AI Engineer at Barrel

About Barrel

Something happened to software. It’s now AI-first. Remember when business software was just a set of tools? You pay for it, install it, use it, and manage everything manually. Teams spent hours, sometimes days, doing the same repetitive tasks on these tools, over and over again. That was the status quo.

But business software is evolving.

We’ve seen a shift. The future isn’t about more tools—it’s about intelligence. Businesses today don’t just need software to manage processes; they need intelligent partners that can learn, adapt, and execute on their behalf. Software ate the world. Now AI is eating it. At Barrel, we began as a tool designed to help companies build custom procurement processes. However, our users surprised us by applying our workflow builder in ways we hadn’t anticipated. This sparked our curiosity, so we delved deeper.

We conducted hundreds of interviews & listened closely to our users. Through this, we’ve uncovered a pressing issue: we were only scratching the surface. It was time to go back to the drawing board.

The Problem: Manual work is slowing businesses down

For many companies, teams in HR, IT, and finance spend countless hours every week handling repetitive tasks. Updating employee records. Managing software and device access. Approving spend requests. It’s slow, prone to error, and it’s holding businesses back from scaling.

The SaaS tools that were supposed to help are part of the problem. They’re fragmented, disconnected, and make scaling operations feel like a never-ending struggle.

Introducing Barrel – All-in-one AI agent for people, money & tech operations.

Barrel isn’t just another tool. It’s an AI agent designed to handle the heavy lifting in HR, IT, and finance operations. With Barrel, you can automate workflows in plain English—no technical jargon, no complicated setup. Just tell it what you need, and let it do the rest.

Imagine freeing up your team from the manual grind. Managing employee data across platforms? Done. Handling software and device permissions with a few clicks? Easy. Streamlining spend approvals without the endless back-and-forth? Barrel’s got it covered.

This is software that works for you, not the other way around

Role Overview

We are looking for an AI Engineer to join our growing team. In this role, you’ll be at the heart of our product development, working closely with our founders and engineers to integrate AI models into our platform. You will develop, fine-tune, and optimize machine learning algorithms, focusing on natural language processing (NLP) and large language models (LLMs) that will power Barrel. Your work will help us automate complex workflows and offer our users a seamless, intelligent experience.

Key Responsibilities

As an AI Engineer, you will:

1. Integrate AI Models:
   • Work with Large Language Models (LLMs) like OpenAI’s GPT, Anthropic’s Claude, etc. to seamlessly integrate AI capabilities into our platform.
   • Design and develop custom workflows that leverage LLMs to automate repetitive tasks across HR, IT, and finance.
2. NLP Development:
   • Develop and implement NLP solutions to enable natural language understanding and processing.
   • Optimize AI interactions to allow users to perform tasks through natural language commands, improving the platform’s ease of use.
3. Fine-Tune and Optimize:
   • Fine-tune LLMs for specific domain-related tasks, improving their accuracy and relevance to our target market.
   • Continuously optimize model performance, balancing accuracy, speed, and cost-effectiveness.
4. AI Workflow Automation:
   • Build scalable AI-driven workflows to automate tasks such as managing employee data, software permissions, and finance approvals.
   • Collaborate with product managers and engineers to design AI systems that align with user needs and business objectives.
5. Prompt Engineering:
   • Design and refine effective prompts to elicit accurate, relevant responses from LLMs.
   • Experiment with and optimize prompt strategies to improve model outputs in real-world scenarios.
6. Data Processing:
   • Work with the data team to gather and preprocess data, ensuring it’s clean and ready for AI model training.
   • Develop algorithms to process, classify, and analyze large datasets efficiently.
7. Collaboration & Leadership:
   • Collaborate with cross-functional teams including developers, designers, and product managers to deliver high-quality AI-driven features.
   • Provide technical guidance and mentorship to junior engineers.
8. Research and Innovation:
   • Stay up-to-date with the latest advancements in AI and NLP technologies.
   • Experiment with new models, tools, and approaches to keep our AI capabilities on the cutting edge.
9. Security and Compliance:
   • Ensure that AI systems comply with data privacy regulations and best practices, particularly in sensitive areas such as HR and finance.
   • Implement strategies to secure data and mitigate potential security risks in AI operations.

Skills and Qualifications

• Experience:
  • 3+ years of experience in AI engineering with a focus on NLP.
  • Proven experience integrating LLMs (e.g., GPT, Claude, etc.) into software platforms.
  • Strong background in prompt engineering and fine-tuning AI models for specific tasks.
• NLP Expertise:
  • Expertise in developing NLP algorithms, including text classification, entity recognition, and language generation.
  • Hands-on experience with frameworks like Hugging Face, SpaCy, or similar NLP libraries.
• Programming Skills:
  • Proficient in Python and relevant ML libraries (TensorFlow, PyTorch, etc.).
  • Experience with cloud platforms like AWS, GCP, or Azure, particularly for deploying machine learning models.
• Data Science:
  • Proficient in data cleaning, preprocessing, and analysis.
  • Experience working with large datasets, data pipelines, and distributed computing tools (e.g., Apache Spark).
• AI Tools:
  • Familiarity with AI model APIs and prompt optimization for LLMs.
  • Experience in training and deploying AI models in production environments.
• Soft Skills:
  • Strong problem-solving skills and the ability to work in a fast-paced, startup environment.
  • Excellent communication skills, with the ability to explain complex technical concepts to non-technical stakeholders.
  • Passion for innovation, learning, and pushing the boundaries of AI applications.

What We Offer

• Opportunity to be part of a pioneering AI-first platform transforming business operations.
• Flexible working hours and remote work options.
• A collaborative and innovation-driven environment.