AI·Intermediate
AI Engineer
Target role — Applied AI
Build, evaluate and ship applications powered by modern LLMs — with the engineering judgment to make them reliable.
By the end, you'll have shipped
A deployed LLM-powered productA RAG system over real documentsAn agent with tool useAn evaluation harness with metrics
Career insight
7,400+
Open roles
active openings, last 30 days
$155k
Median salary
$110k–$220k · US median base, mid-level
Surging demand
Hiring demand
fastest-growing engineering title
No degree required
Typical entry
Shipped AI products outweigh credentials
Most-requested skills
Cloud
Related roles
ML EngineerSoftware EngineerResearch EngineerSolutions Architect
The path · 5 stages · 18 checkpoints
Stage progression
1
Python & ML Foundations
Solid Python plus just enough ML theory to reason about model behaviour.
Production Python
2.5 weeks
How LLMs Work
2 weeks
Working with Model APIs
APIs1.5 weeks
2
Prompting & Context Engineering
The highest-leverage skill: shaping what goes into the model.
3
RAG & Knowledge Systems
Ground models in your data: retrieval, chunking, reranking.
4
Agents & Tool Use
Models that act: tools, loops, multi-step work and the protocols emerging around them.
5
Ship & Job Search
Deploy, monitor and prove it — then convert the portfolio into offers.