Applied AI Model Architect

State Farm; Bloomington, Richardson, Dunwoody, Tempe (IL, TX, GA, AZ); Hybrid; USD 190,000 - 220,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Get Paid!

Stay Well!

Develop and Grow!

Plan Ahead!

Take a Little You Time!

Give Back!

Finish Strong!

Job summary

State Farm invites an experienced NLP/Transformer Research Model Architect to join the PCM team in Bloomington, IL, with hybrid work and potential travel to support underwriting and pricing challenges. You will develop transformer-based solutions for high-frequency time series data and unstructured text, while mentoring junior data scientists and collaborating with stakeholders.

The role emphasizes cutting-edge NLP research, scalable production pipelines, and a strong focus on practical business

Qualifications

• 3-5 years applying transformer-based neural networks to real-world problems
• Master's degree required in CS/Data Science/Statistics/Math/Actuarial Science or related field
• Hands-on experience with transformer architectures and fine-tuning pretrained language models
• Experience scaling ML solutions in resource-constrained environments
• Strong Python programming and ML framework experience

Responsibilities

• Serve as a high-level consultant on transformer-based models
• Design, develop, fine-tune, and deploy transformer models for underwriting and pricing
• Scale transformer solutions for performance and cost efficiency
• Mentor data scientists on model design and experimentation
• Consult with business clients on ML/AI needs and scope

Skills

Transformer NLP

Python

Communication

Education

Master's degree in CS/Data Science or related

Tools

PyTorch

TensorFlow

Hugging Face Transformers

Job description

Overview

Being good neighbors - helping people, investing in our communities, and making the world a better place - is who we are at State Farm. It is at the core of how we operate and the reason for our success. We're moving with urgency to become a Next Gen Good Neighbor, with technology that strengthens human connections and enhances the customer experience. As an employee, you'll spend less time navigating systems and more time applying judgment, empathy, and expertise in the moments that matter most.

Position Location:

Bloomington, IL; Atlanta, GA; Dallas, TX; or Phoenix, AZ

Hybrid Work Arrangement:

In this position, you should plan to spend time working in the office each week and remotely (with the ability for same-day travel to and from your assigned office location) as part of a hybrid work arrangement. Work arrangements could change over time based on business need. Your manager will share additional information regarding your department's approach and what it means for you.

Incumbency:

There is a 12-month incumbency period (beginning on the employee's effective date) for any lateral job movements and a 12-month incumbency period for any promotional opportunities, which must be met before the employee may post for other State Farm positions. The incumbency period does not affect the at-will relationship between State Farm and the employee and does not create an employment contract, nor contractual rights.

*****Applicants are required to be eligible to lawfully work in the U.S. immediately; employer will not sponsor applicants for U.S. work authorization (e.g. H-1B visa) for this opportunity*****

Responsibilities

The State Farm P&C Actuarial & Underwriting Modeling (PCM) team is looking for an experienced NLP/Transformer Research Model Architect with deep expertise in transformer-based neural networks to join our innovative, dynamic, and fast-paced team of exceptional data science professionals. In this role, you'll apply cutting-edge NLP and deep learning research to real underwriting and pricing challenges - including modeling high-frequency time series data, extracting insight from unstructured text, and scaling transformer-based solutions efficiently within a resource-constrained production environment. You'll also play a key role in mentoring team members as they build design and experimentation skills in this space.

Key Responsibilities:

• Serves as a high-level consultant/researcher on department initiatives involving transformer-based neural networks and related deep learning architectures
• Designs, develops, fine-tunes, and deploys transformer models (e.g., attention mechanisms, encoder/decoder and encoder-only architectures, embeddings, transfer learning) for underwriting and pricing use cases, including modeling and forecasting on high-frequency time series data
• Designs and implements strategies to scale transformer-based solutions efficiently, optimizing for performance and cost within current compute and resource constraints
• Reviews and analyzes structured and unstructured data in innovative ways to refine underwriting, pricing, and risk selection objectives across the enterprise
• Identifies new data elements, criteria, or factors — including those derived from text, documents, high-frequency time series, and other unstructured or structured sources — for use in underwriting and pricing
• Conducts applied research studies in conjunction with other financial/research areas of the enterprise, staying current on state-of-the-art transformer and LLM research
• Mentors and trains other data scientists and modelers on the design, experimentation, and evaluation of transformer-based solutions, helping build internal capability in this space
• Consults with business clients on the use of modeling, machine learning, and AI, assessing needs and defining project scope
• Participates in external professional and industry committees/studies related to AI/ML and NLP
• Applies strong programming skills to build and productionize computer-intensive analysis techniques and model pipelines, with an eye toward scalability and efficient use of resources
• Routinely engages in quantitative analysis on non-standard and unique business problems
• Uses knowledge of business areas and research skills to address and solve a diverse range of real-world business issues

Qualifications

We Are Looking for Candidates With:

• 3-5 years of experience applying transformer-based neural networks and deep learning to real-world problems
• A Master's degree in Computer Science, Data Science, Statistics, Math, Actuarial Science, Information Technology, or a related field is required
• Hands-on experience with transformer architectures and techniques such as attention mechanisms, self-attention, embeddings, fine-tuning pretrained language models, and transfer learning
• Experience applying transformer-based or deep learning models to high-frequency time series data (e.g., forecasting, anomaly detection, or sequence modeling on densely sampled data)
• Experience scaling machine learning solutions in resource-constrained environments — e.g., model compression, distillation, quantization, efficient fine-tuning, or infrastructure/cost optimization
• Strong programming skills in Python, with experience in deep learning frameworks such as PyTorch or TensorFlow, and libraries such as Hugging Face Transformers
• Experience applying NLP/deep learning techniques to structured and unstructured business data; insurance, financial services, or other regulated-industry experience is a plus
• Demonstrated experience mentoring or training other data scientists/engineers in model design and experimentation
• Strong communication skills and the ability to translate complex modeling concepts for non-technical business partners

Next Steps:

Competitive candidates may be invited to participate in pre-employment on-demand video interviewing to kick off the interview process.

*****Applicants are required to be eligible to lawfully work in the U.S. immediately; employer will not sponsor applicants for U.S. work authorization (e.g. H-1B visa) for this opportunity*****

Our Benefits

Because work-life balance is a priority at State Farm, compensation is based on our standard 38:45-hour work week!

• Potential starting salary range: $190,000-$220,000
  • Starting salary will be based on skills, background, and experience
  • High end of the range limited to applicants with significant relevant experience
• Potential yearly incentive pay up to 15% of base salary

At State Farm, we offer more than just a paycheck. Check out our suite of benefits designed to give you the flexibility you need to take care of you and your family!

• Get Paid! On top of our competitive pay, you are eligible for an annual raise and bonus.
• Stay Well! Focus on you and your family's health with our robust health and wellbeing programs. State Farm pays most of your healthcare premium, and we offer multiple healthcare plan options, including a high deductible plan. All medical plans provide 100% coverage for in-network preventative care, AND you and your family have access to vision, dental, telemedicine, 24/7 mental health professionals, and much more!
• Develop and Grow! Take advantage of educational benefits like industry leading training programs, top-notch tuition assistance programs, employee resource groups, and mentoring.
• Plan Ahead! Plan for those big moments in life with benefits like fertility/IVF/adoption assistance, college coaching, national discount programs, interactive monthly financial workshops, free financial coaching, and more. You can also start a savings account or consider financing through our State Farm Federal Credit Union!
• Take a Little "You" Time! You will have access to our generous time off policies designed so you can plan around holidays, family events, volunteering, or just to take a relaxing day off. With the opportunity to initially earn up to 20 days annually plus parental leave, paid holidays, celebration day, life leave (40 hours/year), bereavement leave, and community service/education support days, there will be plenty of time for you!
• Give Back! We offer several ways to give back through our Matching Gift Program, Good Neighbor Grant Program, and the Employee Assistance Fund.
• Finish Strong! Plan for retirement using free financial advisors and a 401(k) plan with company contributions of up to 7% of your salary.

Visit our State Farm Careers page for more information on our benefits, locations, and the hiring process of joining the State Farm team!