Senior Software Engineer - AI Operations Team (Open to hiring at the Lead Software Engineer Level)

Wellmark, Inc.•Des Moines, IA

6h•Hybrid

About The Position

As a senior technical contributor on the AI Platform and Operations team, you will help build and operate Apollo, Wellmark's governed, composable foundation for safe, secure and scalable enterprise AI adoption. You will design, build, and operate core AI platform capabilities including governed AI access, model routing, prompt management, agent orchestration and runtime services, tool execution, knowledge retrieval, evaluation, observability, enterprise guardrails, and cost management. You will guide engineers through complex technical challenges and drive adoption of architecture standards, automated testing, CI/CD practices, reusable SDKs, infrastructure-as-code, templates, and reference implementations. In partnership with product, architecture, security, compliance, legal, data governance, cloud, and engineering teams, you will strengthen platform reliability, security, auditability, and operational excellence while enabling teams across Wellmark to responsibly adopt and scale AI solutions.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, MIS, or related field of study, and at least 2 years of software development experience (ex. Angular, NodeJS, TypeScript, etc) OR 6 years of related and applicable experience.
Strong analytical problem-solving skills.
Accuracy and high attention to detail.
Previous experience troubleshooting and developing creative technical solutions.
Ability to provide innovative solutions to complex issues.
Demonstrated experience in software development lifecycle methodologies.
Big picture thinker with the ability to translate the value of the WaaS strategy to company strategy when making design and development decisions.
Demonstrated, strong ability to gather information, perform necessary research needed for root cause analysis, problem definition and formulation, recommend solution implementation, verification, and ongoing optimization, using data to support recommendations and best practices.
Demonstrated ability to build relationships to reach outcomes that gain the support and acceptance of all parties.
Ability to communicate key information in a timely manner to the appropriate stakeholder audience with the ability to adjust communication style that will best suit the audience.
Ability to communicate with and coach/mentor team members, while setting an example in maintaining a positive attitude, staying calm under pressure, being approachable, and respectful and taking responsibility for failures.
Ability to thrive in fast-paced environment with changing priorities.
Excellent organizational skills.
Strong time management skills with the ability to set and meet established timeframes with little direction, while assuring data and information integrity.
Eagerness to learn and stay current on industry trends and have a continuous learning mindset.
Ability to collaborate and work as a team to accomplish goals and/or solve problems.
Ability to earn trust and respect from peers, leadership, and stakeholders.
Ability to learn by actively listening and applying coaching feedback.
Ability to lead, support and work within a diverse development team model including global staffing, crowd sourcing, etc.

Nice To Haves

Experience developing cloud-native applications and platform services using TypeScript, Node.js, Python, or similar technologies.
Experience with AWS cloud services and familiarity with AI/ML capabilities such as Amazon Bedrock, Bedrock AgentCore, SageMaker, OpenSearch, Lambda, API Gateway, DynamoDB, EventBridge, Step Functions, or related services.
Familiarity with Microsoft Azure AI services, Azure OpenAI, Azure AI Foundry, Azure AI Search, or other Azure-native AI capabilities.
Experience designing, building, or operating AI platform capabilities such as model routing, prompt management, agent orchestration, agent runtimes, tool integration, or AI governance controls.
Experience implementing knowledge retrieval solutions including embeddings, vector indexing, citation frameworks, semantic search, or retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) patterns.
Experience creating reusable SDKs, APIs, templates, reference implementations, platform services, or developer self-service capabilities.
Knowledge of identity, authentication, authorization, policy enforcement, privacy, security controls, and enterprise guardrails for AI-enabled solutions.
Experience designing solutions for regulated environments with requirements for compliance, auditability, lineage, traceability, evidence capture, and operational governance.
Experience implementing observability practices including tracing, metrics, logging, dashboards, alerting, incident response, platform monitoring, and operational readiness.
Experience with AI observability and evaluation practices, including monitoring AI application quality, retrieval effectiveness, agent performance, model behavior, safety controls, and operational health.
Experience defining, implementing, or analyzing quantitative and qualitative AI performance metrics, including accuracy, latency, cost, groundedness, hallucination detection, user feedback signals, and LLM-as-a-judge evaluation methodologies.
Experience developing automated evaluation or quality measurement frameworks for AI applications, including models, prompts, retrieval systems, agents, safety controls, and accuracy validation.
Understanding of AI usage tracking, cost attribution, reporting, and optimization strategies across models, services, and workloads.
Experience enabling engineering teams to adopt shared platforms, standards, and reusable capabilities while balancing enterprise consistency with solution-specific needs.
Ability to evaluate emerging AI technologies, models, providers, frameworks, and implementation patterns based on capability, reliability, latency, cost, compliance, security, and business requirements.
Experience working within an Agile team environment.

Responsibilities

Design, build, and operate core AI platform capabilities including governed AI access, model routing, prompt management, agent orchestration and runtime services, tool execution, knowledge retrieval, evaluation, observability, enterprise guardrails, and cost management.
Guide engineers through complex technical challenges and drive adoption of architecture standards, automated testing, CI/CD practices, reusable SDKs, infrastructure-as-code, templates, and reference implementations.
Strengthen platform reliability, security, auditability, and operational excellence while enabling teams across Wellmark to responsibly adopt and scale AI solutions.
Provide high-level analysis and implementation of innovative, efficient, and cost-effective business solutions for multiple platforms, while utilizing information technology, business, and industry trends.
Guide other engineers in the design, development, code testing, debugging and resolution of issues that utilize emerging technology and meet and exceed Wellmark's evolving business needs.
Provide advanced support in the gathering of information, necessary research needed for root cause analysis, problem definition and formulation, solution implementation, verification, and ongoing optimization. Ensure analysis of defects to find root cause and guide others in the identification of potential improvement opportunities.
Mentor, guide and problem-solve with other technology areas in the development and implementation of solutions, including how to use new or enhanced software/applications.
Use data and cost measures (AWS, infrastructure, labor, etc.) to influence timely decisions, build consensus, and take actions to successfully deliver project or production support objectives and support benefits realization. Identify known issues, impacts to project or production outcomes if not resolved, and escalate as necessary.
Build relationships with Wellmark leaders and acts as consultant on business status, issues, process improvements and technology enhancements or capabilities.
Participate in project proposals, estimates and proof-of-concept activities as needed.
Maintain awareness of industry’s best practices and standards and proactively participates in industry/knowledge reference groups relative to role.
Other duties as assigned.

Benefits

Wellmark is not motivated by profits. We are motivated by the well-being of our friends, family, and neighbors–our members.
Committed to sustainability and innovation
Building innovative, modern solutions using cutting edge technology.
Driving organizational transformation and business strategy by empowering our technology team to innovate new and elegant solutions to enhance the customer experience.
Leaning into the future, owning the outcome, and driving organizational change to transform how we work.
All your information will be kept confidential according to EEO guidelines.
An Equal Opportunity Employer
The policy of Wellmark Blue Cross Blue Shield is to recruit, hire, train and promote individuals in all job classifications without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, veteran status, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity or any other characteristic protected by law.
Applicants requiring a reasonable accommodation due to a disability at any stage of the employment application process should contact us at [email protected]
Wellmark supports and expects the responsible use of AI for our workforce! We welcome the responsible use of these tools by job seekers as well and are interested in learning from you; you will have an opportunity in the application process to share which tools you used and how you applied them.