Principal AI/ML Engineer

Scotiabank; Toronto; Hybrid; CAD 120,000 - 160,000; Full time

Job summary

Scotiabank is looking for a Principal AI/ML Engineer to spearhead the development of advanced AI-driven solutions in their Global Wealth Management Technology division. This role involves architecting cloud-native, secure AI systems that address financial insights and ensures compliance with regulatory frameworks. The ideal candidate will excel in a collaborative, high-performing culture with a focus on pivotal responsibilities that shape the future of AI in wealth management.

Benefits

Performance bonus

Company matching programs

Generous vacation

Health/medical/wellness benefits

Employee banking privileges

Qualifications

• 7–9 years of experience building and deploying AI/ML systems.
• Strong applied experience with retrieval-augmented generation systems.
• Hands-on expertise in infrastructure-as-code tools.

Responsibilities

• Architect scalable and secure ML solutions using cloud-native technologies.
• Lead design and optimization of complex AI/ML systems.
• Mentor engineers and guide architectural reviews.

Skills

Cloud-native technologies

Machine Learning Operations

AI frameworks

Observability stacks

Data compliance

Tools

Terraform

Azure Cognitive Search

Airflow

MLflow

Kubeflow

Job description

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Requisition ID: 226991

Join a purpose driven winning team, committed to results, in an inclusive and high-performing culture.

Overview:

Global Wealth Management Technology (GWMT) is seeking an exceptional and forward-thinking Principal AI/ML Engineer to help shape and execute the next generation of intelligent solutions within GWMT.

This role is ideal for a highly competent engineer with 7–9 years of hands-on experience who can architect robust AI/ML systems, align with enterprise strategy, and elevate technical excellence across domains. You will play a pivotal role in translating business vision into AI-driven outcomes, championing scalable design, and fostering a collaborative engineering culture.

Why Join Us:

• Scotiabank’s Global Wealth Management (GWM) division empowers millions of clients worldwide with personalized financial planning, investment strategies, and advisory services.
• As part of GWMT, you’ll work on high-impact problems that blend financial insight with advanced machine learning. You will shape cloud-native, secure, and explainable AI/ML systems that enhance advisor intelligence and client experience—while aligning to regulatory, operational, and strategic priorities.
• You won’t just be joining a team—you’ll be helping define the future of AI in wealth management.
• Our engineering culture values autonomy, intellectual rigor, and business alignment. We’re building intelligent platforms that integrate with every layer of our advisory experience.
• You’ll collaborate with industry veterans and technologists who are passionate about impact, precision, and doing meaningful work at scale.
• If you’re looking to shape architectures that endure and solve hard problems that matter—this is your runway.

Key Responsibilities:

• Architect scalable and secure ML solutions using cloud-native technologies (Azure, GCP) and distributed processing frameworks.
• Lead the design, integration, and optimization of complex AI/ML systems—including RAG, agentic workflows, and multi-model orchestration.
• Develop and maintain advanced ML Ops pipelines with robust CI/CD, testing, retraining, and observability baked in.
• Translate evolving business objectives and regulatory requirements into practical AI frameworks and platform capabilities.
• Own technical vision and best practices around explainability, privacy, compliance (e.g., PIPEDA, GLBA, GDPR), and governance.
• Collaborate closely with engineering leads, enterprise architects, and data teams to establish end-to-end ML infrastructure that is resilient, performant, and measurable.
• Mentor senior and junior engineers alike, guiding architectural reviews, solution scoping, and delivery excellence.

Minimum Must have Qualifications:

• 7–9 years of experience building and deploying AI/ML systems in production, with a track record of leading end-to-end architecture.
• Demonstrated experience with financial services data, models, and regulatory environments (e.g., compliance logging, auditability, explainability).
• Strong applied experience with retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) systems and vector databases, including Azure Cognitive Search, GCP Matching Engine, FAISS, or Weaviate.
• Proficiency in orchestration frameworks such as LangChain, LlamaIndex, or Semantic Kernel.
• Hands-on expertise in infrastructure-as-code tools such as Terraform, ARM, or Pulumi.
• Deep understanding of ML lifecycle tools, including Airflow, MLflow, Kubeflow, and model registry/versioning.
• Expertise in observability stacks such as Prometheus, Grafana, Azure Monitor, or GCP Cloud Logging.

Preferred Skills:

• Experience designing federated learning systems or privacy-preserving ML architectures.
• Familiarity with AI risk and controls frameworks (e.g., model validation, fairness auditing, adversarial robustness).
• Ability to present and defend architectural decisions to both technical and executive audiences.
• Contributor to open-source ML/AI tools or research publications.
• Experience shaping platform-level strategies in enterprise environments or across business domains.

What’s In It for You

• You'll get to work with and learn from diverse industry leaders, who have hailed from top technology companies around the world.
• We foster an environment of innovation and continuous learning. We have an inclusive and collaborative working environment that encourages creativity, curiosity, and celebrates success!
• We provide employees with an environment that is safe, inclusive, and reflective of all communities by promoting fair and equitable treatment and prioritizing unconscious bias and anti-racism training.
• We offer a competitive total rewards package, including a performance bonus, company matching programs (pension & Employee Share Ownership), generous vacation; health/medical/wellness benefits; employee banking privileges.
• When in person collaboration is required, you can take advantage of our new state of the art ecosystems with a design focus on enabling collaboration through both environment and technology.

#LI-Hybrid

Location(s): Canada : Ontario : Toronto || Canada : Quebec : Montreal

Scotiabank is a leading bank in the Americas. Guided by our purpose: "for every future", we help our customers, their families and their communities achieve success through a broad range of advice, products and services, including personal and commercial banking, wealth management and private banking, corporate and investment banking, and capital markets.

At Scotiabank, we value the unique skills and experiences each individual brings to the Bank, and are committed to creating and maintaining an inclusive and accessible environment for everyone. If you require accommodation (including, but not limited to, an accessible interview site, alternate format documents, ASL Interpreter, or Assistive Technology) during the recruitment and selection process, please let our Recruitment team know. If you require technical assistance, please click here . Candidates must apply directly online to be considered for this role. We thank all applicants for their interest in a career at Scotiabank; however, only those candidates who are selected for an interview will be contacted.