (read-only vs. gated write tools), validation layers, and consistent error handling.
• Design and implement human-in-the-loop workflows for sensitive actions, including confirmations, approvals, and UI transparency.
• Ensure secure-by-design principles including:
  • Least privilege access
  • Data minimization
  • Secrets management
  • Environment configuration standards
  • Audit logging of tool calls and outputs
• Build comprehensive observability (structured logging, tracing, metrics, dashboards).
• Develop and maintain a strong testing strategy (unit, integration, contract testing, simulated tool failures)

Technical Leadership & Collaboration (20%)

• Provide technical leadership and mentorship across AI development initiatives.
• Lead architecture discussions, conduct design/code reviews, and drive implementation to completion.
• Partner with Product Management to translate prioritized use cases into an actionable AI roadmap aligned to platform constraints and release cadence.
• Create developer documentation and “golden path” templates for building new agents and tools.
• Support on-prem deployment design (upgrade paths, rollback strategies, diagnostics).
• Assist implementation and support teams in troubleshooting AI-related issues.
• Continue expanding expertise in relevant technologies, the TrakSYS™ platform, and manufacturing domain concepts.

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Information Technology, or related field.
• 7+ years of professional software development experience, including production distributed systems.
• Strong .NET experience (C#, ASP.NET, Windows Services and/or .NET Worker Services).
• Microsoft SQL Server experience (schema design, safe query patterns, stored procedures/views, performance fundamentals).
• Experience integrating with LLM APIs and implementing production-grade tool/function calling patterns.
• Experience designing API/tool contracts (schemas, versioning, error handling, idempotency, pagination/limits).
• Solid understanding of security fundamentals (authentication, authorization, least privilege, secrets management, threat modeling).
• Ability to lead architecture discussions and produce clear technical designs.
• Familiarity with Windows client/server environments and on-prem deployment considerations.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with MCP (Model Context Protocol) or similar plugin/tool ecosystems.
• Experience with Semantic Kernel and/or Microsoft.Extensions.AI in .NET applications.
• Experience deploying enterprise software.
• Familiarity with manufacturing/MES concepts (ISA-95 hierarchies, production events, downtime, quality workflows).
• Experience with Azure (identity, networking, OpenAI service integration, monitoring).
• Experience implementing policy and guardrail layers (approval flows, content filtering, RAG constraints).

Benefits

• $150,000 to $165,000 annual salary
• Flexible schedule
• Variable Bonus based on company and individual performance 
• 401(k) with company match
• 100% company-paid health insurance premiums for employees 
• Flexible vacation / PTO
• Flexible Spending Account (FSA) plan available for eligible healthcare and dependent care expenses 
• Outstanding team environment