AI Engineering Manager, Digital Transformation & Innovation

BDO USA

About The Position

The AI Engineering Manager serves as the development lead for the AI capabilities embedded across the Digital Transformation & Innovation (DT&I) product portfolio. This role focuses on the design, build, and production operation of agent architectures, orchestration, and LLM-powered application features. The position owns the hands-on engineering of intelligent capabilities, including model selection, prompt and tooling design, evaluation, deployment, and observability, ensuring AI features are accurate, reliable, secure, and cost-effective within BDO’s Azure ecosystem. The AI Engineering Manager ensures all AI capabilities align with BDO’s AI Governance Policies and responsible-AI standards. This role collaborates closely with the Context Engineering Manager, Automation & Infrastructure Lead, and Data & Analytics Lead to deliver integrated AI solutions. The manager also partners with the AI & Digital Innovation Delivery Lead and cross-functional teams to align AI engineering practices and product delivery with BDO’s AI Governance Policies, responsible-AI standards, assurance service delivery objectives, firm policies, and security standards.

Requirements

Seven (7) or more years of experience in software engineering or related technology fields, required.
Three (3) or more years of hands-on experience building and deploying production AI/ML or LLM applications, required.
Three (3) or more years of experience with AI orchestration frameworks (Semantic Kernel, LangChain, or equivalent) and Azure AI services, required.
Demonstrated delivery of agent, RAG, or function-calling features to production, required.
Expert-level knowledge of Microsoft Azure AI services including Azure AI Foundry, Azure OpenAI, and Azure AI Search, required.
Strong understanding of the AI application lifecycle including prompt design, evaluation, deployment, monitoring, and observability, required.
Experience with AI orchestration and agent frameworks (Semantic Kernel, LangChain, Durable Functions), required.
Strong development experience with .NET 10 / C# and React, required.
Experience with RAG, structured outputs, function calling, and vector technologies (Azure AI Search, embeddings), required.
Expert-level knowledge of applied LLM and agent engineering for production systems.
Proven ability to serve as a hands-on AI engineer while providing team leadership and engineering governance.
Deep knowledge of agent architectures, orchestration, RAG, and responsible-AI practices.
Working knowledge of AI governance frameworks and the ability to design, build, and operate AI systems in alignment with BDO’s AI Governance Policies.
Familiarity with data architecture and the ability to collaborate with context, infrastructure, and data engineering teams on dependencies.
Excellent problem-solving skills with a focus on accuracy, reliability, cost optimization, and operational efficiency.
Strong communication skills with the ability to convey technical concepts to non-technical stakeholders and leadership.
Experience presenting AI architecture and governance recommendations to governance bodies (e.g., Architecture Review Boards).
Strong knowledge of AI security, data privacy, and compliance considerations in regulated environments.
Ability to work across technical teams and business stakeholders in complex, fast-paced enterprise environments.
Self-directed with the ability to manage multiple priorities and competing deadlines.
Collaborative mindset with the ability to build relationships across all levels of the organization.

Nice To Haves

Bachelor’s degree with a focus in Computer Science, Information Systems, Engineering, Information Technology, preferred.
Experience delivering enterprise-scale AI solutions in professional services, assurance, or accounting industries, preferred.
Experience establishing AI evaluation, responsible-AI, or model governance frameworks, preferred.
Microsoft Certified: Azure AI Engineer Associate, or equivalent, preferred.
Experience with CI/CD pipelines (Azure DevOps), source control (Git), and containerization (Docker, Azure Container Apps), preferred.
Experience with AI evaluation and observability tooling and agentic development tooling (Claude Code or equivalent), preferred.

Responsibilities

Designs and builds agent architectures and multi-agent orchestrations using Semantic Kernel and Azure AI Foundry across the DT&I portfolio.
Serves as the principal technical authority on agent design, planners, tool and function calling, memory, and workflow patterns.
Architects and implements production-grade AI features, turning prototypes into reliable capabilities within the product stack.
Evaluates and integrates emerging models, frameworks, and orchestration tools to continuously improve capability and efficiency.
Designs agent observability, error handling, retry, and fallback strategies to ensure resilient, fault-tolerant AI workflows.
Implements retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) pipelines, structured outputs, function calling, and application-layer prompt strategies.
Integrates AI capabilities into the .NET 10 / React product stack across the Advantage portfolio.
Partners with the Context Engineering Manager to consume governed context and grounding within agent and application runtimes.
Builds reusable AI service components, SDKs, and patterns for use across DT&I product teams.
Owns model selection, routing, fallback, and cost and latency optimization across AI features.
Builds evaluation harnesses, regression tests, and guardrails to measure and defend accuracy, cost, and latency targets.
Implements responsible-AI controls including safety, bias mitigation, accuracy, and human-in-the-loop appropriate to a regulated assurance context.
Works within and maintains alignment with BDO’s AI Governance Policies—including approved-model, acceptable-use, data-handling, and responsible-AI requirements—across all AI features.
Owns LLMOps including deployment, monitoring, observability, and drift detection for AI systems within the Advantage SDLC and CI/CD pipeline.
Ensures AI systems comply with BDO’s AI Governance Policies, firm security policies, regulatory requirements, and responsible-AI standards (SOC 2, PCAOB AS 2201, QC 1000, ISO 27001).
Coordinates AI governance reviews and approvals and maintains the documentation and evidence required to demonstrate alignment with BDO’s AI Governance Policies.
Manages data handling, auditability, and the controls required for AI-assisted assurance work.
Partners with risk and compliance stakeholders to maintain alignment between AI systems and firm governance requirements.
Performs other duties as assigned.
Willingly accepts share of less desirable assignments.
Acts as a direct supervisor to engineering and development team members, as assigned.
Acts as a career advisor and mentor to engineering and development team members as assigned.