Director AI Engineering Platform

Credit Acceptance Corporation; United States; On-site; USD 217,623 - 319,180; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

401(K) match

Tuition reimbursement

Comprehensive medical/dental/vision

Job summary

Credit Acceptance Corporation is seeking a Director for their AI Engineering Platform to provide strategic leadership and oversee architecting, delivering, and maintaining the engineering platform. This role requires collaboration across departments to drive AI adoption and scalable practices.

The ideal candidate will have 12+ years in software engineering, with a strong emphasis on platform engineering and significant experience in leadership roles. A competitive salary and benefits package is offered, making this position an excellent opportunity.

Qualifications

• 12+ years in software engineering with significant time in platform, infrastructure, or developer tooling roles.
• Minimum 5+ years in senior leadership roles managing managers and large technical organizations.
• Experience driving enterprise adoption of platform capabilities.

Responsibilities

• Provide strategic leadership for AI engineering platform.
• Partner with CTO and VP Platform & Tools to prioritize platform investments.
• Champion modern AI engineering practices and build a culture of experimentation.

Skills

Customer Empathy

Engineering Excellence

One Team

Owner’s Mindset

Education

BS in Computer Science, Engineering, or related field

MS preferred

Job description

Role Overview

Credit Acceptance is a leading provider of used and new car financing across the country. Our Engineering and Analytics Team Members utilize the latest technology to develop, monitor, and maintain complex practices that help optimize our success. The Director, AI Engineering Platform leads the AI engineering platform, including strategy, architecture, delivery, governance, and operations.

Responsibilities

• Provide strategic leadership for Credit Acceptance’s AI engineering platform so that software engineering teams can build with and alongside AI safely, productively, and at scale.
• Partner closely with the CTO, VP Platform & Tools, the AI/ML organization, peer directors, and engineering leaders to prioritize platform investments and align AI engineering tooling to enterprise outcomes.
• Own the multi‑year roadmap, usage strategy, and cost discipline for AI capabilities across all of Credit Acceptance, including engineering, product, sales, and other functions, regardless of underlying platform (e.g., AWS, Microsoft, Databricks).
• Enable teams to build AI‑powered features and adopt AI‑assisted and agentic development practices through scalable, self‑service platform capabilities.
• Drive production‑grade system design and delivery practices, evolving CI/CD pipelines to support AI‑generated code, agentic workflows, AI‑aware validation, policy‑as‑code, and progressive delivery patterns.
• Champion adoption of modern AI engineering practices, including agentic systems, model context protocol, AI‑assisted development, and emerging enterprise AI engineering patterns.
• Build a culture of experimentation, measurement, and continuous improvement in how AI creates leverage for software engineering and product shipping.
• Build, scale, and mentor a high‑performing organization of engineering managers, senior engineers, and platform specialists focused on AI engineering platform capabilities.
• Establish and enforce engineering and operational standards for AI gateway access, model selection, security, data privacy, cost controls, acceptable use, and agentic workflows.

Competencies

• Customer Empathy – Understand the perspectives and experiences of customers and provide a better, more customer‑centric experience.
• Engineering Excellence – Bring great craftsmanship and thought leadership to deliver outstanding products that delight customers and solve for the business.
• One Team – Collaborate seamlessly across the organization, fostering shared goals, open communication, and mutual support.
• Owner’s Mindset – Demonstrate responsibility, accountability, strategic thinking, and proactive management of your domain.

Requirements

• BS in Computer Science, Engineering, or related field with 12+ years in software engineering and significant time in platform, infrastructure, or developer tooling roles.
• MS preferred.
• Minimum 5+ years in senior leadership roles managing managers and large technical organizations.
• Proven delivery of production‑grade platform capabilities at enterprise scale, ideally including AI engineering platforms, developer platforms, or distributed infrastructure platforms.
• Experience partnering with AI/ML organizations and understanding the boundary between AI engineering and AI/ML platforms.
• Ability to influence executives and guide strategic decisions.
• Experience with budgeting, resource planning, and scaling organizations.
• Demonstrated ability to communicate complex technical concepts clearly and compellingly.

Knowledge and Skills

• Deep knowledge of the modern AI engineering stack, including LLM APIs, AI gateways, MCP, agentic frameworks, evaluation tooling, and AI observability.
• Strong working knowledge of cloud‑native platform engineering practices (AWS preferred), including CI/CD, observability, security, and FinOps for AI workloads.
• Experience driving enterprise adoption of platform capabilities with measurable impact on engineering productivity, quality, or velocity.
• Experience designing and operating production‑grade, distributed systems with high reliability, security, and scalability requirements.
• Working knowledge of governance, risk, and compliance for enterprise AI systems.
• Excellent communication skills, including translating complex technical concepts for executive and non‑technical audiences.
• Strong analytical and systems‑thinking skills to balance innovation, risk, cost, and developer productivity.

Target Compensation and Benefits

A competitive base salary range of $217,623 – $319,180, with an annual variable bonus (cash and equity) of 20‑60% based on performance. Candidates in major metropolitan areas may qualify for a location premium. Benefits include 401(K) match, adoption assistance, parental leave, tuition reimbursement, comprehensive medical/dental/vision, generous PTO and holidays, and many nonstandard benefits that make us a Great Place to Work.

EEO Statement

Credit Acceptance is dedicated to providing a safe and inclusive working environment for all. As part of our Culture of Compliance, we are proud to be an Equal Opportunity Employer and value our culturally diverse workforce. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment regardless of age, race, color, religion, sex, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, veteran or disability status, criminal history, or any other legally protected characteristic.

California Residents

California Residents: The California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) notice regarding the personal information Credit Acceptance may collect from you is available on request.