Sr. Director of Engineering - AI/ML and Analytics Platforms

About Our Company

We’re a diversified financial services leader with more than $1.5 trillion in assets under management, administration and advisement as of year-end 2024. Our team of 22,000 people across 19 countries, serves more than 3.5 million individual, small business and institutional clients. We are a longstanding leader in financial planning and advice, a global asset manager and an insurer. Our unwavering focus on our clients and strong financial foundation connects each of our unique businesses – Ameriprise Financial, Columbia Threadneedle Investments and RiverSource Insurance and Annuities. Here, we foster meaningful careers, invest in the future, and make a difference for clients, institutions and communities around the world.

Job Description

Drive enterprise transformation by strategic and operational leadership in advanced AI/ML and analytics solutions that address complex business challenges. Work closely with the business to effectively translate business strategy and objectives into technological capability, while collaborating with Architecture to assure technological compatibility and compliance with the architectural road map for Advanced AI/ML and Analytics. Manage on- and off-shore resources, both internal and vendor provided, and finances to ensure best-in-class solutions that are high quality, cost effective, sustainable, and market leading. Champion highly skilled teams on innovation and ensure alignment with enterprise objectives through rigorous governance and architectural excellence.

Responsibilities

• Provide strategic direction and operational leadership to a highly technical team. Develop and maintain an organization of high performing people through effective hiring, coaching, and rigorous performance/talent management processes. Plan and implement a resource strategy (internal versus vendor) based on business need, scope of work, cost, and skill requirements. Foster a collaborative, success-oriented team environment where resources are empowered and accountable.

• Collaborate with the business to understand business strategy and needs, customer needs, and market trends in the AI/ML and Analytics space. Develop and drive a supporting technology strategy, including a multi-year road map. Collaborate with Architecture to assure strategy and projects align with architectural design, plan, and standards. Oversee annual asset health and security assessments and effectively incorporate output into the development strategy. Provide cost and feasibility analytics to support and gain strategy approval.

• Ensure that solution design and delivery meet business requirements and expectations regarding cost, schedule, and scope. Deliver operational excellence through development, formal release schedules and release management processes, service level agreements (SLAs), problem resolution through system monitoring, and change management. Effectively oversee multiple business critical, highly visible, and/or projects simultaneously.

• Collaborate with the enterprise procurement team to ensure appropriate procurement processes are followed and to effectively manage vendor relationships, assuring high quality work in a cost-effective model, and SLAs are established and effectively managed. Partner closely with vendor partners to ensure all on- and off-shore resources are of appropriate skill set, Ameriprise preferred methodologies are followed, and output meets quality standards.

• Strategically plan and prioritize software/solution releases within planned release schedules based on enterprise business strategy, business and technology need, and impact while assuring appropriate scope, size, and impact of releases to end users. Effectively plan all design, development, and testing work to ensure the pre-determined release schedule is met.

• Participate in the annual budget and financial planning process for assigned organization, technical assets, and related projects. Prioritize and plan technology product solutions within the annual investment budget. Quickly cut through ambiguity to accurately forecast project costs for the business. Collaborate with involved teams across the business and with vendor partners to estimate amount of work and resulting cost associated effectively and accurately with project deliverables.

• Champion and ensure compliance with organizational standards, practices, and methodologies. Drive the design and implementation of new methodologies, practices, and standards, as required. Hold teams accountable for following and implementing Ameriprise's Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC) methodology and the quality management framework for projects.

Required Qualifications

• 10+ years of experience in technology and/or software development, progressing in complexity and responsibility.

• 5-7+ years of leadership experience that includes leadership of technical projects and teams.

• 2-3+ years of proven experience and success in strategy planning and execution.

• 3-5+ years of experience in successfully planning and managing budgets (departmental and/or project).

• Knowledge of cloud environments and cloud native application architecture used at major public cloud providers (e.g. AWS, Azure)

• Experience with AI platform services (e.g. AWS Bedrock, AgentCore)

• Experience with ML Ops frameworks for CI/CD, model versioning, and automated retraining.

• Knowledge of in ML frameworks (TensorFlow, PyTorch) and distributed computing (Spark, Ray), Data platforms (Databricks, Snowflake, BigQuery) and Container orchestration (Kubernetes, Docker).

Visa Sponsorship

Applicants must have a valid work authorization that does not now, or in the future, require visa sponsorship for employment in the United States (e.g., H-1B, F-1 CPT, F-1 OPT, TN).

In-Office Collaboration

We are a client-centric, relationship-based business. Working together, in-person, is foundational to how we achieve results. By fostering a culture of face-to-face collaboration, idea sharing, productivity and personal connection, we deliver for our stakeholders — clients, advisors, employees and shareholders. Our employees work in the office at least four (4) days per week, with flexibility to work from home one (1) day per week. Some roles may require additional in-office time or different in-office expectations, and specific requirements will be discussed during the hiring process.

Base Pay Salary

The estimated base salary for this role is $180,000 - $225,000 / year. We have a pay-for-performance compensation philosophy. Your initial total compensation may vary based on job-related knowledge, skills, experience, and geographical work location. In addition, most of our roles are eligible for variable pay in the form of bonus, commissions, and/or long-term incentives depending on the role. We also have a competitive and comprehensive benefits program that supports all aspects of your health and well-being, including but not limited to vacation time, sick time, 401(k), and health, dental and life insuranceFull timeExemptTechnologyTECH Technology

Ameriprise Financial is an equal opportunity employer. We consider all qualified applicants without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, national origin, ancestry, age, physical or mental disability, medical condition, pregnancy, military status, veteran status, genetic information, citizenship, disability status, marital status, family status or any other basis prohibited by law.

We are committed to fostering an inclusive and accessible recruitment process for individuals with disabilities. If you require a reasonable accommodation to participate in the application or interview process, speak to your recruiter to discuss how we can support you.