TO BECOME AN AI ENGINEER YOU MUST HAVE A CLEAR ROADMAP OF NEXT 3-6 MONTHS
I just made one for you.
There are 4 foundations the roadmap says you actually need.
Clean Python. API literacy (reading docs, handling responses, debugging). LLM frameworks like LangChain or LlamaIndex.
And system design intuition, meaning you know how to connect models, databases, APIs, and UI into something that works.
That's the whole base. Everything else is just phases.
Phase 1 is Python foundation. 4 to 6 weeks. Syntax, OOP, file handling, async basics.
Phase 2 is your first API calls. 1 to 2 weeks. HTTP methods, headers, auth, JSON in and out.
Phase 3 is core concepts. 3 to 4 weeks. How LLMs actually work, prompting techniques, RAG, vectors, embeddings.
Phase 4 is portfolio building. 6 to 10 weeks. Pick 5 project ideas, build them end to end, add memory and agents, push everything to GitHub.
Phase 5 is deployment. 2 to 3 weeks. Streamlit, FastAPI, Railway, Render, databases, monitoring.
Phase 6 is job search. 4 to 8 weeks. Resume, GitHub polish, networking, interviews, applying with focus.
Here is my article that covers it.