Python Developer (W2 - Only)

Job Title Python Developer

Location St. Petersburg, FL 33716 (Hybrid) - Local candidates only

Duration 8-12 Months (Contract to Hire)

Open to W2 employment only (no C2C or third-party)

Visa-independent candidates only (no sponsorship available at this time)

Duties:

• Raymond James is pioneering a new class of agentic AI systems intelligent, adaptive platforms that continuously learn from firm knowledge and act responsibly to enhance decision-making and client outcomes. These systems will enable real-time knowledge orchestration and insight generation across the enterprise, amplifying the collective intelligence of our advisors, associates, and business units.
• As part of the Agentic AI Data Science team, you will architect and deliver scalable, secure, and high-performance agentic solutions using and extending frameworks such as Strands, CrewAI, LangGraph, Agent Core, and related technologies. You will help design the foundational infrastructure that allows these systems to learn safely, adapt in real time, and deliver measurable value all while operating within the disciplined, client-first culture that defines Raymond James.
• This is a hands-on engineering role requiring exceptional technical depth, strong design judgment, and a passion for building systems that are both innovative and enduring. You ll collaborate across engineering, data, and governance teams to ensure every solution balances speed, integrity, and long-term impact.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities

• Architect and Build Agentic Systems: Design and implement agentic AI architectures capable of reasoning, planning, and self-adaptation within firm-approved security and compliance boundaries.
• Leverage and Extend Frameworks: Utilize and enhance frameworks such as Strands, CrewAI, LangGraph, and Agent Core to create standardized, reusable components that accelerate agentic development across teams.
• Cloud Engineering: Develop secure, resilient, and scalable cloud-native solutions using AWS services (Lambda, ECS, S3, API Gateway, SageMaker, Bedrock, etc.) to support production-grade AI operations.
• Monitoring and Evaluation: Implement metrics, tracing, and evaluation pipelines that ensure transparency, reliability, and continuous improvement in agentic behavior.
• Integration and Governance: Collaborate with security, risk, and compliance to embed governance, auditability, and ethical safeguards into all systems.
• Collaboration: Partner with data science, enterprise architecture, and application engineering teams to integrate agentic capabilities into firm platforms.
• Innovation Leadership: Research, test, and recommend new frameworks and patterns that responsibly advance the firm s AI capabilities.
• Ownership: Drive full lifecycle delivery from technical design through deployment and iteration maintaining high standards of reliability and documentation.
• Other responsibilities as assigned.
• Impact and Opportunity
• This role is at the leading edge of Raymond James AI evolution building systems that convert the firm s collective intelligence into secure, adaptive knowledge that serves clients better every day.
• It s demanding work technically complex, mission-critical, and transformative but it s work that matters. You ll have the opportunity to shape the systems that define how knowledge flows, how teams collaborate, and how the firm competes at the top of the industry for years to come.

Skills

Technical Strengths:

• Proficiency in Python (with experience in TypeScript, Go, or Java a plus).
• Solid understanding of AWS architecture and services deployment, monitoring, security, and cost optimization.
• Familiarity with agentic or LLM frameworks such as Strands, CrewAI, LangGraph, Agent Core, or similar.
• Experience with retrieval systems, vector databases, embeddings, and orchestration frameworks.
• Strong grounding in secure API design, data modeling, and CI/CD automation.
• Proven record of writing clean, testable, production-grade code.
• Mindset: Deep curiosity, bias toward execution, and respect for precision and reliability.
• Financial services experience preferred but not required.

Competencies and Behaviors:

• Analytical Thinking: Deconstruct complex technical and business challenges into clear, scalable solutions.
• Communication: Translate advanced technical concepts into shared understanding across business, technology, and risk partners.
• Judgment: Balance innovation with security, compliance, and long-term maintainability.
• Technical Mastery: Maintain and expand expertise in agentic AI, cloud engineering, and software craftsmanship.
• Collaboration: Work cross-functionally with integrity and respect, ensuring outcomes align with the firm s mission and standards.
• Client Focus and Integrity: Make decisions grounded in what best serves clients and the firm s long-term stability acting with transparency and accountability.

Education

• Education/Background: Bachelor s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or related field; equivalent experience considered.
• Experience: 5 years of professional software engineering, with demonstrated success in building scalable distributed systems or AI-powered platforms.