Principal AI Engineer

A leading financial services organization is seeking a senior technology leader to help drive the modernization of its financial crime, fraud, and risk management technology platforms. This individual will play a key role in defining technical strategy, architecture, and engineering standards for next-generation solutions that leverage artificial intelligence, advanced analytics, and cloud technologies. The role combines strategic leadership with hands-on engineering responsibilities and requires close collaboration with business, risk, compliance, and technology stakeholders. The ideal candidate has deep experience designing large-scale enterprise platforms, a strong background in modern software architecture, and practical experience implementing AI-enabled solutions. Key Responsibilities Technical Leadership & Architecture • Define and guide long-term technology strategy for risk and compliance platforms. • Lead architecture and design efforts for modern AI-enabled applications and decisioning systems. • Establish engineering standards, architectural patterns, and technology best practices. • Review and provide guidance on scalability, security, resiliency, and performance considerations. • Serve as a senior technical advisor across multiple teams and initiatives. AI & Advanced Analytics • Design and implement AI-driven solutions that improve operational efficiency and decision-making. • Evaluate and leverage modern AI technologies, including large language models, intelligent automation, knowledge retrieval, and workflow orchestration. • Partner with data science and engineering teams to deploy machine learning and AI capabilities at scale. • Help establish governance, monitoring, and operational best practices for AI-enabled applications. Engineering & Delivery • Contribute to solution design, prototyping, and proof-of-concept initiatives. • Review and guide development efforts to ensure high-quality, maintainable solutions. • Mentor engineers and foster engineering excellence across the organization. • Promote automation, DevOps practices, testing, and continuous delivery. • Help resolve complex technical challenges in large-scale enterprise environments. Platform Modernization • Lead modernization initiatives focused on cloud-native architectures and scalable platforms. • Design microservices, APIs, event-driven systems, and enterprise integration solutions. • Support the evolution of capabilities related to risk assessment, monitoring, case management, reporting, and data processing. • Drive adoption of modern engineering practices and cloud technologies. Stakeholder Engagement • Collaborate with business, risk, compliance, operations, and technology leaders. • Translate business objectives into scalable technical solutions. • Communicate technical strategy, architecture decisions, and modernization roadmaps to senior leadership. Required Qualifications • 10+ years of software engineering, architecture, or technology leadership experience. • Proven experience designing and delivering large-scale enterprise systems. • Experience leading architecture discussions and influencing technology strategy. • Strong background building cloud-based and cloud-native solutions. • Ability to communicate complex technical concepts to both technical and executive audiences. Preferred Qualifications • Experience developing or implementing AI, machine learning, intelligent automation, or large language model solutions. • Background within banking, financial services, risk, fraud, compliance, or related regulated industries. • Strong problem-solving and analytical skills. • Excellent communication and stakeholder management abilities. • Experience leading technical teams and mentoring engineers.