Director of Applied AI Engineering

Ladders; United States; Remote; USD 207,000 - 290,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical, Dental, and Vision coverage

Flexible paid time off

401(k) + match

Mental health support and well‑being

Paid maternity and paternity leave

Education assistance

Company-funded lifestyle spending账户

Job summary

Ladders is seeking a Director of Applied AI Engineering to guide strategy and execution of advanced AI initiatives for a leading Finance & Insurance organization. This remote US-based role focuses on translating business challenges into scalable AI solutions, prototyping to production, and ensuring secure, enterprise-grade deployments.

The ideal candidate will combine hands-on leadership with deep technical depth, collaborating with cloud and data teams to deliver reliable, scalable AI systems

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field, or equivalent work experience
• 10+ years in software engineering, machine learning, or a related domain, with customer-facing experience
• 2+ years building production systems on large language models (LLMs)
• 4+ years of hands‑on management experience with team growth and mentoring

Responsibilities

• Build and lead a high-performing Applied AI engineering team
• Partner with stakeholders to transform operational challenges into AI solutions
• Drive rapid prototyping and transition AI capabilities to production
• Architect and maintain production AI solutions, including chatbots and machine learning models
• Establish secure integrations for AI agents accessing internal systems
• Own the AI evaluation lifecycle, ensuring production readiness
• Manage production operations alongside Cloud and Data engineering teams

Skills

Leadership

Stakeholder collaboration

Prototyping

Production debugging

Cloud integration

Education

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or Engineering

Tools

LLMs

Job description

For our client, we are seeking a Director of Applied AI Engineering to join the team of a leader in the Finance & Insurance space.

This leader will guide the strategy and execution of applied AI initiatives that improve operational performance across the business. The role will translate real business challenges into practical AI solutions, moving quickly from prototype to production. You will collaborate closely with stakeholders, Cloud engineering, and Data engineering teams to deliver secure, scalable systems that are ready for enterprise use. This is a hands‑on leadership role with a strong emphasis on technical depth, team development, and production reliability.

Location: Remote - US based candidates only, no visa sponsorship available

Compensation: $207,000 – $290,000 annually

Responsibilities

• Build and lead a high-performing Applied AI engineering team
• Partner with stakeholders to transform operational challenges into AI solutions
• Drive rapid prototyping and transition AI capabilities to production
• Architect and maintain production AI solutions, including chatbots and machine learning models
• Establish secure integrations for AI agents accessing internal systems
• Own the AI evaluation lifecycle, ensuring production readiness
• Manage production operations alongside Cloud and Data engineering teams

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field, or equivalent work experience
• 10+ years in software engineering, machine learning, or a related domain, with customer-facing experience
• 2+ years building production systems on large language models (LLMs)
• 4+ years of hands‑on management experience with team growth and mentoring
• Exceptional leadership skills in fast‑paced environments
• Hands‑on approach to technical execution and debugging

Benefits

• Medical, Dental, and Vision coverage
• Flexible paid time off
• 401(k) + match
• Mental health support and well‑being program
• Paid maternity and paternity leave
• Education assistance
• Company-funded lifestyle spending account

Our client is an equal opportunity employer. We encourage you to apply even if you don’t meet every qualification—your background could be exactly what this team needs.