AI Developer

About Salvo Software

Salvo Software is a global technology company specializing in custom software development and advanced engineering solutions. With distributed teams across the US, LATAM, and India, we partner with clients to build high-performance, scalable systems that solve complex technical challenges. Our culture values innovation, ownership, and engineering excellence. We're growing our AI capabilities and are looking for a backend-focused AI Developer to join our team

Role Description

We are seeking a highly skilled AI Developer with a strong backend and machine learning engineering background to design, train, optimize, and deploy LLM models in on-prem and offline environments. This role is deeply technical and hands-on, requiring expertise across Python ML stacks, model optimization, local inference frameworks, and DevOps workflows tailored for offline systems.You will work closely with our engineering and product teams to build end-to-end LLM pipelines, including data preprocessing, supervised fine-tuning, model quantization, evaluation, and deployment using local or air-gapped infrastructure. If you enjoy working with cutting-edge open-source LLMs, optimizing models for constrained environments, and building reliable backend pipelines, this role is for you.

Responsibilities

Core LLM Development

• Train and fine-tune LLMs using supervised fine-tuning (SFT)
• Work with open-source models such as LLaMA, Mistral, Qwen, and similar architectures
• Build LoRA / Q-LoRA pipelines for efficient fine-tuning
• Implement and optimize data preprocessing workflows, including tokenization and long-context handling
• Use and extend Hugging Face Transformers & Datasets for training and inference
• Parse and process structured and semi-structured data, including XML/XSD files
• Implement document parsing solutions for Office formats (python-docx, OpenXML)
  

Offline / On-Prem Model Expertise

• Deploy, run, and maintain models fully offline and in air-gapped environments
• Perform model optimization and quantization (GGUF, GPTQ, AWQ, bitsandbytes)
• Build and maintain inference systems using frameworks like vLLM, TGI, and Ollama
• Optimize GPU usage (CUDA, cuDNN, VRAM-aware batching)
• Maintain local CI/CD pipelines for ML models without cloud dependencies
• Manage local model registries, versioning, and artifacts
  

Backend & DevOps

• Build backend services in Python for ML training and inference workflows
• Work with relational databases (Postgres/MySQL)
• Use Docker and Git for reliable development and deployment pipelines
• Use Azure DevOps for CI/CD (including local runners when applicable)
  

Requirements

Technical Skills

• Strong experience in Python for backend and ML development
• Expertise with ML frameworks such as PyTorch or TensorFlow, scikit-learn, and pandas
• Solid knowledge of Postgres or MySQL for data storage
• Experience with Docker, Git, and DevOps best practices
• Hands-on expertise with LLM training, fine-tuning, and optimization
• Experience with Hugging Face Transformers & Datasets
• Familiarity with XML/XSD and Office document parsing tools
• Experience deploying models with vLLM, TGI, or Ollama
• Understanding of quantization techniques (GGUF/GPTQ/AWQ)
• Experience working with GPU optimization and CUDA stack
• Ability to build solutions for offline, on-prem, and air-gapped environments
  

Nice to Have

• Experience managing ML model registries in offline environments
• Familiarity with AWS for hybrid deployments (not mandatory)
• Experience with secure environments, restricted networks, or enterprise compliance
  

Soft Skills

• Strong ownership and problem-solving ability
• Ability to work in distributed teams across time zones
• Clear communication when discussing complex technical topics