Interested in this Prompt Engineer role at NTT DATA?
Apply Now →Skills & Technologies
About This Role
Req ID: 379418
NTT DATA strives to hire exceptional, innovative and passionate individuals who want to grow with us. If you want to be part of an inclusive, adaptable, and forward\-thinking organization, apply now.
We are currently seeking a Prompt Engineer to join our team in Jersey City, New Jersey (US\-NJ), United States (US).
Prompt Engineer
LLM Interaction Design / Prompt Optimization / GenAI Application Quality
Role purpose
Design, test, govern, and continuously improve prompts, system instructions, conversation flows, and interaction patterns for LLM applications. The role ensures model outputs are accurate, grounded, safe, consistent, cost\-aware, and aligned with business and compliance expectations.
Primary ownership
- Prompt patterns, system instructions, response templates, and conversation policies for LLM use cases.
- Prompt testing, versioning, evaluation, and quality improvement workflows.
- Prompt\-security and output\-quality analysis for RAG, assistants, copilots, and agents.
Key responsibilities
- Design prompts for chatbots, copilots, RAG systems, document analysis, summarization, workflow agents, and knowledge assistants.
- Develop system prompts, few\-shot examples, tool\-use instructions, response formats, escalation logic, and conversation policies.
- Optimize prompts for accuracy, relevance, groundedness, tone, compliance, latency, token efficiency, and repeatability.
- Build reusable prompt libraries and templates aligned to enterprise standards and business domains.
- Evaluate prompt performance using metrics such as task success, groundedness, hallucination rate, completeness, safety, and user satisfaction.
- Partner with engineers to implement prompt versioning, testing, deployment, and monitoring in production systems.
- Support RAG quality by assessing retrieval context, chunking quality, source citation behavior, and response synthesis.
- Conduct adversarial testing for prompt injection, jailbreaks, instruction conflicts, sensitive\-data leakage, and unsafe outputs.
Must\-have candidate profile
- 4\+ Years Strong understanding of LLM behavior, prompt design, tokenization, context windows, RAG, embeddings, and model limitations.
- 4\+ years Hands\-on experience with OpenAI APIs, Azure OpenAI, Anthropic, LangChain, LlamaIndex, Semantic Kernel, or similar platforms.
- Ability to debug LLM outputs using structured testing, error analysis, and iterative refinement.
- Strong writing, analytical, communication, and stakeholder\-management skills.
- Understanding of prompt\-security risks including prompt injection, jailbreaks, data leakage, and hallucination.
Preferred experience
- Background in NLP, conversational AI, UX writing, technical writing, product design, knowledge management, or business analysis.
- Experience in financial services, legal, compliance, risk, operations, customer support, or enterprise knowledge domains.
- Familiarity with prompt registries, A/B testing, human review workflows, and evaluation tooling.
NTT DATA provides a reasonable range of compensation for U.S.\-based positions. The starting pay range for this role will depend on the nature of the role offered and will either be \[$139,872 \- $209,808], or \[$80\-$100] if the role is hired as a temporary position. Actual compensation will depend on a number of factors, including the candidate’s relevant experience, technical skills, and other qualifications.This position may also be eligible for incentive compensation based on individual and/or company performance. If the position offered in temporary, the position will not be eligible for incentive compensation.This position is eligible for company benefits that will depend on the nature of the role offered. Company benefits may include medical, dental, and vision insurance, flexible spending or health savings account, life and ADD insurance, short and long term disability coverage, paid time off, employee assistance, participation in a 401k program with company match, and additional voluntary or legally\-required benefits.
About NTT DATA
NTT DATA is a $30 billion business and technology services leader, serving 75% of the Fortune Global 100\. We are committed to accelerating client success and positively impacting society through responsible innovation. We are one of the world's leading AI and digital infrastructure providers, with unmatched capabilities in enterprise\-scale AI, cloud, security, connectivity, data centers and application services. our consulting and Industry solutions help organizations and society move confidently and sustainably into the digital future. As a Global Top Employer, we have experts in more than 50 countries. We also offer clients access to a robust ecosystem of innovation centers as well as established and start\-up partners. NTT DATA is a part of NTT Group, which invests over $3 billion each year in RD.
Whenever possible, we hire locally to NTT DATA offices or client sites. This ensures we can provide timely and effective support tailored to each client’s needs. While many positions offer remote or hybrid work options, these arrangements are subject to change based on client requirements. For employees near an NTT DATA office or client site, in\-office attendance may be required for meetings or events, depending on business needs. At NTT DATA, we are committed to staying flexible and meeting the evolving needs of both our clients and employees. NTT DATA recruiters will never ask for payment or banking information and will only use @nttdata.com, @nttdatafed.com and @talent.nttdataservices.com email addresses. If you are requested to provide payment or disclose banking information, please submit a contact us form, https://us.nttdata.com/en/contact\-us.
NTT DATA endeavors to make https://us.nttdata.com accessible to any and all users. If you would like to contact us regarding the accessibility of our website or need assistance completing the application process, please contact us at https://us.nttdata.com/en/contact\-us. This contact information is for accommodation requests only and cannot be used to inquire about the status of applications. NTT DATA is an equal opportunity employer. Qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability or protected veteran status. For our EEO Policy Statement, please click here. If you'd like more information on your EEO rights under the law, please click here. For Pay Transparency information, please click here.
Salary Context
This $139K-$209K range is above the 75th percentile for Prompt Engineer roles in our dataset (median: $127K across 5 roles with salary data).
View full Prompt Engineer salary data →Role Details
About This Role
Prompt Engineers design, test, and optimize interactions with large language models. They build evaluation frameworks, craft system prompts, and develop techniques like chain-of-thought and few-shot learning to get consistent, reliable outputs. The role emerged alongside the GPT-3 era and has matured into a legitimate engineering discipline, not the 'just talk to the AI' job that early skeptics dismissed.
The work is more systematic than creative. You're running hundreds of prompt variations through evaluation suites, measuring output quality across edge cases, and building guardrails for production systems. When a prompt works 95% of the time but fails catastrophically on the other 5%, you need to find those failure modes and fix them before they hit users.
Across the 3,708 AI roles we're tracking, Prompt Engineer positions make up 0% of the market. At NTT DATA, this role fits into their broader AI and engineering organization.
Prompt engineering roles are still growing but the market is maturing. Early roles were broad and experimental. Now, companies know what they want: someone who can systematically improve LLM output quality, reduce costs by optimizing token usage, and build evaluation infrastructure. The roles that survive will be the ones that look more like engineering than copywriting.
What the Work Looks Like
A typical week involves designing evaluation datasets for new use cases, benchmarking prompt strategies against each other with statistical rigor, working with product teams to define 'good enough' output quality, and building the tooling that lets non-technical teammates iterate on prompts safely. You'll spend more time in spreadsheets and evaluation dashboards than you'd expect.
Prompt engineering roles are still growing but the market is maturing. Early roles were broad and experimental. Now, companies know what they want: someone who can systematically improve LLM output quality, reduce costs by optimizing token usage, and build evaluation infrastructure. The roles that survive will be the ones that look more like engineering than copywriting.
Skills Required
The core requirement is deep LLM experience: prompt design, RAG architectures, and evaluation methodology. Python is table stakes. Many roles also want experience with specific providers like OpenAI, Anthropic, or open-source models. Understanding tokenization, context windows, and the practical differences between model families (reasoning ability, instruction following, output format compliance) separates strong candidates from the crowd.
Evaluation skills are becoming the differentiator. Can you design a rubric that measures output quality? Can you build automated evaluation pipelines? Do you understand when to use human evaluation vs. LLM-as-judge vs. deterministic checks? Companies are moving past 'vibes-based' prompt testing and want engineers who bring measurement discipline.
Strong postings specify the LLM use cases (summarization, extraction, classification, generation), the evaluation methodology they expect, and the production environment. Weak postings just say 'prompt engineering experience' without context. Look for companies that mention evaluation frameworks and production deployment.
Compensation Benchmarks
Prompt Engineer roles pay a median of $140,000 based on 11 positions with disclosed compensation. Mid-level AI roles across all categories have a median of $200,000. This role's midpoint ($174K) sits 25% above the category median. Disclosed range: $139K to $209K.
Across all AI roles, the market median is $217,500. Top-quartile compensation starts at $272,100. The 90th percentile reaches $325,000. For comparison, the highest-paying categories include AI Safety ($300,000) and Research Engineer ($280,000). By seniority level: Entry: $120,000; Mid: $200,000; Senior: $230,000; Director: $272,150; VP: $250,000.
NTT DATA AI Hiring
NTT DATA has 14 open AI roles right now. They're hiring across AI Consultant, AI/ML Engineer, AI Architect, Prompt Engineer. Positions span Plano, TX, US, Atlanta, GA, US, Irving, TX, US. Compensation range: $114K - $426K.
Location Context
Across all AI roles, 14% (508 positions) offer remote work, while 3,180 require on-site attendance. Top AI hiring metros: New York (1,045 roles, $220,000 median); San Francisco (810 roles, $277,088 median); Los Angeles (397 roles, $215,000 median).
Career Path
Common paths into Prompt Engineer roles include Technical Writer, NLP Researcher, Software Engineer.
From here, career progression typically leads toward AI Product Manager, LLM Engineer, AI Solutions Architect.
The best prompt engineers come from technical backgrounds and add LLM expertise, not the other way around. If you're coming from a non-technical role, invest heavily in Python, evaluation methodology, and understanding how LLMs work under the hood (tokenization, attention, context windows). The role will increasingly merge with LLM Engineering as the tools mature.
What to Expect in Interviews
Interviews focus on evaluation methodology and systematic thinking. You'll likely be asked to design a prompt for a specific use case, explain how you'd measure output quality, and walk through how you'd debug a prompt that works 90% of the time but fails on edge cases. Expect to discuss tokenization, context window management, and the tradeoffs between different prompting strategies (few-shot vs. chain-of-thought vs. tool use).
When evaluating opportunities: Strong postings specify the LLM use cases (summarization, extraction, classification, generation), the evaluation methodology they expect, and the production environment. Weak postings just say 'prompt engineering experience' without context. Look for companies that mention evaluation frameworks and production deployment.
AI Hiring Overview
The AI job market has 3,708 open positions tracked in our dataset. By seniority: 102 entry-level, 1,705 mid-level, 1,469 senior, and 432 leadership roles (Director, VP, C-Level). Remote roles make up 14% of the market (508 positions). The remaining 3,180 roles require on-site or hybrid attendance.
The market median for AI roles is $217,500. Top-quartile compensation starts at $272,100. The 90th percentile reaches $325,000. Highest-paying categories: AI Safety ($300,000 median, 21 roles); Research Engineer ($280,000 median, 147 roles); AI Architect ($254,798 median, 67 roles).
Prompt engineering roles are still growing but the market is maturing. Early roles were broad and experimental. Now, companies know what they want: someone who can systematically improve LLM output quality, reduce costs by optimizing token usage, and build evaluation infrastructure. The roles that survive will be the ones that look more like engineering than copywriting.
The AI Job Market Today
The AI job market spans 3,708 open positions across 16 role categories. The largest categories by volume: AI/ML Engineer (2,605), Data Scientist (310), AI Software Engineer (259). These three account for the majority of open positions, though smaller categories often have higher per-role compensation because of specialized skill requirements.
The seniority mix tells a story about where AI teams are in their maturity. Entry-level roles (102) are outnumbered by mid-level (1,705) and senior (1,469) positions, reflecting that most companies are past the 'build a team from scratch' phase and need experienced engineers who can ship production systems. Leadership roles (Director, VP, C-Level) total 432 positions, representing the bottleneck between technical execution and organizational strategy.
Remote work availability sits at 14% of all AI roles (508 positions), with 3,180 requiring on-site or hybrid attendance. The remote share has stabilized after the post-pandemic correction. Senior and specialized roles (Research Scientist, ML Architect) are more likely to be remote-eligible than entry-level positions, partly because experienced hires have more negotiating power and partly because these roles require less hands-on mentorship.
AI compensation is structured in clear tiers. The market median sits at $217,500. Top-quartile roles start at $272,100, and the 90th percentile reaches $325,000. These figures include base salary with disclosed compensation. Total compensation (including equity, bonuses, and sign-on) runs 20-40% higher at companies that offer those components.
Category matters for compensation. AI Safety roles lead at $300,000 median, while Prompt Engineer roles sit at $140,000. The spread between highest and lowest-paying categories reflects the premium on specialized technical skills versus broader analytical roles.
The most in-demand skills across all AI postings: Python (1,890 postings), Aws (1,103 postings), Azure (877 postings), Rag (855 postings), Gcp (631 postings), Prompt Engineering (560 postings), Pytorch (545 postings), Claude (498 postings). Python dominates, appearing in the vast majority of role descriptions regardless of category. Cloud platform experience (AWS, GCP, Azure) is the second most common requirement. The newer entrants to the top skills list (RAG, vector databases, LLM APIs) reflect the shift from traditional ML toward generative AI applications.
Frequently Asked Questions
Get Weekly AI Career Intelligence
Salary data, skills demand, and market signals from 16,000+ AI job postings. Every Monday.