AI Engineer (Agentic Workflows)

Position Title: AI Engineer (Agentic Workflows) Department: Research & Development Company: Protocase Inc. Location: Waterloo, Ontario, Canada Work Arrangement: In-Office Employment Type: Full-Time Shift: Dayshift Level: Mid–Senior (Expected Experience: 3+ Years) Full Transparency: We Work a Little Differently Around Here.

This isn't just another job where you punch in and punch out. We come to work every day because we strive to earn a living in a meaningful way. Too many people exist without finding joy or purpose in their work, and we believe that's just wrong. After all, we spend at least a third of our lives working—so why not create workplaces where people want to come to work in the morning and feel good when they leave at the end of the day?

At Protocase, your ideas don't just matter—they shape our future. We thrive on collaboration and innovation, where every voice is heard, valued, and makes a real impact. Does this sound like something you'd want to be a part of and help grow? Protocase specializes in custom sheet metal enclosures, panels, and parts for engineers and innovators worldwide, built with unmatched speed and quality.

We take the impossible and make it possible for some of the brightest minds on the planet. Learn more about us: 👉 https://workdifferently.info/ About the Role As an AI Engineer (Agentic Workflows) at Protocase, you will design and build applications, automations, and agentic systems on top of existing large language models (LLMs) and foundation models.

This role owns the layer between a model's raw capability and a working business solution: orchestration, retrieval, tool integration, prompt and context design, and evaluation. You'll think in terms of workflows and outcomes—identifying where an agentic or AI-assisted process can replace or augment manual work—and move from abstract problem statements to concrete, working pipelines.

This role does not require deep expertise in training or fine-tuning models from scratch. It requires strong software engineering fundamentals, systems thinking, and fluency in the current landscape of LLM APIs, agent frameworks, and retrieval tooling.

What You'll Do

Design and build agentic workflows that plan, call tools, and chain multi-step actions to complete tasks with minimal human intervention. Integrate large language models into products and internal tools via APIs and open-source inference/serving frameworks. Architect retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) pipelines, including document ingestion, chunking strategy, embedding selection, and vector database integration.

Design and iterate on prompts, system instructions, and context-management strategies to reliably steer model behavior. Select and integrate appropriate orchestration tooling to coordinate multi-agent or multi-step workflows. Build evaluation harnesses and test suites to measure agent and workflow accuracy, reliability, and regression over time.

Translate ambiguous, high-level business problems into scoped technical specifications and working prototypes. Collaborate with product, operations, and subject-matter stakeholders to identify high-value automation and agentic opportunities. Monitor deployed AI workflows in production, using observability tooling to track latency, cost, and output quality.

Stay current with the fast-moving AI agent and tooling ecosystem and recommend adoption of new frameworks, models, or techniques where warranted. What You Need (Required Qualifications) Everything listed in this section is considered required to perform this role successfully.

Education

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, or equivalent practical experience. Experience 3+ years of professional software development experience. Demonstrated experience building applications on top of LLM APIs, including API providers or self-hosted inference. Practical experience with at least one agent orchestration framework or workflow automation platform.

Technical Skills Solid understanding of RAG architecture: embeddings, vector search, chunking, and retrieval strategy. Strong general-purpose programming ability in Python and/or a modern backend language. Ability to reason abstractly about a business problem and independently design a technical approach to solve it. Comfortable working with APIs, containers, and cloud or on-premises infrastructure.

Certifications / Licences N/A Other Requirements Ability to work in-office in Waterloo, Ontario. What Would Be Considered an Asset (Nice-to-Have Qualifications) The following qualifications are not required, but would be considered an asset. Experience with vector databases and hybrid search/reranking techniques. Familiarity with LLM inference/serving frameworks and gateway/proxy layers for model routing.

Experience building or maintaining evaluation and observability pipelines for AI systems. Exposure to multi-agent system design patterns, including planner/executor, supervisor/worker, and tool-calling loops. Prior experience scoping and delivering AI features or automations in a production environment. Basic familiarity with model fine-tuning concepts, even without hands-on training experience.

About You

You’re a strong software engineer who sees AI as a systems problem, not just a prompting problem. You enjoy taking an ambiguous business challenge, breaking it down into something concrete, and building a practical solution that works reliably in the real world. You’re comfortable experimenting with new models and tools, but you also care about maintainability, observability, cost, and whether the solution actually improves the process it was designed to support.

You’ll likely thrive in this role if you: Enjoy turning loosely defined problems into well-scoped technical solutions. Think naturally in terms of workflows, systems, tools, dependencies, and outcomes. Are comfortable building with LLM APIs, retrieval systems, orchestration frameworks, and external tools. Know that a successful AI application requires more than a good prompt—it needs thoughtful architecture, evaluation, monitoring, and iteration.

Can move quickly from experimentation and prototyping to reliable, production-ready software. Are curious about emerging AI capabilities without automatically chasing every new framework or model. Make pragmatic technical decisions based on the problem, rather than forcing a preferred tool or architecture. Enjoy working directly with stakeholders to understand how work gets done and where AI can meaningfully improve it.

Take ownership of the systems you build, including their reliability, cost, performance, and long-term maintainability. Communicate technical concepts clearly with both engineering and non-technical teams. Are comfortable working in a fast-moving environment where the technology, best practices, and available tools are constantly evolving.

Want to help shape how AI and agentic systems are used across a growing organization. Most importantly, you’re focused on useful outcomes. You’re interested in building AI systems that solve real problems, hold up outside of a demo, and create measurable value for the people who use them. Why Us? At Protocase, we believe in recognizing and rewarding hard work and dedication.

Our starting annual total compensation package—including base salary and performance incentives—ranges from $100,000 to $150,000 CAD , depending on experience. In addition, you can look forward to: 🏆 Training & Growth: Leadership training, skills development opportunities, regular coaching, and clear pathways for career growth.

👩‍⚕️ Comprehensive Health Care Plan & Company RRSP: Medical, Dental, Life Insurance, Group Insurance, and a Company RRSP after six months of full-time employment. 🏖️ Vacation: Start with two weeks of paid vacation, increasing to three weeks after three years and four weeks after five years. 🏋️ Wellness Support: Enjoy wellness initiatives and access to programs that support your health and well-being.

🎉 Social Events: Regular social events, including seasonal parties, monthly lunches, and team celebrations. 🌳 Lifestyle of Waterloo, Ontario: Build your career in one of Canada's leading technology and innovation communities. Waterloo offers a strong engineering and startup ecosystem, access to world-class universities and technical talent, vibrant restaurants and entertainment, and convenient connections throughout Southwestern Ontario and the Greater Toronto Area.