AI Lead, Python Tools

We’re looking for an AI Lead to drive this effort by shaping the architecture, building key components hands-on, and guiding the team in making strong decisions around AI-powered product development. In this role, you will:

• Lead the technical design of AI features in PyCharm and our Python tooling, including MCP integrations, agent workflows, tool design, and context management.

• Prototype and ship features yourself – this is a hands-on technical leadership role.

• Help the team adopt AI technologies effectively by providing technical guidance, reviewing approaches, and sharing practical patterns.

• Evaluate emerging AI tools, frameworks, and providers, and make pragmatic decisions about what to build and what to integrate.

• Work closely with product managers, ML engineers, QA specialists, and senior developers to turn product ideas into solid technical plans.

• Navigate a large Kotlin/Java codebase and expose IntelliJ Platform capabilities – such as code analysis, inspections, refactorings, and type inference – to AI-powered workflows.

• Contribute to cross-team AI efforts and help define shared engineering patterns where appropriate.

We’d love to talk to you if you have:

• Strong software engineering experience, particularly in Python and/or Kotlin/JVM.

• Deep, hands-on familiarity with modern AI tooling for developers, including coding assistants, agents, MCP, and LLM-based workflows.

• Experience working in large, mature codebases and delivering meaningful technical change without compromising quality.

• Familiarity with LLM evaluation and benchmarking.

• A track record of making good technical decisions in fast-moving, ambiguous areas like proposing architectures, building prototypes, and iterating based on feedback.

• Strong communication skills and the ability to influence technical direction without formal authority.

• A strong product sense and care about solving real user problems, not just building interesting technology.

Nice to have:

• Experience with IDE or developer tooling internals, such as language servers, code analysis, or related systems.

• Experience with the Python AI/ML ecosystem.