Chief Engineer

AI Chief Engineer

Location: Onsite (USA BASED JOB)

Type: Contract-to-Core (Milestone-Based Hourly + Equity)

Minimum Working Exp: 7 years +

Industry: Healthcare

We are a agentic AI-driven workforce optimization platform that helps hospitals reduce labor costs and improve staffing decisions. Instead of relying on dashboards or manual analysis, NRT acts as an AI coach that interprets KPIs, identifies root causes, and guides managers on what actions to take.

Hospitals are facing rising labor costs, worsening staffing shortages, and increasing pressure to do more with less. Existing workforce solutions focus on scheduling or HCM tasks but do little to help leaders understand demand, project staffing needs, or make consistent, data-driven decisions. NRT closes this gap by combining predictive demand modeling, staffing grid intelligence, scenario planning, and agentic AI designed specifically for healthcare operations.

Traction

We have early but meaningful traction with several health systems, including 16 hospitals in active deployment of the MVP, and late-stage conversations with 100+ additional hospitals. Leaders across finance, nursing, operations, and workforce management have validated the need for a tool that connects staffing grids, demand patterns, and workload drivers into clear, actionable recommendations for staffing and position control.

On the product side, we've built early models for demand forecasting, staffing logic, and agentic reasoning, along with foundational data ingestion and reporting infrastructure. We are now moving toward securing a co-development partner and building our alpha product.

About the Role

We're hiring a Chief Engineer to lead the technical strategy, architecture, and execution of our AI-driven workforce optimization platform. This is a highly influential, hands-on leadership role where you will help define how the platform is built, guide engineering direction, and contribute directly to its development.

You will work side-by-side with the co-founders to shape system architecture, build critical product components yourself, and manage a small engineering team as we scale. This role is ideal for someone who wants both flexibility and meaningful ownership in an early-stage, high-velocity environment.

Compensation Structure

●      Compensation tied to defined milestones

○      Milestones will be collaboratively defined

○      Milestones may include technical deliverables, integrations, data models, prototypes, and platform features

●      Equity package with vesting schedule (standard 4-year or milestone-based vesting)

●      Clear path to grow into a long-term CTO or VP of Engineering role

This structure provides flexibility while ensuring transparency, alignment, and meaningful upside as a core technical leader.

What You'll DoTechnical Strategy & Architecture

●      Own the technical roadmap, system architecture, and engineering direction

●      Translate business, operational, and data requirements into clear technical planning

●      Architect scalable systems across data pipelines, AI agents, integrations, and core application services

Hands-On Engineering

●      Build foundational backend services, data workflows, and integrations

●      Develop APIs, microservices, and internal automation tools

●      Build and optimize LLM-powered agents, RAG pipelines, vector store logic, and reasoning workflows

Team Leadership & Management

●      Hire, manage, and mentor an engineering team as it grows

●      Set engineering standards, code review processes, and development best practices

●      Run sprint planning, architecture reviews, and milestone execution

Data Engineering & Integrations

●      Build and manage data ingestion pipelines (e.g. APIs, SFTP, HL7/FHIR, CSV/Excel)

●      Design performant SQL data models and transformation layers

●      Implement integrations with EHRs, workforce management systems, and other hospital tools

Cross-Functional Collaboration

●      Work directly with the co-founders, product stakeholders, and healthcare SMEs

●      Break down operational workflows (staffing, demand forecasting, scheduling) into structured engineering logic

●      Participate in design sessions, customer calls, and early deployments

What We're Looking ForRequired

● years of engineering experience (backend, full-stack, or data engineering)

●      Experience leading or managing engineers

●      Strong hands-on skills with Python, TypeScript/JavaScript, SQL

●      Deep experience with cloud infrastructure (Azure strongly preferred)

●      Proven experience building LLM-based features, agentic workflows, or AI-enabled applications

●      Prior architecture experience in a startup or complex data environment

●      Strong ownership mindset and comfort operating independently

Preferred

●      Experience with healthcare data, EHR integrations, and staffing workflows

●      Familiarity with HL7, FHIR, and secure healthcare APIs

●      Experience with agent frameworks, vector databases, or orchestration tooling

●      Prior early-stage or founding engineer role

●      Exposure to HIPAA or SOC 2 environments

Who You Are

●      Both a strategic thinker and a hands-on builder

●      Comfortable defining milestones, scoping work, and executing efficiently

●      A leader who can manage, mentor, and scale an engineering team

●      Mission-driven and excited about improving healthcare operations

●      Pragmatic, resourceful, and comfortable in ambiguity

Why Join Us

●      Lead engineering for a category-defining healthcare AI platform

●      Influence every major technical decision and build the system from the ground up

●      Enjoy flexibility with milestone-based hourly compensation plus meaningful equity

●      Work directly with the co-founders and real hospital systems, shaping the product

●      Opportunity to transition into a long-term executive technical role