Principal AI Engineer

Questrade Financial Group•Toronto, ON

1d•CA$150,000 - CA$190,000•Hybrid

About The Position

Questrade Financial Group (QFG) is seeking a Principal AI Engineer to join their diverse, inclusive, and hybrid workplace. This role involves using AI to transform financial services, redefine customer experiences, and empower teams. The ideal candidate will be a catalyst for change, combining human-centric collaboration with AI-driven innovation. The company offers a hybrid environment with at least 3 days in the office, competitive compensation, and benefits packages, along with opportunities for career growth and community involvement.

Requirements

Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Artificial Intelligence, or a closely related quantitative field.
7+ years of professional software engineering experience, with 2+ years of dedicated experience shipping production-grade Generative AI, RAG, or Agentic features to end-users.
Strong proficiency in Python (FastAPI, PyTest) paired with experience in enterprise ecosystems like C#/.NET Core, Node.js/TypeScript, or C++.
Hands-on experience within a cloud-native architecture (preferably GCP) using Docker, Kubernetes, and infrastructure-as-code (Terraform).
Strong database skills across Google Cloud SQL, BigQuery, and NoSQL solutions (MongoDB, Redis).
Proven experience building complex RAG pipelines and orchestrating multi-agent systems utilizing LangGraph, CrewAI, Semantic Kernel, or Model Context Protocol (MCP).
Proficient with vector databases.
Deep understanding of software design patterns (Domain-Driven Design), event-driven architectures (Kafka, Google Pub/Sub), and handling real-time, low-latency data streams.
Demonstrated ability to approach intricate business barriers with an analytical, innovative mindset.

Responsibilities

Build and maintain the underlying infrastructure required to deploy AI within a high-performance brokerage environment.
Design scalable REST/gRPC APIs, manage vector embeddings of market data, and integrate LLM orchestration layers cleanly with Questrade’s existing C#/.NET microservices, Angular/Next.js frontends, and GCP cloud infrastructure.
Consistently evaluate emerging AI trends and frameworks to build new and better ways for the platform to remain a market leader.
Adapt open-source and frontier models to the nuances of Canadian financial markets.
Fine-tune models (using LoRA/QLoRA) on proprietary market research, client portfolios, and compliance data.
Optimize models for maximum throughput and minimum latency to ensure real-time response times in active trading dashboards.
Design and implement stateful multi-agent systems using frameworks like LangGraph or custom runtime loops.
Build autonomous "digital investment assistants" capable of multi-step execution—such as checking account balances, querying market data streams, analyzing asset allocations against a user’s risk profile, drafting rebalancing orders, and routing them safely to human validation queues.
Implement strict deterministic guardrails, prompt injection defenses, and real-time automated audit frameworks using Kafka data streams.
Ensure all AI actions are auditable, verifiable, and adhere to strict regulators and privacy compliance standards.
Partner closely with software and data engineering squads, product managers, and cybersecurity to embed intelligence capabilities smoothly into brokerage products.
Communicate complex technological concepts and algorithmic logic clearly to non-technical business partners.