Lead AI Engineer

About the Role

Kerna AI Innovation, part of US-based Kerna Health ), is building a new AI team in Athens and is looking for a Lead AI Engineer to spearhead the development of our most ambitious AI-first initiatives.

As a foundational member and technical leader, you will not only lead the architecture and development of our

flagship Digital Assistant, but also play a key role in shaping the team's culture, processes, and long-term vision. You'll guide the implementation of a wide range of AI-powered solutions, including:

● Custom-trained or fine-tuned Large Language Models (LLMs)

● Autonomous agentic workflows for healthcare automation

● In-house Speech-to-Text (STT) and Text-to-Speech (TTS) models

● Scalable, intelligent Knowledge Bases for contextual understanding

● Model Context Protocol (MCP) infrastructure.

This is a hands-on leadership role for an experienced AI/ML engineer with strong Python skills, a deep understanding of Generative AI, and the desire to build real-world systems that improve healthcare outcomes.

Responsibilities

Design & Develop Intelligent Systems

● Architect, fine-tune, and deploy custom LLMs (e.g., Mistral, LLaMA)

● Build and optimize RAG pipelines and vector search (FAISS, Weaviate, Pinecone)

● Implement MCP servers for context-aware dialogue and agent memory

● Design agentic workflows using LangGraph, CrewAI, or custom logic

Drive Team & Technical Execution

● Lead and mentor the growing AI/ML team in Athens

● Conduct 1:1s, guide architectural decisions, and set quality standards

● Collaborate with product, platform, and clinical stakeholders to translate real-world needs into scalable AI systems

Champion Innovation & Best Practices

● Stay up-to-date with the latest research in GenAI, transformers, agent systems, and healthcare NLP

● Define and execute evaluation strategies for model quality and performance

● Advocate for the responsible use of AI and promote AI productivity tools (copilots, assistants) within

the organization

Requirements

Education:

● Bachelor's or Master's degree in Computer Science, Machine Learning, Artificial intelligence or a related field

Work Experience:

● 5+ years of professional experience in ML, AI, or NLP

● 2+ years in a technical leadership role, ideally managing or mentoring other AI/ML engineers

● Proven experience building and deploying models in production environments

Technical Skills:

● Python Expert with experience in LLM-based applications and pipelines

● Deep understanding of LLMs (GPT, Claude, Mistral, LLaMA, etc.), transformer architectures, and fine-tuning techniques (LoRA, PEFT)

● Experience with RAG systems, vector databases, and embedding-based retrieval

● Familiarity with MCP design patterns and implementation

● Hands-on knowledge of prompt engineering, agent frameworks (eg. LangChain, LangGraph,

AutoGen), and tool orchestration

● Experience in model training pipelines and performance optimization

● Comfortable with Docker, cloud-based deployments (AWS preferred), and MLOps tools

Soft Skills & Leadership:

● Strong team leadership and mentoring capabilities

● Excellent problem-solving and system design skills

● Clear communication and cross-functional collaboration abilities

● High sense of ownership and a drive to deliver results

● AI evangelist mindset with a focus on ethical and efficient AI use

Nice to Have:

● Experience in healthcare or regulated environments

● Familiarity with multimodal models (e.g., text + image)

● Contributions to open-source GenAI projects or research

● Understanding of HIPAA-compliant AI architectures

About Kerna Health and Kerna AI Innovation

Kerna Health ) is a US-based healthcare company committed to making health management simple, personal, and accessible. By removing barriers such as distance, mobility, and socioeconomic challenges, Kerna Health delivers innovative digital solutions that enhance care delivery across the entire patient journey.

Kerna AI Innovation is the Artificial Intelligence (AI) subsidiary of Kerna Health based in Athens, Greece. Its mission is to develop cutting-edge, AI-first technologies—including Generative AI, Digital Assistants, and intelligent agents—to improve patient outcomes, streamline healthcare workflows, and empower doctors and caregivers with smarter tools. As a newly established lab, Kerna AI Innovation is a hub for creating impactful AI-driven products with real-world healthcare applications.

AI Companion Philosophy:

At Kerna AI Innovation, we firmly believe in augmenting our team's creativity, productivity, and innovation through the power of AI companions and copilots. We actively encourage and expect our team members to leverage advanced AI-powered tools in their daily workflows, enabling smarter, faster, and more efficient development, testing, and deployment practices. By combining human expertise with AI assistance, we aim to continually push the boundaries of what's possible, creating cutting-edge solutions that significantly improve healthcare outcomes.