Senior Applied AI Engineer

PURPOSE OF THE JOB

The Senior Applied AI Engineer is responsible for leading the design, development, and operationalization of generative AI solutions that support the insurance company’s business objectives. This role drives the adoption of cutting-edge AI technologies, ensures models are deployed securely, cost-effectively, and in compliance with regulatory and organizational standards, and serves as a mentor and technical authority for the AI and ML Platform team. The engineer will work cross-functionally with cloud engineering, AI, and ML Ops teams to integrate AI capabilities into both customer-facing and internal systems, ensuring reliability, scalability, and measurable business impact.

ESSENTIAL DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

• Design, implement, and maintain end-to-end generative AI solutions, including model fine-tuning, deployment, and monitoring in production environments.

• Lead applied AI projects that integrate generative models into insurance products, customer engagement tools, and internal operational workflows.

• Collaborate with cloud engineering, AI, and ML Ops engineers to operationalize AI workloads on AWS using services such as SageMaker, Lambda, ECS/EKS, and S3.

• Build robust AI/ML pipelines leveraging Snowflake for feature engineering and data preprocessing.

• Ensure AI/ML systems comply with organizational security policies, regulatory requirements, and data privacy standards.

• Establish best practices for model governance, explainability, monitoring, and risk mitigation in regulated environments.

• Monitor and optimize AI workloads for cost efficiency in cloud environments, balancing performance, scalability, and budget considerations.

• Mentor mid-level engineers, reviewing code, architecture, and model design for quality and compliance.

• Drive research and evaluation of emerging generative AI technologies and frameworks, recommending adoption strategies for the organization.

• Troubleshoot performance and scalability issues in production AI systems and optimize models for cost and latency.

EDUCATION AND EXPERIENCE

• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Computer Science, Data Science, Applied Mathematics, or a related technical discipline.

• 5+ years of experience in AI/ML engineering, with at least 3 years focused on generative AI or large language models in applied settings.

• Proven experience deploying and scaling AI/ML models in cloud environments, preferably AWS.

• Hands-on experience with Snowflake for AI/ML feature engineering and data integration in a plus.

• Prior experience in insurance, financial services, or highly regulated environments is strongly preferred.

CERTIFICATES, LICENSES, AND REGISTRATIONS

• AWS Certified Machine Learning – Specialty or AWS Certified Solutions Architect preferred.

• Optional: Relevant AI/ML certifications (e.g., TensorFlow Developer, Hugging Face Course, or Generative AI specialization) are a plus.

• Compliance or governance-related certifications (e.g., SOC 2, ISO 27001) are a differentiator.

KNOWLEDGE AND SKILLS

• Deep understanding of generative AI architectures, including transformers, diffusion models, and retrieval-augmented generation.

• Proficiency in Python and ML frameworks such as PyTorch, TensorFlow, and Hugging Face Transformers.

• Strong knowledge of MLOps practices, including CI/CD pipelines, model versioning, testing, and monitoring.

• Experience with containerization (Docker, Kubernetes) and orchestration in cloud environments.

• Solid understanding of data pipelines, Snowflake architecture, and ETL/ELT best practices.

• Strong knowledge of security, governance, and compliance considerations in AI/ML systems.

• Experience optimizing AI workloads for cost efficiency without sacrificing performance.

• Excellent problem-solving skills, ability to make design tradeoffs in complex systems, and mentor junior team members.

• Strong communication skills to translate technical concepts for business stakeholders and cross-functional teams.

SUPERVISORY RESPONSIBILITIES

This position has no supervisory responsibility but may mentor and train junior engineers.

PHYSICAL REQUIREMENTS

Office environment – no specific or unusual physical or environmental demands and employees are regularly required to sit, walk, stand, talk, and hear. Employees are required to reach with hands and arms; stoop, kneel, crouch, or crawl. Employees must occasionally lift and/or move up to 30 pounds. Employees are required to have visual acuity and be capable of operating and viewing computers and other electronic devices for extended periods of time.

WORK ENVIRONMENT

This position operates in an office environment and requires the frequent use of a computer, telephone, copier, and other standard office equipment.

This description is a general statement of essential job functions and responsibilities.
The position may include other duties as assigned.