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Platform Engineer - AI Engineering

DRW · Chicago, IL · $130,000–$190,000 a year · IO - Development & Operations

Posted Sep 11, 2026 · We last checked this listing on Oct 6, 2026

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Likely interview questions for this role

Written from this job description, not a generic list. Each one notes what the interviewer is really checking.

About your past

Tell me about a shared platform you helped build. How did you get people to adopt it?

What they are checking: Understanding that platforms succeed through low friction and good developer experience, not mandates.

Describe a time you had to operate a system you didn't design. How did you get comfortable with it?

What they are checking: Operational maturity in learning and supporting systems already in production.

What would you do

A team complains that the cheaper model the router picked gave them worse answers. How do you respond?

What they are checking: Taking quality feedback seriously while defending cost discipline with evidence.

How do you decide which new AI tools to bring onto the platform and which to say no to?

What they are checking: Judgment that weighs user demand against security, cost and support burden.

About the work

The team has a dual mandate: easy access to frontier AI tools while managing a fast-growing cost curve. How would you build routing that sends each request to the most cost-effective model?

What they are checking: Design thinking about model routing that balances quality, cost and latency for real workloads.

How would you track and attribute AI usage costs across teams so people see what they're spending?

What they are checking: Practical cost visibility, which is central to the cost side of this team's mandate.

What governance controls would you put around firmwide access to external AI models?

What they are checking: Awareness of data protection, logging and access policy for AI tools in a firm with sensitive data.

How would you design an AI gateway to handle provider outages or rate limits?

What they are checking: Reliability thinking such as fallbacks, retries and queuing across multiple model providers.

Usage is doubling every few months. How would you forecast capacity and cost?

What they are checking: Ability to model growth and plan ahead instead of reacting to surprise bills.

What would you log for AI requests, and what would you deliberately not log?

What they are checking: Balancing observability and auditability against privacy and sensitivity of prompts and responses.

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The full job description

As published by DRW.

DRW is a diversified trading firm with over 3 decades of experience bringing sophisticated technology and exceptional people together to operate in markets around the world. We value autonomy and the ability to quickly pivot to capture opportunities, so we operate using our own capital and trading at our own risk. Headquartered in Chicago with offices throughout the U.S., Canada, Europe, and Asia, we trade a variety of asset classes including Fixed Income, ETFs, Equities, FX, Commodities and Energy across all major global markets. We have also leveraged our expertise and technology to expand into three non-traditional strategies: real estate, venture capital and cryptoassets. We operate with respect, curiosity and open minds. The people who thrive here share our belief that it’s not just what we do that matters–it's how we do it. DRW is a place of high expectations, integrity, innovation and a willingness to challenge consensus. The Team:   As AI tools drive immense value across the firm, our organization faces a "Dual Mandate": providing low-friction access to the best frontier AI tools while strictly managing an exponentially growing cost curve. The unified  AI Platform Team  builds the centralized software, operations, and governance layers that safely route users to the most cost-effective models.   The Role:   We are looking for a Platform Engineer to help build and operationalize our AI tooling ecosystem. Working closely with the Team Lead and Senior/Staff SWE, you will be the hands-on integrator connecting external cloud AI providers, internal models, and end-user tools into our unified control plane.   Key Responsibilities:   • Configure and manage multi-engine API gateways, implementing dynamic routing rules, rate limits, and fallback logic for LLM requests.   • Execute the technical migration and integration of firm-wide tools into our centralized management plane to ensure all AI traffic is securely logged and governed.   • Operate within our Shared Responsibility Model alongside the Cloud team to manage AI services deployed in enterprise landing zones (e.g., managing Azure OpenAI instances, model deployments, and API key generation).   • Write robust Go and Python code to support the continuous sync loop for our usage dashboard  and implement automated "progressive friction" mechanisms, such as alerts.   • Partner with the Inference Infrastructure pod to ensure our self-hosted, on-premise models are successfully registered and routable within our AI gateways.   Required Qualifications:   • Strong backend programming experience, specifically in Go and/or Python.   • Hands-on experience with API design, integration, and platform/cloud engineering concepts.   • Familiarity with API gateways, proxy configuration, or distributed system networking.   • A strong interest in the rapidly evolving LLM ecosystem and the technical mechanics of AI tooling.   • A collaborative mindset with a focus on writing clean, maintainable code to replace prototype systems.   The annual base salary range for this position is $130,000 to $190,000 depending on the candidate’s experience, qualifications, and relevant skill set. The position is also eligible for an annual discretionary bonus. In addition, DRW offers a comprehensive suite of employee benefits including group medical, pharmacy, dental and vision insurance, 401k (with discretionary employer match), short and long-term disability, life and AD&D insurance, health savings accounts, and flexible spending accounts. For more information about DRW's processing activities and our use of job applicants' data, please view our Privacy Notice at https://drw.com/privacy-notice . California residents, please review the California Privacy Notice for information about certain legal rights at https://drw.com/california-privacy-notice . #LI-VD1

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