Gradient AI Career Growth & Development

What makes your role now a dream job? What do you get to do that you didn’t at other companies? 

The industrial revolution marked a turning point in history by automating the physical labor of the human body. Today, we are experiencing a similarly transformative shift — the AI revolution — which is the automation of the mind. Roughly three years ago, I began to truly understand the magnitude of AI and the profound impact it would have across industries and societies globally. From that moment on, I felt a deep desire to contribute to this new frontier.

That passion led me to Gradient AI, a company that stands at the leading edge of innovation in the healthcare and insurance sectors. It’s genuinely a privilege to be part of a team working on cutting-edge technologies that have the potential to change lives. More importantly, I’m surrounded by passionate, talented and driven individuals who inspire me daily. The combination of meaningful work, advanced tech and incredible people makes Gradient AI a dream job for me.

What do you think helped you land the job? Were you able to bring any special expertise or project experience that Gradient AI found valuable?

Once I identified the field that I wanted to be part of — AI — I became intentional about how to break into it. I started by seeking out individuals who were already doing the kind of work I aspired to do. I asked them to mentor me. Over time, I’ve had the opportunity to learn from some incredibly brilliant people who generously allowed me to work closely with them. I studied them, observed their habits, learned their thought processes and asked questions constantly.

But I want to emphasize something important: these opportunities didn’t just fall into my lap. Mentorship was rarely offered to me — I had to go out and ask for it. My advice to anyone looking to grow in their career is this: proactively seek mentors who are in the field you want to enter or who exhibit the qualities and attributes you want to develop in yourself. Learn from them intentionally.

What do you think helps engineers move up quickly or be the top pick for a competitive employer? What should engineers seek out if they hope to move up or be hired by their “dream” company?

I live by a personal philosophy that applies to both life and career: “Let life happen for you, not to you.” I don’t wait for opportunities — I create them. I keep a clear vision: I want to be a chief technology officer one day. From there, I plan backwards. It’s really that straightforward. 

As a software engineer, I knew I didn’t want to remain static—I wanted to grow into leadership. So I asked: What competencies, traits and experiences would I need to qualify as a leader? Then, I worked on developing them. I read leadership books, studied management styles, and took every opportunity — professionally and personally — to practice being the kind of leader I aspire to be. My time in the army also provided a platform to refine those skills. 

When I chose to enter the AI industry, I applied the same approach. I realized most leadership roles required industry experience and often a master’s degree, so I pursued a master’s in computer science while working full time and earned certifications in machine learning to build my skills and credibility. My principle is simple: envision your goal, research the path, plan to bridge the gap, and execute with consistency.

Tell us about your recent promotion or role change.

I am excited to share that our continued growth has presented opportunities for us to provide a new line of consulting services to our clients, which led to my promotion as a health consultant. As a SaaS company, we strive to create software that our clients can interact with on their own time after they’ve been properly trained and given the tools to do so. However, when the software provided is industry-leading AI modeling for health and property and casualty insurers, the complexity of individual use cases can quickly multiply. 

As we continued to grow, we reevaluated how we package and provide our software, which led us to create our new managed services team. In this newly created managed services team, we can position ourselves to proactively provide consulting services to clients who may need extra resources to ensure they’re reaping the full value of what we can offer.

What will this new role or skill let you do?

Since joining Gradient AI, knowledge of our models and client communication have been cornerstones of what I need to excel in servicing our clients. These are skills that I enjoy, but as someone who has spent almost all their professional career in some sort of consulting capacity in the health industry, I have always looked for new ways our clients can interact with our models. I believe this love of connecting with clients on a more granular level led me to my new role as a health consultant. In this role, I am excited to expand upon the versatility that our AI modeling can provide our clients in a consultative manner. 

For example, on a given day, I could meet with three different clients who are all purchasing the same AI model, but each client comes from a different vertical and stage in the employer healthcare purchasing lifecycle. By leveraging the skills and knowledge that I’ve learned over my career, I am excited to be able to provide tailored, consultative services that leverage my experience to influence how our clients interact and ingest our model’s outputs.

How would you describe Gradient AI’s approach to internal mobility or upskilling? 

Gradient AI is the first fully remote job that I’ve held in my career, so collaborating with other teams and senior leadership via Slack, emails and Zoom meetings required an adjustment. I initially feared I wouldn’t be given opportunities to share my ideas; however, upon my first week, I came to find out that we had standing meetings with team leads and often senior leadership. Now, just because there were standing meetings didn’t mean internal mobility and upskilling were a given, but the opportunities were there, which is all an individual with initiative needs. 

Speaking from my own experience, I felt that a particular client vertical of ours could grow more rapidly if we reformatted and presented our outputs in a way that differed from our standard. After voicing my ideas, I soon found out that I wasn’t the only one who felt that way and was allowed to formally present my ideas. Fast forward to today, it may not be the direct cause, but I believe that by seizing the opportunities that Gradient AI consciously provides their employees to learn from each other, I was able to showcase my initiative, which I believe ultimately led to my new role.

How does your team cultivate a culture of learning, whether that’s through hackathons, lunch and learns, access to online courses or other resources?

We foster a culture of learning by anchoring our work in a bold shared vision. When the path forward challenges us, it sparks growth and encourages each team member to develop new skills, adopt better approaches and rise to meet the moment. Ambitious goals act as a catalyst, pushing us beyond what is comfortable and into new territory. In contrast, when the vision is small or the demands too familiar, it is easy to stay still. But with a clear and inspiring vision, we build collective momentum as we embrace the discomfort that comes with learning and transforming together.

How does this culture positively impact the work your team produces?

A strong vision acts as a forcing function. It sparks movement, shared ownership and momentum. It gives teams clear direction, aligns incentives and creates an environment where learning and growth happen naturally. When someone learns and shares a better pattern, the whole team benefits. Over time, this builds a virtuous cycle that continuously accelerates progress.

Take our legacy API. It was generating revenue but was flawed, fire-prone and hard to maintain. The team was talented and staffed, but progress was stalled. What changed? We introduced a bold, company aligned vision: Scale the API and make it foundational for new products.

That shift created urgency and clarity. We quickly mobilized to redesign the API and, in the process, introduced major improvements — better patterns, updated processes and modern architecture. These changes happened not because someone mandated them but because the vision made them obvious and exciting. The result? A better API, stronger team momentum and a culture of growth fueled by purpose.

What advice would you give to other engineers or engineering leaders interested in creating a culture of learning on their own team?

First, there will always be tradeoffs between product needs and engineering health. But if you consistently prioritize business goals at the cost of engineering well-being, morale will suffer. Cast a vision that includes building excellent systems and processes. Make space for best practices and time to implement them, so engineers can grow by working on and owning increasingly better technical solutions.

Second, if senior leadership is not providing a strong vision, you still need to create and push one. You will eventually need leadership to support it, but you cannot wait for them to go first. Their attention is often pulled in many directions, and they rely on your initiative to surface opportunities, identify gaps and keep momentum alive. That momentum is what drives learning, adoption of better patterns and team growth. Your vision can be the spark that unlocks long-term progress.