(Junior) AI Engineer (m/f/d)

At ZDF Sparks, we focus on making AI tangible, turning complex ideas into reliable tools for our clients. 

We are looking for a (Junior) AI Engineer (m/f/d) in Full-time (40h) who is ready to move beyond experiments and start building scalable solutions for the media world of tomorrow.

You will be part of a high-impact team in Berlin (hybrid setup), working at the intersection of technology and real-world consultancy. 

The position is initially limited to 2 years with the option of extension and starts at the earliest possible date.

• End-to-End AI Solutions: You design, implement, and modernize AI systems and data pipelines, moving projects from initial POC to stable production including monitoring, logging, and evaluation.

• Agentic AI: You build intelligent agents that reason, use tools, and coordinate with other agents. You work with frameworks like LangGraph, CrewAI or ADK and understand orchestration patterns like ReAct and multi-agent coordination.

• Data & Retrieval: You design and integrate data pipelines, RAG architectures, embeddings, and semantic search systems that power your AI solutions from preprocessing to meaningful output.

• Explainable AI: You work with open-source algorithms and help make complex AI logic understandable for stakeholders and large audiences.

• Rapid Prototyping: You bring ideas to life quickly, test their value in the real world, and know how to take them all the way to production on cloud platforms like GCP, AWS, or Azure.

• Agentic AI: Familiarity with one or more agentic frameworks (LangGraph, CrewAI, ADK) and a working understanding of common orchestration patterns such as ReAct, tool-using agents, and multi-agent coordination.
• LLM Engineering: Hands-on experience with LLM APIs and core agent building blocks, including prompt engineering for reasoning and tool use, RAG pipelines, embeddings/semantic search, agent memory, and tool/data integration via protocols such as MCP.
• Production Mindset: Experience (or strong interest) in taking agentic systems to production on a major cloud platform (GCP, AWS, or Azure), covering monitoring, logging, tracing of tool calls, evaluation frameworks for task success/latency/cost, and guardrails to prevent unsafe actions.
• Engineering Excellence: Strong proficiency in Python and solid software engineering fundamentals, including API and backend system design, with experience integrating AI systems into production applications. You value clean code and collaborative development via Pull Requests, code reviews, and CI/CD automation.
• Consultancy Mindset: You enjoy the fast-paced nature of consulting and translating business problems into technical architectures.
• Language: English (Must-have), German (Nice-to-have).

ZDF Sparks is a workplace for curious, ambitious, and collaborative AI trendsetters who are excited about working on new and continuously changing customer challenges. We proudly embrace diversity and enjoy working in fast-paced, cross-functional, and multicultural teams.

Our hybrid work model is designed to support personal flexibility and creativity, enabling a healthy work-life balance. We offer flexible working hours and a hybrid setup to accommodate any personal circumstances.

In our centrally located Berlin top-floor office, we enjoy modern spaces with ergonomic workstations grouped to facilitate personal exchange and knowledge sharing, as well as closed rooms for larger meetings and quiet work.

We network with our ZDF office partners and visitors over lunches, talks, and afterwork get-together events and engage in fun team activities during regular company events.

To support your professional growth, we offer opportunities for further education through (external) regular workshops, hackathons, and networking events.

Additionally, we provide a professional development budget (per employee) for conferences, certifications, or external courses.

You will have 30 days of vacation to recharge (plus Christmas and New Years eve). We also fully cover the cost of the Deutschland-Jobticket to support your commute.

At ZDF Sparks, our values are the cornerstone of everything we do:

• Transparent: We believe in clear, open communication both within our team and with our clients. Your insights and knowledge will be valued and shared to drive collective success.
• Fun: We believe that work should be enjoyable and fulfilling. At ZDF Sparks, we maintain a light-hearted atmosphere with humor and a relaxed communication style among colleagues. This fosters a positive environment where everyone feels comfortable and motivated to contribute their best, ensuring our collaborative efforts are both productive and enjoyable.
• Diverse: Our strength lies in our diverse team. Different perspectives and backgrounds drive our creativity and innovation, ensuring that our AI solutions are comprehensive and inclusive. By integrating different points of view, our collaborative team develops AI that reflects various experiences and meets the diverse needs of our clients.
• Innovative: We live and breathe innovation, continuously learning and pushing boundaries to deliver cutting-edge AI solutions.