Principal AI Platform Engineer

Compeer Financial•Lakeville, MN

9d•$133,000 - $180,000•Hybrid

About The Position

Compeer Financial is hiring a Principal AI Platform Engineer, the highest-level individual contributor in its software engineering career framework. This role provides enterprise technical leadership across portfolios, products, platforms, and transformation initiatives, with a focus on leading and expanding responsible AI use across the organization. The position sets the direction for the Enterprise AI Enablement Platform in partnership with Enterprise Architecture and the AI Risk governance workgroup, connecting AI platform strategy to enterprise needs, risks, and measurable value. The engineer advances AI-enabled engineering and Agentic AI at scale by building platforms, tools, and services that make adoption safe, repeatable, and accessible. The role owns AI-enabled and Agentic AI engineering delivery for strategic and ambiguous initiatives from discovery through sustained operation, and is accountable for quality, security, reliability, scalability, and production performance. It also provides guidance to senior technology and business leaders, develops engineers and technical leaders, and strengthens engineering culture. The position is open to any Compeer office location in Illinois, Minnesota, and Wisconsin, with a hybrid work option of up to 50% work from home. The role is eligible for variable compensation and benefits. The base pay range is $133,000–$180,000 USD.

Requirements

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, or a related discipline, or equivalent experience.
Extensive experience designing, building, and operating complex, business-critical software, distributed systems, and platforms.
Hands-on experience designing and building AI applications and platforms using LLMs, retrieval-augmented generation, vector search, agent orchestration, Model Context Protocol, and cloud AI services such as Azure OpenAI or Azure AI Foundry.
Experience scaling responsible AI-enabled engineering and Agentic AI across the software lifecycle, including prompt and model versioning, quality and safety testing, cost and performance monitoring, production support, and validation of AI-generated outcomes.
Working knowledge of responsible AI and AI governance, model and vendor risk management, privacy, bias and fairness, auditability, human oversight, sensitive-data protection, and translating governance requirements into practical technical controls.
Experience leading complex solution design and strategic technical decisions across multiple portfolios, products, systems, or business domains, including architecture, integration, technology trade-offs, engineering strategy, standards, governance, and target-state architecture.
Distinguished software engineering expertise across application development, APIs and integration, cloud-native and event-driven architectures, data, security, platforms, DevSecOps, testing, CI/CD, observability, reliability, and operational excellence.
Ability to analyze highly complex problems, anticipate second- and third-order effects, balance technical, security, regulatory, operational, and investment trade-offs, and connect engineering decisions to Compeer's strategy, client needs, enterprise value, and durable multi-year direction.
Exceptional communication, influence, leadership, and learning agility, including the ability to advise executives and governance bodies, constructively challenge assumptions, resolve cross-organizational dependencies, mentor senior technical talent, and rapidly evaluate and responsibly adopt emerging technologies.
Must be authorized to work for any employer in the United States; Compeer is unable to sponsor or take over sponsorship of an employment visa.

Nice To Haves

Experience in financial services, agriculture, or another regulated industry.

Responsibilities

Lead AI platform engineering and adoption by building enterprise AI platforms, tools, services, and integrations for LLMs, retrieval-augmented generation, vector search, agents, Model Context Protocol, and AI-assisted and agentic software development.
Establish AI operational excellence through reusable components and guardrails, evaluation frameworks, monitoring, cost and performance management, output validation, production support, and responsible scaling of AI tools and agents.
Partner with Risk Management, Information Security, Legal, Compliance, and Data Governance on AI governance and risk, translating requirements into access controls, data protection, model and vendor risk management, human oversight, auditability, and use-case risk tiering.
Own AI-enabled and Agentic AI engineering delivery for strategic and ambiguous software initiatives from discovery through sustained operation, remaining accountable for quality, security, reliability, scalability, and production performance.
Develop engineers and technical leaders through mentoring, communities of practice, training, and reusable guidance on AI-assisted development, prompt and context engineering, responsible AI, agentic development, and critical evaluation of AI-generated output.
Advance technical mastery and engineering excellence across architecture, distributed systems, integration, cloud-native engineering, DevSecOps, testing, CI/CD, security, observability, and reliability; evaluate emerging technologies through experimentation and evidence.
Translate Compeer's strategy, client needs, regulatory obligations, and risk into engineering strategies, investment options, build-versus-buy decisions, high-value AI opportunities, and multi-year roadmaps.
Lead across organizational boundaries by partnering with engineering, architecture, product, security, data, operations, quality, risk, and business leaders.
Influence without authority, resolve conflicts and dependencies, and communicate risks and trade-offs clearly.

Benefits

Hybrid work model with up to 50% work from home.
Flexible schedules, including ample flexibility during the summer months.
Up to 9% towards 401(k), including a 3% fixed Compeer contribution and up to 6% match.
Medical, dental, and vision insurance.
Health savings account and flexible spending account.
Life and AD&D insurance.
Short-term and long-term disability insurance.
Wellness program and employee assistance program.
Vacation, sick leave, holidays and floating holidays.
Parental leave.
Paid volunteer time off.
Learning and development programs.
Mentorship programs.
Cross-functional committee opportunities, including the Inclusion Council and emerging professional groups.
Professional membership and certification reimbursement.
Variable compensation.