About this AI Software Engineer role at Harbor Lab
ABOUT HARBOR LAB
Founded in 2020 in Greece, Harbor Lab is a fast-growing B2B maritime tech company on a mission to simplify and optimize port cost management. Our end-to-end, AI-powered SaaS platform transforms how Shipowners and Shipmanagers handle Disbursement Accounts (DAs), bringing automation, real-time data, control and transparency to one of the most complex and costly parts of global shipping.
But we don’t stop there. Harbor Lab also powers a thriving Marketplace, connecting Principals with a global network of vetted Port Agents and Vendors.
At Harbor Lab, people come first. Our culture is anchored in ambition, trustworthiness, genuine care, and agility—values we bring to every interaction with our customers and our team. We're proud to be consistently recognized as a Best Workplace (2021, 2022, 2023) and recently certified as a Great Place to Work (2024).
If you're looking to make a global impact, grow alongside passionate peers, and shape the future of maritime innovation—we’d love to meet you.
ABOUT THE ROLE
Our AI team builds production-ready AI systems that help Harbor Lab move faster, make better decisions, and deliver smarter products to our customers. We focus on practical, scalable AI: LLM-powered workflows, automation, intelligent APIs, and backend services that bring AI into real business operations.
As an AI Engineer with a strong backend background, you will design, build, and deploy reliable AI-powered systems end to end. You will work closely with product, engineering, data, and maritime domain experts to turn complex business problems into robust AI solutions.
WHAT YOU WILL BE DOING
- AI Systems & LLM Engineering: Design and build modern AI applications using LLMs, RAG, agents, embeddings, vector databases, and advanced prompting techniques. Develop AI workflows that are reliable, measurable, and production-ready.
- Backend Development: Build scalable backend services and APIs in Python, using frameworks such as FastAPI. Integrate AI models into existing systems with clean architecture, strong typing, validation, testing, and maintainable code.
- Data & Retrieval Infrastructure: Work with structured and unstructured data, document pipelines, embeddings, semantic search, and retrieval systems using tools such as FAISS, Pinecone, Weaviate, or similar technologies.
- Production AI & MLOps: Deploy, monitor, and improve AI systems in production. Work on evaluation pipelines, observability, latency optimization, cost control, error handling, model versioning, and CI/CD workflows.
- Cross-Functional Collaboration: Collaborate with software engineers, data scientists, product managers, and maritime experts to define requirements, validate solutions, and deliver business impact quickly.
- Documentation & Knowledge Sharing: Maintain clear technical documentation for architecture, APIs, prompts, evaluation methods, deployment processes, and operational decisions.
Requirements
WE WOULD LOVE TO HEAR FROM YOU IF YOU HAVE
- Educational Background: BSc or MSc in Computer Science, Engineering, Mathematics, Physics, or another STEM field.
- Professional Experience: 3+ years of experience in machine learning, AI engineering, backend engineering, or a related technical role.
- Backend Engineering Skills: Strong Python experience and solid software engineering fundamentals, including API design, testing, debugging, clean architecture, asynchronous processing, and production-grade code.
- AI & LLM Expertise: Hands-on experience with LLMs, RAG systems, embeddings, prompt engineering, model evaluation, and AI workflow orchestration.
- Technical Stack: Experience with tools and libraries such as PyTorch, Scikit-learn, Pandas, Pydantic, FastAPI, Hugging Face, LangChain, LlamaIndex, or similar frameworks.
- Vector Search & Retrieval: Experience with vector databases or similarity search tools such as FAISS, Pinecone, Weaviate, Qdrant, or Elasticsearch/OpenSearch.
- Model Provider Integration: Familiarity with AI models and APIs from providers such as OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, Meta, or open-source model ecosystems.
- Cloud & DevOps: Experience with cloud platforms, Git, Docker, CI/CD, and production deployment workflows. Kubernetes and AWS experience are considered a plus.
- Communication: Fluent English and strong communication skills, with the ability to explain technical ideas clearly and work effectively in a fast-moving team.
Additionally, the following will be considered a plus:
- Experience in the maritime, shipping, logistics, or supply-chain industry.
- Strong software engineering or backend platform background.
- Experience with AWS services such as Lambda, ECS, EKS, S3, RDS, Bedrock, SageMaker, or CloudWatch.
- Experience building AI agents, tool-calling systems, workflow automation, or internal AI platforms.
- Experience with evaluation frameworks, LLM observability, guardrails, security, and compliance for AI systems.
- Strong product mindset and ability to turn ambiguous business problems into practical technical solutions.
Benefits
WHAT WE OFFER
- Attractive compensation package based on experience and skillset
- 30 days of paid annual leave
- Comprehensive private health insurance coverage for your entire family
- Hybrid way of work
- Yoga classes, Life Coach, Running Coach and Kick-Boxing Sessions
- Cool start-up environment (with swag, and much more)
Equal Opportunity Statement
Harbor Lab is an equal opportunity employer. We are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees and prohibit discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, age, sex, national origin, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or any other characteristic protected by applicable law.
Data Protection (GDPR)
Harbor Lab collects and processes personal data in accordance with the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). The information provided as part of your job application will be used solely for recruitment purposes. Your data may be retained in our talent database for future opportunities. You may request access to, correction of, or deletion of your personal data at any time by contacting people@harborlab.com.
Right to Work
By applying for this position, you confirm that you have the legal right to work in the European Union.
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