Senior AI Engineer

Reposted 3 Days Ago
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West Des Moines, IA, USA
In-Office
Senior level
Fintech • Insurance
The Role
The Senior AI Engineer will lead AI initiatives, design advanced AI systems, mentor engineers, and develop end-to-end AI solutions using various technologies and tools.
Summary Generated by Built In

We are driven to do more. More for our customers and the financial professionals who offer our products. If you are driven to do more and love the challenge of pursuing more, Athene is your kind of company. You will find we offer more than the basics to create an inclusive and dynamic work environment at our various locations.

Purpose:

Athene is accelerating its AI initiatives to transform how we serve customers, agents, and business partners. As a leader in insurance and annuities, we are committed to applying Generative AI, Agentic AI, and Machine Learning to deliver operational excellence and innovative products.

We’re seeking a Senior AI Engineer to help scale next-generation AI capabilities across sales, marketing, finance, risk management, product development, claims, and enterprise productivity. You’ll join a small, cross-functional team building AI-native solutions from the ground up—rapidly prototyping, experimenting with new capabilities, and moving fast from concept to production.

This is a high-impact, leadership-oriented role where you’ll design advanced AI systems, mentor junior engineers, and shape the technical direction of Athene’s AI platform.

Accountabilities:

  • Build, deploy, and optimize production-grade AI applications leveraging GenAI, Agentic AI, and ML.

  • Lead design and scaling of RAG pipelines, vector search systems, and LLM evaluation workflows.

  • Develop AI agents with LangChain, AutoGen, LlamaIndex, or LangGraph for task automation and decision support.

  • Translate complex business problems into end-to-end AI solutions using AWS-native services.

  • Ingest and process unstructured/structured data (parsing, chunking, embeddings, retrieval).

  • Deliver intuitive user experiences integrating LLMs and intelligent agents into real-time workflows.

  • Integrate and evaluate enterprise AI tools such as Claude, GPT-4/4o, ChatGPT Enterprise, Copilot, Glean, Shelf, and Genesys AI.

  • Drive innovation in document automation (summarization, translation, NER) and multilingual NLP.

  • Implement observability, governance, and responsible AI practices for secure, compliant deployments.

  • Collaborate across IT, data, legal, compliance, and business teams on high-impact solutions.

  • Mentor engineers and lead specific workstreams to advance Athene’s AI platform.


Qualifications and Experience:

  • Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field (or equivalent experience), with 6+ years of experience in software engineering or data science, including 2+ years working with GenAI, LLMs, or agentic AI.

  • Proficiency in Python, REST APIs, React/Node.js, and tools like OpenAPI, JSON, and YAML.

  • Hands-on experience with AWS AI services (Bedrock, SageMaker, NovaTextract, Translate, Lambda, Step Functions).

  • Strong understanding of LLMs, embeddings, prompt engineering, and tool use.

  • Comfortable with CI/CD pipelines, Docker, and cloud-native infrastructure.

  • Solid foundation in software engineering, backend performance, observability, and security.

  • Experience with enterprise-grade AI tools like Claude, GPT-4/4o, and ChatGPT Enterprise.

  • Insurance or financial services experience, plus knowledge of regulatory and compliance requirements (preferred).

  • Product-oriented mindset: rapidly prototype, iterate, test and deliver business-facing AI features.

  • Track record of mentorship and technical leadership in AI-focused teams.

Drive. Discipline. Confidence. Focus. Commitment.  Learn more about working at Athene.

Athene is a Military Friendly Employer!  Learn more about how we support our Veterans.

Athene is committed to inclusion and is proud to be an Equal Opportunity Employer.  We do not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, disability, marital status, sexual orientation, veteran status or any other status protected by federal, state or local law.

Skills Required

  • Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or related field
  • 6+ years of experience in software engineering or data science
  • 2+ years working with GenAI, LLMs, or agentic AI
  • Proficiency in Python, REST APIs, and React/Node.js
  • Experience with AWS AI services such as Bedrock, SageMaker
  • Strong understanding of LLMs, embeddings, and prompt engineering
  • Experience with CI/CD pipelines and Docker
  • Mentorship and technical leadership in AI-focused teams
  • Insurance or financial services experience (preferred)

Athene Compensation & Benefits Highlights

The following summarizes recurring compensation and benefits themes identified from responses generated by popular LLMs to common candidate questions about Athene and has not been reviewed or approved by Athene.

  • Retirement Support Retirement savings support is highlighted through a strong employer match and structured retirement programs. Feedback suggests these offerings add meaningful long-term value to total compensation.
  • Leave & Time Off Breadth Time-off policies span flexible or paid time off, a robust holiday schedule, volunteer time, and paid parental, family care, and military leave. Feedback suggests this breadth is a standout element across many roles.
  • Wellbeing & Lifestyle Benefits Wellbeing resources include comprehensive health coverage, mental-health support, onsite fitness centers, and one‑on‑one coaching. HQ amenities and wellness perks are positioned as differentiators for on-site employees.

Athene Insights

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The Company
HQ: West Des Moines, IA
1,254 Employees
Year Founded: 2009

What We Do

Athene, through its subsidiaries, is a leading retirement services company that issues, reinsures and acquires retirement savings products designed for the increasing number of individuals and institutions seeking to fund retirement needs. The products offered by Athene include: • Retail fixed, fixed indexed and registered index-linked annuity products; • Reinsurance arrangements with third-party annuity providers; and • Institutional products, such as funding agreements and group annuity contracts related to pension risk transfers. Athene's subsidiaries include Athene Annuity & Life Assurance Company, a Delaware-domiciled insurance company, Athene Annuity and Life Company, an Iowa-domiciled insurance company, Athene Annuity & Life Assurance Company of New York, a New York-domiciled insurance company, Athene Securities, LLC, an Iowa-domiciled registered broker-dealer (member FINRA), and Athene Life Re Ltd., a Bermuda-domiciled reinsurer. -- The financial industry is ripe for change and Athene is leading the way. We’re determined to make retirement easier for you and other Americans by harnessing our passion, smarts and relentless spirit. Learn how to become an Athene financial professional at www.athene.com/contact. If you love a challenge and are driven to succeed, then Athene is your kind of company.

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