AI Agent & Infrastructure - Lead Engineer

FINRA•Rockville, MD

29d•$114,200 - $248,700•Hybrid

About The Position

Architects and builds the infrastructure and tooling that powers AI agent development across the Software Development Lifecycle (SDLC). Develops production-grade agentic systems, orchestration frameworks, and observability solutions that enable teams to build, deploy, and monitor reliable AI agents at scale. Plays a key role in defining and implementing the next generation of SDLC through AI-first innovation and comprehensive instrumentation. The Lead Engineer owns development of software products and works on improving the overall quality of the product throughout the software development life cycle and mentors other Software Engineers.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Information Systems or related discipline with at least 7 years of related experience, or equivalent training and/or work experience.
Strong system design experience
Strong experience in object-oriented development
Strong experience with cloud technologies
Strong experience in data storage technologies
Strong experience in performance tuning and optimization
Strong experience in DevOps and CI\CD technologies
Strong experience test automation and unit testing
Strong experience software security
Sharp product sense for high-impact automation opportunities
Technical taste in implementation decisions
Ability to clearly articulate trade-offs
Knows when to apply AI agent solutions versus simpler approaches
Can explain the "why" behind architectural choices
Excels at 0-to-1 (and 1-to-100) product development
Comfortable operating in ambiguous environments where requirements emerge through experimentation and iteration rather than upfront specification.
Full-stack technical proficiency: Languages: Java, Python, JavaScript/TypeScript
Frameworks: Angular, Spring Boot
CI/CD platforms and cloud infrastructure (AWS)
Monitoring/observability tools (e.g., Prometheus, Grafana, CloudWatch)

Responsibilities

AI Agent Development & Automation: Develop production-grade AI agents that eliminate manual handoffs across the SDLC. Create custom integrations and CLI tools that give agents deep understanding of internal systems and codebases. Design comprehensive testing strategies to ensure agent reliability and output quality. Implement "Golden Path" scaffolding that embeds organizational standards into new projects. Build AI solutions that improve codebase navigation, documentation, and developer workflows. Identify workflow bottlenecks and deliver measurable impact through intelligent automation. Shape SDLC evolution by identifying AI-first opportunities and proving outcomes through experimentation.
Agent Infrastructure & Platform: Architect and maintain production infrastructure supporting agent deployment, lifecycle management, and scaling. Develop agent frameworks, templates, and SDKs that accelerate agent development. Create governed Model Context Protocol (MCP) catalog enabling compliant agent-to-agent and agent-to-MCP communication. Implement governance controls for agent behavior, permissions, and system access.
Observability & Performance Analytics: Design and implement metrics, monitoring, and logging infrastructure for AI agents and development workflows. Build dashboards that provide actionable insights into developer productivity, tool adoption, and agent performance. Establish KPIs and measurement frameworks to quantify the impact of AI-powered automation. Create alerting and anomaly detection systems to ensure reliability of agents and tooling. Analyze telemetry data to identify optimization opportunities and guide strategic investment decisions.
Collaboration & Impact: Partner across teams to drive adoption of AI-powered tooling and process transformation. Stay current with LLM technologies and coach colleagues on AI-assisted development and automation best practices. Rapidly prototype solutions to validate use cases and prove value quickly. Communicate data-driven insights to stakeholders through clear visualizations and reports.

Benefits

health, dental and vision insurance
basic life, accidental death and dismemberment, supplemental life, spouse/domestic partner and dependent life, and spouse/domestic partner and dependent accidental death and dismemberment, short- and long-term disability, long-term care, business travel accident, disability and legal.
immediate participation and vesting in a 401(k) plan with company match
eligibility for participation in an additional FINRA-funded retirement contribution
tuition reimbursement
commuter benefits
adoption assistance
backup family care
surrogacy benefits
employee assistance
wellness programs
15 days of paid time off
5 personal days
9 sick days
two volunteer service days
military leave
jury duty leave
bereavement leave
voting and election official leave for federal, state or local primary and general elections
care of a family member leave (available after 90 days of employment)
childbirth and parental leave (available after 90 days of employment)
nine paid holidays