We are a hybrid, remote-office company dedicated to growing our talent anywhere!
We have onsite locations in: Sioux Falls, SD, Phoenix, AZ, Louisville, KY, Troy, MI, Franklin, TN, Easton, PA.
At Pathward, we take tremendous pride in our purpose to create financial inclusion for all™. We are a financial empowerment company that works with innovators to increase financial availability, choice, and opportunity for all. We strive to remove barriers that traditional institutions put in the way of financial access, and promote economic mobility by providing responsible, secure, high quality financial products.
We are a team of problem solvers and innovators who celebrate our differences and know that our unique perspectives make us stronger and well-positioned for success. We celebrate, and embrace, our team members through our *HUMBLE*HUNGRY*SMART approach, and we believe that we are strongest when we embrace the voices of our employees, customers, partners, and the communities we serve.
About the Role:
The AI Forward Deployed Engineer ensures Pathward’s AI investments deliver real, operational impact. This forward‑deployed, customer‑embedded role owns deployment readiness, data integrity, and solution delivery, working closely with AI Engineers, Data Scientists, and Architecture and Platform Engineering teams to deploy, adopt, and scale AI solutions responsibly across the enterprise. This role is deployment centric - owning the technical and operational success of AI solutions in real business environments.
Success in this role is defined by delivering deployment‑ready AI solutions that are adopted by stakeholders, enabling business‑defined outcomes, and scaling predictably across the enterprise.
What You Will Do:
- Serve as the technical bridge between stakeholders and AI/engineering teams, translating business needs into clear technical, data, and solution requirements.
- Partner with business, product, and technology teams to understand workflows, identify high-value AI opportunities, and align solutions with business outcomes.
- Assess infrastructure, security, access controls, integrations, and other dependencies to ensure environments are ready for production AI deployments.
- Identify and mitigate technical, operational, scalability, reliability, regulatory, and compliance risks throughout the deployment lifecycle.
- Evaluate data availability, quality, lineage, and governance, partnering with data and business teams to address gaps that could impact AI implementation.
- Assess business processes for readiness, ensuring they are sufficiently defined, stable, and measurable to support AI-enabled automation and decision-making.
- Configure, integrate, and deploy AI solutions, including models, workflows, data pipelines, integrations, and supporting services.
- Translate AI prototypes and proofs of concept into scalable, production-grade solutions and troubleshoot issues in pre-production and live environments.
- Enable successful business adoption through documentation, demonstrations, walkthroughs, knowledge transfer, and ongoing stakeholder feedback.
- Capture learnings and establish repeatable patterns, practices, and playbooks that improve the scalability and reusability of AI implementations across the enterprise.
What You Will Need:
- Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Information Systems, or equivalent relevant experience.
- Typically, 5+ years of experience in customer‑facing or deployment‑oriented technical roles (e.g., solution engineering, implementation, forward‑deployed roles).
- Strong understanding of data‑driven systems and AI/ML platforms.
- Ability to translate ambiguous business needs into clear technical and data requirements.
- Familiarity with AI/ML concepts (e.g., MLOps, model lifecycle, LLM‑based solutions).
- Strong communication skills across technical and non‑technical stakeholders.
Preferred Qualifications
- Experience deploying AI or advanced analytics solutions in regulated environments (financial services, fintech, healthcare, etc.).
- Familiarity with cloud platforms (Azure, AWS, or GCP) and enterprise data ecosystems.
- Experience supporting solutions from pilot through production rollout.
The responsibilities listed above are not all inclusive and may be changed at any time.
Salary range: $86,000 – $145,000
The salary range reflects the minimum and maximum target for a new hire in this role. Individual pay within the range will be determined by multiple factors which can include but are not limited to a candidate’s experience, qualifications, skills, and location. Your recruiter can share more about the specific salary for your location during the hiring process. Ranges may be modified in the future. This role is also eligible for an annual performance-based incentive opportunity. Pathward offers a comprehensive benefits package for eligible employees, including health insurance, 401(k) retirement benefits, life insurance, disability benefits, paid time off, and more.
#LI-Remote
Don’t have everything listed under qualifications? If you’re excited about this role but your experiences don’t match exactly to everything in the posting, we encourage you to apply anyway. You may be just the right candidate for this or other Pathward roles. Pathward is an equal employment opportunity employer and considers candidates for roles without regard to their race, sex, national origin, ethnicity, age, disability or any other category protected by law.
Who we are:
Our commitment to inclusion is woven into our DNA. We believe that we are strongest when we embrace the voices of our employees, customers, partners, and the communities we serve.
We provide equal employment opportunities (EEO) to all employees and applicants for employment without regard to race, color, ethnicity, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, transgender status, pregnancy, national origin, age (age 40 and over), disability, genetic information, marital status, hair texture or hairstyle, ancestry, service in the uniformed services, protected veteran status, status as a victim of domestic violence or any other class protected by federal, state and local laws.
Please click here to learn more about our benefits and review information about our Privacy Policy, Affirmative Action Plan and other notices. Applicants with disabilities may be entitled to reasonable accommodation under the terms of the Americans with Disabilities Act and certain state or local laws. For assistance completing an application, please contact a Pathward People & Culture Representative by emailing – [email protected]
Please click here to view Pathward's Applicant Privacy Notice.
Applications will be accepted for a minimum of 3 days after posting, and there is no predetermined date by which applications should be submitted.
Knowingly submitting false information will result in disqualification for consideration of future positions, termination of employment and forfeiture of other rights.
Candidate Scam WarningWe encourage you to be cautious of hiring scams that impersonate Pathward. Copy and paste the following URL into your browser to learn more: https://www.pathward.com/about-us/people-culture/careers/
Skills Required
- Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Information Systems, or equivalent relevant experience
- Typically 5+ years of experience in customer-facing or deployment-oriented technical roles
- Strong understanding of data-driven systems and AI/ML platforms
- Ability to translate ambiguous business needs into clear technical and data requirements
- Familiarity with AI/ML concepts, including MLOps, model lifecycle, and LLM-based solutions
- Strong communication skills across technical and non-technical stakeholders
- Experience deploying AI or advanced analytics solutions in regulated environments
- Familiarity with Azure, AWS, or GCP and enterprise data ecosystems
- Experience supporting solutions from pilot through production rollout
Pathward Compensation & Benefits Highlights
The following summarizes recurring compensation and benefits themes identified from responses generated by popular LLMs to common candidate questions about Pathward and has not been reviewed or approved by Pathward.
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Retirement Support — A dollar‑for‑dollar 401(k) match up to 6% with auto‑enrollment indicates comparatively generous and reliable retirement support. Administration by Principal adds clarity and accessibility.
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Leave & Time Off Breadth — Competitive PTO with tenure‑based increases, company holidays, Be Well Days, and paid Volunteer Time Off provide a wide range of time‑off options. A Dollars for Doers program and new‑parent leave add further depth to the leave portfolio.
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Wellbeing & Lifestyle Benefits — Multiple medical plan choices, an Employee Assistance Program and LifeGuides, and remote‑first practices (including a remote stipend) reflect sustained attention to wellbeing and flexibility. ERGs, matching gifts, and volunteer awards complement the core package.
Pathward Insights
What We Do
At Pathward, expanding financial access is the heart of our business. We work with diverse partners to deliver Banking-as-a-Service and commercial finance solutions for clients and customers that the traditional financial system can’t or won’t fully serve. Together, we are powering financial inclusion for more because we believe in financial inclusion for all
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