Expert Senior Manager, AI Engineering

Bain & Company; Zurich; On-site; CAD 90,000 - 150,000; Full time

Job summary

Bain & Company seeks an Expert Senior Manager / Associate Partner AI Engineer to architect and scale next‑generation generative AI systems for clients. You will lead cross‑functional teams across engineering, product, data science, ethics, and client stakeholders, shaping enterprise AI deployments.

You'll collaborate with Bain’s AIS team and partners, driving research-to-production while ensuring responsible AI governance and scalable, measurable business impact.

Qualifications

• 8-12+ years in software/ML roles with significant hands-on building responsibilities.
• German language proficiency at C1 level or higher.
• Strong executive communication skills with the ability to translate technical concepts for business stakeholders.

Responsibilities

• Design, build, and deploy end-to-end generative AI systems and agentic applications.
• Architect multi-component pipelines (RAG, fine-tuning, embeddings, hybrid retrieval).
• Lead research to production deployment and mentor technical teams.
• Oversee API development, microservices, CI/CD, observability, and cloud deployments.
• Engage with executives and clients on AI strategy and roadmaps.
• Work in person at Bain offices 3 days per week and travel as required.

Skills

AI engineering

Team leadership

Client-facing

Job description

What Makes Us a Great Place To Work

We are proud to be consistently recognized as one of the world's best places to work. We are currently the top ranked consulting firm on Glassdoor's Best Places to Work list and have earned the #1 overall spot a record seven times. Extraordinary teams are at the heart of our business strategy, but these don't happen by chance. They require intentional focus on bringing together a broad set of backgrounds, cultures, experiences, perspectives, and skills in a supportive and inclusive work environment. We hire people with exceptional talent and create an environment in which every individual can thrive professionally and personally.

What Makes Us a Great Place To Work

We are proud to be consistently recognized as one of the world's best places to work. We are currently the top ranked consulting firm on Glassdoor's Best Places to Work list and have earned the #1 overall spot a record seven times. Extraordinary teams are at the heart of our business strategy, but these don't happen by chance. They require intentional focus on bringing together a broad set of backgrounds, cultures, experiences, perspectives, and skills in a supportive and inclusive work environment. We hire people with exceptional talent and create an environment in which every individual can thrive professionally and personally.

About Bain AI, Insights & Solutions (AIS)

Bain's AI, Insights & Solutions (AIS) team works with clients to design and deliver AI-powered solutions that create measurable business impact. You'll operate in multidisciplinary teams alongside Bain consultants, other experts in product, design, architecture and engineering, and client stakeholders, translating ambiguous business problems into robust AI applications that can be piloted, scaled, and adopted.

The Impact You'll Have

Bain works with clients on board-level and executive priorities, helping deliver step-change results across growth, productivity, and resilience. In that context, AI is rarely a point solution. The most meaningful outcomes come from building AI as part of an integrated system that combines technology with redesigned processes, operating model changes, and adoption at scale across the organization.

The Role

The Expert Senior Manager / Associate Partner AI Engineer will architect, build, and scale next-generation generative AI systems and agentic solutions for Bain's clients. As a leader in the practice, you will sit at the intersection of advanced engineering, applied AI research, product strategy, and responsible AI governance. You will own the full lifecycle - from research and experimentation to production deployment and ongoing optimization - and guide teams across engineering, product, data science, ethics, and client stakeholders.

You will have opportunities to work with major AI ecosystem partners through Bain's partnerships, collaborating on real client deployments and helping shape how emerging capabilities are applied in enterprise settings.

Bain offers significant learning and growth opportunities through the breadth and depth of problems we solve, the level of impact we help clients achieve, and our apprenticeship model. You will learn while doing, with support from other experienced teammates, frequent feedback, and increasing responsibility over time.

What You'll Do

• Design, build, and deploy end-to-end generative AI systems, including multi-agent workflows and production-grade AI applications.
• Architect multi-component pipelines, including:
• Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG)
• Fine-tuning and parameter-efficient tuning
• Embedding generation and optimization
• Hybrid retrieval strategies (vector, graph, keyword)
• Integrate reasoning, tool use, function calling, and orchestration across complex workflows
• Engineer advanced agentic systems, ensuring clear separation of concerns, robust memory architecture, and scalable tool ecosystems
• Lead everything from early-stage research, model experimentation, and evaluation design to production system deployment
• Oversee API development, microservices, CI/CD pipelines, observability, and cloud-native deployment
• Build scalable GenAIOps processes for automated testing, regression evaluation, latency monitoring, and continual improvement
• Balance performance, safety, responsible AI principles, and cost across system design:
• Implement guardrails, fallbacks, red-teaming strategies, and human-in-the-loop (HITL) workflows
• Partner with global ethics teams to ensure alignment with Bain's Responsible AI standards
• Build automated evaluation suites integrating user signals, continual learning cycles, and ongoing model updates
• Design and implement evaluation frameworks covering:
• Hallucination rate and factual consistency
• Relevance and precision/recall
• Latency, throughput, and system-level performance
• Cost tracking and efficiency
• Partner closely with product, engineering, data science, ethics, and infrastructure teams to build robust, compliant AI systems
• Act as a thought partner to executives and clients on AI strategy, architecture decisions, emerging capabilities, and implementation roadmaps
• Mentor and upskill technical teams on best practices including RAG, agents, prompt engineering, and AI safety

What We're Looking For

• 8-12+ years in software engineering, ML engineering, or applied AI roles with significant hands-on building responsibilities
• German languate proficience at C1 level or higher
• Demonstrated experience leading complex, multi-stack generative AI programs from conception through production
• Strong executive communication skills with the ability to translate highly technical concepts to business stakeholders
• Track record of leading engineering teams, mentoring technical talent, and collaborating with diverse cross-functional groups
• Advanced prompt engineering, context engineering, and conversation design
• Strong expertise in evaluation design, experimentation frameworks, and data labeling strategies for LLM apps
• Deep experience with:
• Advanced RAG architectures (vector, hybrid, graph-based retrieval)
• Agentic architectures (multi-agent systems, tool selection, routing, memory, planning, reflection)
• ReAct, RLAIF, and other HITL + feedback loops.
• AI-Specific Tools & Frameworks - Orchestration frameworks, Vector and graph databases and Model + API ecosystems
• Strong background in system design, architecture, and production-grade deployment
• Deep familiarity with cost optimization and computational tradeoffs for LLM workloads
• Comfort operating in high-ambiguity environments with collaborative cross-functional teams
• Clear ability to lead, mentor, and inspire technical teams
• Experience in client-facing consulting or enterprise transformation environments is a strong plus

Working Model & Travel

• This role requires a minimum of three days per week working together in person, either at a client location or at your Bain home office.
• Travel is required beyond your home office / primary working location. Frequency and destination vary by project needs.