Full Stack AI Engineer

Important: This role will be onsite out of our Westlake Village, CA corporate offices on a hybrid basis (2-3 days per week) 

About Guitar Center:    

At Guitar Center, we are driven by a shared passion for music and technology. We support over 300 stores nationwide and a growing network of shared services facilities. Our IT team plays a critical role in ensuring our business runs smoothly and our customers and associates stay connected to what matters most.    

About the Role:  

We are looking for a Full Stack AI Engineer with deep experience across cloud-native technologies, distributed systems, and modern AI integrations. The ideal candidate has worked with Large Language Models (LLMs) and is familiar with the Model Context Protocol (MCP)—a protocol used to manage and route contextual interactions across multiple LLMs. This role is ideal for someone who thrives at the intersection of backend engineering, cloud infrastructure, and applied AI/ML systems.  

Responsibilities:  

Application & API Development:   

• Design, develop, and deploy scalable APIs and microservices using Node.js and Java.   

• Build front-end interfaces and tooling using React or Vue.js for LLM-driven user experiences.   

• Develop and optimize interactions with both SQL (Oracle, MySQL, MS SQL) and NoSQL (MongoDB, DynamoDB, Cassandra, ElasticSearch) databases.   

LLM Integration & MCP Implementation:   

• Integrate and orchestrate multiple LLMs (e.g., OpenAI, Claude, LLaMA, Mistral) using structured prompt pipelines and standard interfaces.   

• Apply the Model Context Protocol (MCP) to standardize how models consume prompts, context, metadata, and fallback instructions.   

• Build intelligent context routers and session managers for dynamic model selection and prompt enrichment.   

• Collaborate with ML and platform teams to scale inference pipelines and maintain governance across models.   

Cloud Infrastructure & DevOps:   

• Deploy applications and LLM services on OCI, AWS, and Google Cloud Platform.   

• Use Docker and Kubernetes to orchestrate containerized services and scale LLM workloads.   

• Build CI/CD pipelines and automate multi-cloud infrastructure provisioning.   

Monitoring, Messaging, and Observability:   

• Implement monitoring and performance dashboards using Datadog, Splunk, Dynatrace, or Sumo Logic.   

• Architect event-driven systems using Kafka, SNS, SQS, or Tibco for asynchronous messaging.   

Testing and Quality:   

• Write and maintain test suites using JUnit, Mockito, Rest Assured, and other tools.   

• Perform load testing and performance tuning for both web services and LLM endpoints. 

Qualifications

To join our band, you'll need the following experience:  

• Strong back-end skills in Node.js; front-end in React or Vue.js.  

• Familiarity with MCP or similar structured model communication patterns.  

• Experience across OCI, AWS, Azure and/or GCP cloud services.  

• Familiarity with containerization (Docker/Kubernetes), cloud deployments, and microservices.  

• Proficient in both SQL (Oracle, MySQL, etc.) and NoSQL (MongoDB, Elasticsearch, DynamoDB) databases.  

• Understanding secure API development and AI service governance.  

Preferred Skills  

• Familiar with LangChain, LlamaIndex, and vector stores like Pinecone or Weaviate.  

• Experience deploying LLMs in production environments.  

• Experience prompt tuning, embedding-based retrieval, and context compression.  

• Understanding cost optimization, model fallback strategies, and safety filters.  

• Exposure to orchestration frameworks (e.g., OpenRouter, VLLM, LoRA).  

• Huge plus: If you’re a musician, producer, or music gear nerd, you’ll connect more deeply with the mission and users we serve.  

Ideal Traits  

• Startup Mentality: Bias for action, comfort with ambiguity, high ownership.  

• AI-Native: Deep curiosity for GenAI and emerging AI stacks.  

• Product-Minded: You think beyond the code to the customer and business impact.  

• Intellectual Property Builder: Motivated to create defensible tech and platform advantages.  

• Collaborative and Communicative: Comfortable working closely with executive leaders.  

Disclaimer:     

While this job description outlines primary responsibilities, it is not a comprehensive list of all tasks. Duties may change or new responsibilities may be assigned as business needs evolve.     

Pay Rate: $110,000 - $180,000/yr. dependent on background and experience.   

Why Guitar Center Company? Here’s just some of the rewards:    

For our employees who are musicians we offer the unique opportunity of gig leave—take time off to share your music with the world and return to your job after your tour! Guitar Center offers robust benefits and perks, including Medical, Dental, Vision, 401K plus company match, mental health support, paid sick/holiday/vacation time, employee discount program, and tuition reimbursement options.    

This position is eligible to participate in the Guitar Center Company bonus program based on Company performance. The job posting is not necessarily reflective of actual compensation that may be earned, nor a promise of any specific pay for any specific employee, which is always dependent on actual experience, education, and other factors. The pay range(s) listed are provided in compliance with state-specific laws. Pay ranges may be different in other locations.    

Why join us?    

With a career at Guitar Center, you become part of the world's largest multichannel musical instrument retailer. Whether at our Stores, Contact Centers, Distribution Centers, or Support Center, Guitar Center employees have a common goal: to help people find their sound and fill the world with more music.    

Love this gig and want to apply?    

Send your resume and cover letter today along with salary expectations!    

Guitar Center is an Equal Opportunity Employer and provides fair and equal employment opportunity to all employees and applicants regardless of race, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, disability, veteran status, or any other protected status prohibited under Federal, State, or local laws. All employment decisions are based on valid job‐related requirements.    

If you are a qualified individual with a disability or a disabled veteran and are unable or limited in your ability to use or access our website, you may request a reasonable accommodation to express interest in a specific opening. You can request reasonable accommodation by sending an email to recruiting@guitarcenter.com.