Principal Generative AI Engineer, SVP

Citi • Irving, TX

3d • $156,160 - $234,240 • Hybrid

About The Position

Citi is looking for a Principal Generative AI Engineer to lead the design, development, and deployment of intelligent operations and automation platforms within the AI Automation Forward Deployed Engineering (FDE) team, part of Consumer Operations Technology division. In this senior role, you will set the technical direction for generative AI solutions from LLM orchestration and RAG pipelines to AI governance frameworks, ensuring our AI capabilities meet the highest standards of security, compliance, and reliability in financial services. This is a high-impact opportunity to shape how Citi applies cutting-edge AI at scale, working alongside senior technology leaders across a global organization.

Requirements

• 10 or more years of experience in application development or engineering, with a significant focus on AI and machine learning solutions in production environments.
• Deep expertise in LLM architectures, embedding models, and AI orchestration frameworks such as Google ADK and LangChain, applied to real-world operational use cases.
• Hands-on experience deploying open-source LLMs (Llama, Mistral, Gemma) and working with enterprise AI platforms including Google Vertex AI or equivalent cloud AI suites.
• Expert-level Python skills, including proficiency with AI/ML libraries such as PyTorch, Hugging Face, Pandas, and NumPy, and API development frameworks including FastAPI and Flask.
• Demonstrated ability to implement deterministic controls, bias detection, and hallucination mitigation in production AI systems operating under strict compliance requirements.
• Strong experience with containerisation technologies (OpenShift, Docker, Kubernetes) and cloud-native application delivery, including CI/CD pipeline management.
• Background in financial services technology, with working knowledge of financial products, compliance requirements, and data security standards in a regulated environment.

Nice To Haves

• Experience leading global technology teams or AI engineering programmes from concept through to production deployment.
• Familiarity with AI safety standards, emerging guardrail technologies, and the evolving regulatory landscape for AI in financial services.
• A Bachelor’s degree/University degree or equivalent experience. Master's degree in Computer Science, Artificial Intelligence, or a related technical discipline, preferred.
• Exposure to managing cross-functional stakeholder relationships and communicating complex technical decisions to senior non-technical audiences.

Responsibilities

• Architect and deliver end-to-end generative AI solutions for intelligent operations, including advanced chatbots, agentic workflow automation, and AI-assisted decision platforms that improve operational efficiency at scale.
• Lead the engineering of LLM pipelines by fine-tuning, prompt-engineering, and deploying open-source models such as Llama, Mistral, and Gemma alongside proprietary models via Google Vertex AI.
• Build and maintain Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) pipelines using vector databases such as Pinecone, Milvus, and Chroma to enhance model accuracy and contextual relevance.
• Design and implement AI governance frameworks, including guardrails (NeMo Guardrails, Llama Guard), deterministic controls, semantic routing, and hallucination detection systems to ensure safe and compliant production AI.
• Deploy scalable, cloud-native AI infrastructure using Python, Docker, Kubernetes, and OpenShift, supported by robust CI/CD pipelines for continuous delivery.
• Apply deep knowledge of financial services technology to ensure all AI models meet strict risk management, auditability, and data security standards aligned with regulatory requirements.
• Partner with senior technology leaders and cross-functional teams to translate complex business challenges into production-ready AI solutions, setting credible technical direction throughout delivery.

Benefits

• medical, dental & vision coverage
• 401(k)
• life, accident, and disability insurance
• wellness programs
• paid time off packages, including planned time off (vacation), unplanned time off (sick leave), and paid holidays

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Principal
• Education Level: Associate degree