Job Description:
The VP - AI Engineering owns the central AI engineering platform — the “AI Harness” — together with the agent frameworks, evaluation infrastructure, and AI-assisted development practices that every CSI engineering team builds on. A small central team builds the platforms, connectors, and plumbing across LLMs, data, knowledge, and workflows; functional teams build on top of them. This role is accountable for a hard delivery-velocity number, for the engineering bar on AI- and agent-generated code, and for the developer enablement that makes adoption real rather than nominal.
Own the delivery-velocity mandate
Set and hit the ~50% delivery-acceleration target: establish the Year-0 baseline and the DORA-style metrics (lead time for change, deployment frequency, change-failure rate, time to restore), and report progress to the CDAO and pillar peers.
Translate individual adoption into organizational throughput — redesign team scope and workflow around human judgment plus agent execution, not individual task completion.
Build the AI Harness as a product
Own the strategy and roadmap for the central AI platform — model routing, connectors, MCP servers, and the build-vs-buy framework that decides when to use Bedrock or Foundry rather than direct LLM access.
Treat the Harness as a product, not infrastructure — named services, SLAs, adoption metrics, and a backlog driven by engineering-team needs — while managing token and cost optimization across LLM usage.
Empower developers and agents
Build and maintain the agent framework and the shared library of skills, connectors, and agents; set the standards for agent and connector architecture so teams compose rather than rebuild.
Establish the target SDLC and common AI code / delivery tooling; define golden paths and the guardrails, gates, and review patterns that make AI-assisted and agentic development safe at bank-grade standards.
Evaluation, quality & security
Own eval and LLMOps infrastructure — versioning, regression and faithfulness testing — as the gate for shipping AI capabilities.
Embed AI security, data-classification enforcement, audit / logging, and use-case risk review at the platform layer, in close partnership with Information Security and governance.
Enablement & adoption
Own the tooling-access strategy and the enablement engine — onboarding, office hours, and change management — so adoption is measured and real, not nominal. The unlock is a real result on day one, not training.
Partner with the Product Operations and other teams to keep practices current and capture institutional knowledge before it is lost.
Organization & leadership
Build, develop, and lead a high‑performing organization of delivery and operational leaders, fostering accountability, continuous learning, and readiness for new products and enhancements.
Partner cross‑functionally to align with company strategy, product evolution, and enterprise standards.
10+ years of experience in senior leadership of an AI/ML platform, applied-AI, or engineering-productivity organization at meaningful scale, with accountability for delivered outcomes — not research output alone. A track record of raising software delivery velocity (lead time, deployment frequency, change-failure rate) through platform and developer-experience investment. Deep, current fluency in LLM application engineering — agent frameworks, RAG, evals / LLMOps, prompt and model lifecycle, and cost / latency management at production scale. Hands-on experience operationalizing AI-assisted and agentic software development with the quality and security guardrails that make it safe. Experience operating to bank-grade security, compliance, and audit requirements (financial services, fintech, or comparably regulated). Preferred experience in building an internal AI agent platform consumed by multiple product teams — with capability boundaries, permissioning, state / memory across sessions, and rollback for agent-caused failures. Explicit build-vs-buy judgment across the model-platform landscape (Amazon Bedrock, Azure AI Foundry, Anthropic Claude, Microsoft Copilot, Atlassian Rovo). Experience standing up MCP-based connector and agent ecosystems. Familiarity with the community-bank and credit-union market and the competitive set (Fiserv, FIS, Jack Henry, Q2, Alkami).
As a forward-thinking software provider, Computer Services, Inc. (CSI) helps community and regional financial institutions solve their customers’ needs through open and flexible technologies. In addition to its award-winning core banking platform, these include the latest in lending, digital banking, payments, financial crime prevention and cybersecurity. Building on its 60-year track record of personalized service, CSI is shaping the future of banking and empowering its customers to rival their competition. For more information about CSI, visit www.csiweb.com
CSI provides rewarding and challenging career opportunities for our employees. When determining your pay, we consider various factors such as your skills, qualifications, experience and location. Along with a competitive salary, this position includes eligibility for incentive awards based on both individual and business performance. We also offer a comprehensive range of benefits. To learn more about our benefits, visit: Benefits Summary
CSI is an Equal Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, pregnancy, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, physical and mental disability, marital status, veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by applicable law. If you need an accommodation during the recruitment process, please email us at [email protected] and we will work with you to meet your accessibility needs.
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Visa Sponsorship: We are unable to offer visa sponsorship for this position. Applicants must be authorized to work in the United States without the need for sponsorship now or in the future.
Skills Required
- 10+ years of experience in senior leadership of an AI/ML platform, applied-AI, or engineering-productivity organization at meaningful scale.
- Proven track record of raising software delivery velocity using platform and developer-experience investments (DORA-style metrics).
- Deep fluency in LLM application engineering: agent frameworks, RAG, evals/LLMOps, prompt and model lifecycle, and cost/latency management at production scale.
- Hands-on experience operationalizing AI-assisted and agentic software development with quality and security guardrails.
- Experience operating to bank-grade security, compliance, and audit requirements (financial services, fintech, or comparably regulated).
- Explicit build-vs-buy judgment across the model-platform landscape (Amazon Bedrock, Azure AI Foundry, Anthropic Claude, Microsoft Copilot, Atlassian Rovo).
- Experience standing up MCP-based connector and agent ecosystems.
- Preferred: Experience building an internal AI agent platform consumed by multiple product teams (capability boundaries, permissioning, state/memory, rollback for agent-caused failures).
- Familiarity with the community-bank and credit-union market and competitive set (Fiserv, FIS, Jack Henry, Q2, Alkami).
What We Do
As a forward-thinking technology partner, we accelerate our delivery of cutting-edge solutions to empower our customers’ growth. CSI heavily invests in research and development, product partnerships and strategic acquisitions to provide the most innovative technologies—all while maintaining our service-first mentality. We drive financial institutions and other businesses forward with a variety of services, including: Core Banking With more than 57 years as a leader in core bank processing, CSI’s enterprise banking solutions empower institutions to compete in an open banking environment while growing assets, developing additional revenue streams and reaching new customers by integrating the latest digital technologies. Regulatory Compliance As an established leader in compliance, top global brands trust CSI as their regtech partner and rely on us for our advanced compliance software—including industry-leading fraud and anti-money laundering solutions. Managed Cybersecurity CSI offers cloud-based cybersecurity services, with 24/7 monitoring, real-time incident remediation, seamless compliance integration and industry-leading support for enhanced threat mitigation. IT Management As one of the largest, most trusted managed services partners in the country, we take a consultative approach to IT management to provide a scalable, efficient IT enterprise that supports institutions’ growth and regulatory needs. Document Distribution From digital document delivery to cost-efficient print and mail services, CSI provides a full range of document distribution solutions to help financial institutions stay connected with their customers. Advisory Services CSI’s Advisory Services—which include IT governance, compliance and risk management services—deliver cost-effective solutions that reduce the time and expense of managing security and compliance while ensuring technology is aligned to business objectives.
