Senior Staff Generative AI Engineer - VP

Senior Staff Generative AI Engineer – VP 

At Citi, we are pioneering the future of enterprise operations through innovative technology. Our COO-Technology Engineering and Architecture capability is at the forefront, responsible for architecting best-in-class solutions, driving end-to-end transformation, and integrating cutting-edge Generative AI solutions to unlock unparalleled efficiency, automation, and risk reduction across our global operations. 

The Team: Innovating at Scale 

Our team is a dynamic hub of engineers and innovators dedicated to solving complex business challenges with intelligent solutions. We believe in building robust, scalable products that deliver tangible impact. We foster an environment of continuous learning, rapid iteration, and strong engineering practices. Here, you'll work alongside passionate experts, leverage the latest in AI, and contribute to a culture that values clean code, thoughtful design, and direct, hands-on problem-solving. We're not just adopting AI; we're building the intelligence that powers our enterprise. 

The Role:  

We are seeking an exceptional Staff Generative AI Engineer to join our team. This is a critical, deeply hands-on role for a seasoned software engineer with a profound passion for Generative AI, Large Language Models (LLMs), and agentic frameworks. You will be instrumental in designing, building, and deploying real-world, commercial production systems, not just proofs-of-concept.  

This is an Individual Contributor (IC) role with no direct people management responsibilities. 

Your expertise in containers (especially OpenShift), strong Python programming, and advanced LLM/agentic frameworks will be essential as you drive significant operational efficiencies and set new standards for engineering excellence. If you're a builder who thrives on technical challenge, delivering measurable impact, and mentoring others while getting your hands dirty with code, we want to hear from you. 

As a Staff Generative AI Engineer, you will: 

• Architect & Build Production Systems: Lead the hands-on development of sophisticated Generative AI applications, LLM-powered solutions, and intricate agentic frameworks primarily using Python. Your code will be clean, performant, scalable, and deployed directly into commercial production environments, solving real business problems. 

• Pioneer Automation with Agents: Design and implement intelligent agents capable of understanding, reasoning, and orchestrating complex workflows to automate critical enterprise business processes, driving efficiency and reducing operational risk at scale. 

• Master Containerized Deployments: Demonstrate deep comfort and expertise with container technologies, particularly deploying and managing applications within OpenShift environments. 

• Drive Technical Direction & Ownership: Contribute significantly to the technical strategy and roadmap for Generative AI adoption, influencing architectural decisions and technology choices across our product portfolio, ensuring all solutions are production-ready. 

• Champion Engineering Excellence: Instill and uphold rigorous software engineering best practices, including robust testing, code reviews, documentation, and continuous integration/delivery, ensuring the highest quality for our mission-critical systems running in production. 

• Innovate & Research: Stay at the bleeding edge of Generative AI, actively exploring new models, techniques, and frameworks. Contribute to both applied engineering and research initiatives within the domain. You will have access to state-of-the-art AI-assisted development tools like Devin and Copilot to amplify your productivity and creativity. 

• Mentor & Collaborate: Act as a technical leader and mentor to junior engineers, fostering a culture of knowledge sharing and continuous improvement. Collaborate closely with cross-functional teams, product managers, and stakeholders to deliver impactful solutions. 

• Iterate & Deliver: Thrive in an agile, fast-paced environment, prioritizing rapid delivery, iterative development, and adaptability. Focus on delivering measurable business value and learning quickly from prototypes and deployments, always with a path to production in mind. 

• Ensure Responsible AI: Design and implement robust guardrails and ethical considerations into AI solutions, proactively assessing and mitigating risks in line with organizational and regulatory standards. 

Minimum Qualifications: 

• 10+ years of professional software engineering experience, demonstrating a strong track record of designing, building, and delivering scalable enterprise-grade solutions in commercial production environments, not just proofs-of-concept. 

• Expert-level proficiency in Python is a must-have, with a deep understanding of its ecosystem for AI/ML development, data engineering, and backend services. Full-stack development experience is a distinct advantage. 

• Extensive hands-on experience with Generative AI concepts, Large Language Models (LLMs), transformer architectures, RAG, and advanced agentic frameworks (e.g., LangChain, LangGraph, Google ADK. Optionally AutoGen, CrewAI, LlamaIndex, Semantic Kernel). 

• Deep comfort and practical experience with containers and orchestration technologies, specifically OpenShift. 

• Demonstrated ability to architect, develop, and deploy highly performant, large-scale AI/ML systems into production environments. 

• Strong understanding of modern software development principles, clean code practices, data structures, algorithms, and distributed systems. 

• Proficiency with Relational (preferably, PostgreSQL) and Vector (preferably, pgvector) databases. 

Preferred Qualifications (Bonus Points): 

• Proficiency in additional programming languages such as Java, JavaScript/TypeScript, or Golang. 

• Experience with specific frameworks like Spring (AI, Boot), N8N, or Flask. 

• Familiarity with messaging and integration platforms such as Kafka or JMS/MQ. 

• Experience with UI development using modern frameworks like React JS or StreamLit for interactive AI applications. 

• Practical experience in model risk management, developing AI guardrails, and establishing end-user adoption pathways for Generative AI solutions. 

• A proven track record of contributing to open-source projects or publishing relevant research in AI/ML. 

Why You'll Love Working Here: 

• Unprecedented Impact & Visibility: Contribute to critical, high-visibility projects that are transforming a global enterprise, working on firm-wide initiatives that directly influence our operational future.  

• Cutting-Edge Technology: Work with the latest Generative AI models, agentic frameworks, and cloud-native technologies, enhanced by access to AI-assisted development tools like Devin and Copilot. 

• Growth & Development: A culture of continuous learning, mentorship, and opportunities to lead and innovate. Benefit from extensive learning resources including Udemy for Business and Pluralsight. 

• Collaborative Environment: Join a highly skilled, passionate team that values collaboration, intellectual curiosity, and shared success. 

• Flexible Work Environment: Embrace a hybrid working model, balancing productive in-office collaboration (3 days) with the flexibility of working from home (up to 2 days). 

• Global Scale: Build solutions that operate at a massive scale, impacting users and operations worldwide. 

Join us to build the future of intelligent enterprise solutions!