AI Agent & Infrastructure - Lead Engineer

FINRA; Rockville (MD); Hybrid; USD 131,000 - 238,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health insurance

401(k) with company match

Tuition reimbursement

Paid time off

Job summary

FINRA is seeking a Lead Engineer to own the development of software products and improve overall product quality across the SDLC. You will architect infrastructure for AI agent development, build production-grade agent systems, and mentor other engineers in a hybrid work environment.

You will lead across AI agent development, agent infrastructure, observability, and collaboration with diverse teams. A strong background in Java/Python/JavaScript, AWS, and cloud-native design is required for this

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in CS, Information Systems or related discipline with 7+ years of related experience.
• Strong system design experience.
• Strong OO development experience.
• Strong cloud technologies experience.
• Strong data storage experience.
• Strong performance tuning and optimization experience.

Responsibilities

• Develop production-grade AI agents that eliminate manual handoffs across the SDLC.
• Create integrations and CLI tools for deep agent understanding of internal systems and codebases.
• Design testing strategies to ensure agent reliability and output quality.
• Implement Golden Path scaffolding embedding organizational standards.
• Build AI solutions to improve codebase navigation, documentation, and developer workflows.

Skills

Java

Python

JavaScript/TypeScript

Education

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or related field

Tools

Angular

Spring Boot

AWS

Prometheus

Grafana

Job description

Working independently, the Lead Engineer owns development of software products and works on improving the overall quality of the product throughout the software development life cycle and mentors other Software Engineers. Reports directly to a Director or Senior Director.

Overview

• Architects and builds the infrastructure and tooling that powers AI agent development across the Software Development Lifecycle (SDLC).
• Develops production-grade agentic systems, orchestration frameworks, and observability solutions that enable teams to build, deploy, and monitor reliable AI agents at scale.
• Plays a key role in defining and implementing the next generation of SDLC through AI-first innovation and comprehensive instrumentation.

What We're Looking For

• You demonstrate sharp product sense for high-impact automation opportunities, technical taste in implementation decisions, and the ability to clearly articulate trade-offs. You know when to apply AI agent solutions versus simpler approaches and can explain the \"why\" behind architectural choices.
• You excel at 0-to-1 (and 1-to-100) product development, comfortable operating in ambiguous environments where requirements emerge through experimentation and iteration rather than upfront specification.

Key Responsibilities

AI Agent Development & Automation

• Develop production-grade AI agents that eliminate manual handoffs across the SDLC
• Create custom integrations and CLI tools that give agents deep understanding of internal systems and codebases
• Design comprehensive testing strategies to ensure agent reliability and output quality
• Implement \"Golden Path\" scaffolding that embeds organizational standards into new projects
• Build AI solutions that improve codebase navigation, documentation, and developer workflows
• Identify workflow bottlenecks and deliver measurable impact through intelligent automation
• Shape SDLC evolution by identifying AI-first opportunities and proving outcomes through experimentation

Agent Infrastructure & Platform

• Architect and maintain production infrastructure supporting agent deployment, lifecycle management, and scaling
• Develop agent frameworks, templates, and SDKs that accelerate agent development
• Create governed Model Context Protocol (MCP) catalog enabling compliant agent-to-agent and agent-to-MCP communication
• Implement governance controls for agent behavior, permissions, and system access

Observability & Performance Analytics

• Design and implement metrics, monitoring, and logging infrastructure for AI agents and development workflows
• Build dashboards that provide actionable insights into developer productivity, tool adoption, and agent performance
• Establish KPIs and measurement frameworks to quantify the impact of AI-powered automation
• Create alerting and anomaly detection systems to ensure reliability of agents and tooling
• Analyze telemetry data to identify optimization opportunities and guide strategic investment decisions

Collaboration & Impact

• Partner across teams to drive adoption of AI-powered tooling and process transformation
• Stay current with LLM technologies and coach colleagues on AI-assisted development and automation best practices
• Rapidly prototype solutions to validate use cases and prove value quickly
• Communicate data-driven insights to stakeholders through clear visualizations and reports

Full-stack technical proficiency

• Languages: Java, Python, JavaScript/TypeScript
• Frameworks: Angular, Spring Boot
• CI/CD platforms and cloud infrastructure (AWS)
• Monitoring/observability tools (e.g., Prometheus, Grafana, CloudWatch)

Education/Experience Requirements

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Systems or related discipline with at least 7 years of related experience, or equivalent training and/or work experience.
• Strong system design experience
• Strong experience in object-oriented development
• Strong experience with cloud technologies
• Strong experience in data storage technologies
• Strong experience in performance tuning and optimization

  Working Conditions

  • Hybrid work environment, with defined in-person presence requirements.
  • Occasional travel and extended hours may be required.

  For work that is performed in CO, FL, TX, IL, PA, MA, MD, VA, Washington, DC, NY and NJ, please refer to the chart below for the salary range for the corresponding location. FINRA complies with all state and local pay transparency laws and regulations requiring the disclosure of salary ranges for the position. In addition to location, actual compensation is based on various factors, including but not limited to, the candidate's skill set, level of experience, education, and market considerations.

  CO/FL/TX: Minimum Salary $114,200, Maximum Salary $207,200

  IL/PA: Minimum Salary $125,900, Maximum Salary $228,000

  MA/MD/VA/Washington, DC: Minimum Salary $131,200, Maximum Salary $238,300

  NY/NJ: Minimum Salary $131,200, Maximum Salary $248,700

  The information provided above has been designed to indicate the general nature and level of work of the position. It is not a comprehensive inventory of all duties, responsibilities and qualifications required.

  Employees may be eligible for a discretionary bonus in addition to base pay. Non-exempt employees are also eligible for overtime pay in accordance with federal, state, or local law. As part of its dedication to employee wellness, FINRA provides comprehensive health, dental and vision insurance. Additional insurance includes basic life, accidental death and dismemberment, supplemental life, spouse/domestic partner and dependent life, and spouse/domestic partner and dependent accidental death and dismemberment, short- and long-term disability, long-term care, business travel accident, disability and legal. FINRA offers immediate participation and vesting in a 401(k) plan with company match and eligibility for participation in an additional FINRA-funded retirement contribution, tuition reimbursement, commuter benefits, and other benefits that support employee wellness, such as adoption assistance, backup family care, surrogacy benefits, employee assistance, and wellness programs.

  Time Off and Paid Leave*

  FINRA encourages its employees to focus on their health and wellness in many ways, including through a generous time-off program starting at 15 days of paid time off (increasing with years of service, up to 25 days), 5 personal days, and 9 sick days, unless otherwise required by law (all pro-rated in the first year). Additionally, we are proud to support our communities by providing two volunteer service days (based on full-time schedule). Other paid leave includes military leave, jury duty leave, bereavement leave, voting and election official leave for federal, state or local primary and general elections, care of a family member leave (available after 90 days of employment); and childbirth and parental leave (available after 90 days of employment). Full-time employees receive nine paid holidays.

  • Based on full-time schedule

  Important Information

  FINRA's Code of Conduct imposes restrictions on employees' investments and requires financial disclosures that are uniquely related to our role as a securities regulator. FINRA employees are required to disclose to FINRA all brokerage accounts that they maintain, and those in which they control trading or have a financial interest (including any trust account of which they are a trustee or beneficiary and all accounts of a spouse, domestic partner or minor child who lives with the employee) and to authorize their broker-dealers to provide FINRA with duplicate statements for all of those accounts. All of those accounts are subject to the Code's investment and securities account restrictions, and new employees must comply with those investment restrictions—including disposing of any security issued by a company on FINRA's Prohibited Company List or obtaining a written waiver from their Executive Vice President—by the date they begin employment with FINRA. Employees may only maintain securities accounts that must be disclosed to FINRA at one or more securities firms that provide an electronic feed (e-feed) of data to FINRA, and must move securities accounts from other securities firms to a firm that provides an e-feed within three months of beginning employment.

  You can read more about these restrictions here.

  As standard practice, employees must also execute FINRA's Employee Confidentiality and Invention Assignment Agreement without qualification or modification and comply with the company's policy on nepotism.

  Washington state applicants: click here for required notice(s).

  Search Firm Representatives

  Please be advised that FINRA is not seeking assistance or accepting unsolicited resumes from search firms for this employment opportunity. Regardless of past practice, a valid written agreement and task order must be in place before any resumes are submitted to FINRA. All resumes submitted by search firms to any employee at FINRA without a valid written agreement and task order in place will be deemed the sole property of FINRA and no fee will be paid in the event that person is hired by FINRA.

  FINRA is an Equal Opportunity Employer

  All qualified applicants receive consideration for employment without regard to any legally protected category, including race, color, age, national origin, ethnicity, religion, disability, genetic information, military or veteran status, sex, or any other status or classification protected by state or local law.

  FINRA strives to make our career site accessible to all users. If you need a disability-related accommodation for completing the application process, please contact FINRA's Employee Relations team at 240-386-4865 or by email at [e-mail]. Please note that this process is exclusively for inquiries regarding accommodations in the application process.

  FINRA abides by the requirements of 41 CFR 60-741.5(a). This regulation prohibits discrimination against qualified individuals on the basis of disability and requires affirmative action by covered prime contractors and subcontractors to employ and advance in employment qualified individuals with disabilities.

  FINRA abides by the requirements of 41 CFR 60-300.5(a). This regulation prohibits discrimination against qualified protected veterans and requires affirmative action by covered prime contractors and subcontractors to employ and advance in employment qualified protected veterans.

  ©2026 FINRA. All rights reserved. FINRA is a registered trademark of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, Inc.