Lead AI Engineer

CFA Institute•Charlottesville, VA

5d•$110,000 - $229,000

About The Position

The Lead AI Engineer is a senior individual contributor and technical subject-matter expert responsible for designing, building, and delivering production-grade artificial intelligence and machine learning solutions at CFA Institute. The role applies advanced technical expertise to resolve complex engineering problems, contributes to enterprise AI engineering best practices, and delivers AI-enabled projects aligned with organizational strategic initiatives. The Lead AI Engineer partners with Product, Data, Security, and business colleagues to translate business needs into scalable, secure, and responsible AI capabilities, and provides technical guidance to less-experienced engineers. The role may be based in eligible US jurisdictions and reports to the Senior Director, AI Engineering.

Requirements

Bachelor's degree in computer science, data science, AI, engineering, or a related field.
At least 7 years of progressive experience in software, data, or AI engineering, including delivery of production-grade AI or machine learning solutions in an enterprise environment.
Advanced technical expertise in AI/ML engineering, application development, and the software development life cycle, including testing, versioning, and deployment.
Demonstrated experience leading the delivery of medium-sized projects and providing technical guidance to other engineers.
Ability to resolve complex technical problems, balance competing priorities, and exercise sound judgment about when to escalate.
Working knowledge of responsible AI, model governance, and security and compliance considerations for AI systems.
Strong communication and collaboration skills, including the ability to explain technical concepts to technical and non-technical audiences.

Nice To Haves

Master's degree or equivalent experience.
Formal people management experience is not required.

Responsibilities

Lead the architecture and delivery of production-grade AI and machine learning capabilities, integrating models, data pipelines, and AI-enabled product features in alignment with enterprise engineering standards and strategy.
Serve as an AI engineering subject-matter expert, resolving complex design, performance, and reliability problems.
Deliver medium-sized AI engineering projects or larger, lower-complexity projects, managing scope, schedule, risk, quality, and budget where assigned.
Balance competing priorities across projects and stakeholders, escalating matters of the highest complexity or consequence to the Senior Director.
Apply engineering best practices, including MLOps, CI/CD for models, testing, observability, and secure development, and recommend improvements to team standards and ways of working.
Adapt or work outside established processes when needed, using sound judgment and communicating decisions and rationale to leadership.
Diagnose and correct complex defects in AI applications, data pipelines, and model behavior, and support incident response and remediation.
Contribute to the AI engineering roadmap by evaluating emerging technologies and recommending technical approaches that improve solution quality and meet user needs.
Partner with Product, Data, Security, Legal, Risk, and business stakeholders to define and document requirements and support ethical, secure, and compliant AI deployment.
Provide technical guidance, code review, and mentoring to less-experienced engineers, and oversee the quality of work produced by lower-grade colleagues on assigned projects without formal people management responsibility.
Maintain current knowledge of AI technologies, external regulation, and industry best practices through ongoing learning.