Distinguished Engineer, Applied AI

Government Employees Insurance Company; Palo Alto (CA); On-site; USD 150,000 - 300,000; Full time

Job summary

GEICO is seeking a Distinguished Engineer to lead the CRM AI team, guiding technical direction and architecture for an AI-powered CRM platform. You will drive the transformation from a traditional system of record to an intelligent system, shaping governance, reliability, and scalable AI-enabled customer experiences.

You will mentor engineers, oversee distributed systems and cloud deployments, and partner with AI research, product, and cloud teams to deliver high-impact CRM capabilities with

Qualifications

• Advanced programming in Java, C++, Python, or C# with OO design.
• Proven AI/ML stack experience, including LLM-based systems or agentic frameworks.
• Experience architecting microservices and extensible REST APIs.
• Proven design and operation of highly available, multi-region systems.
• Strong CD/CI and infrastructure-as-code expertise.

Responsibilities

• Lead architectural decisions for CRM AI capabilities and related platforms.
• Define multi-region active-active infrastructure to ensure 99.99% availability.
• Mentor engineers and raise engineering standards and observability.
• Drive incident response and blameless post-mortems to improve reliability.
• Collaborate across AI research, product, and cloud teams throughout the SDLC.

Skills

Java

Python

C++

LLM/Agentic AI

Microservices

REST APIs

Cloud platforms

Distributed systems

CI/CD

Education

Bachelor's in CS or related

Tools

AWS

GCP

Azure

Terraform

Open-source

Job description

At GEICO, we offer a rewarding career where your ambitions are met with endless possibilities. Every day we honor our iconic brand by offering quality coverage to millions of customers and being there when they need us most. We thrive through relentless innovation to exceed our customers’ expectations while making a real impact for our company through our shared purpose. When you join our company, we want you to feel valued, supported and proud to work here. That’s why we offer The GEICO Pledge: Great Company, Great Culture, Great Rewards and Great Careers. The Service Engineering team is transitioning disparate customer communication touchpoints into a world-class services company by building the foundational voice, chat, text, email, and core contact center experiences for sales, service, and claims operations. Our platform is used by 20,000 GEICO contact center agents, field adjusters, and sales representatives who serve more than 80 million customers and prospective customers. We are building an AI-powered CRM platform using agentic capabilities to move from a system of record to a system of intelligence and action.

ABOUT THE ROLE

We are seeking a Distinguished Engineer to lead our CRM AI team. In this role, you will drive the technical direction, architecture, and execution of our CRM roadmap powered by LLM models and Agentic AI. The ideal candidate has deep technical expertise in building AI products and can cultivate a high-performance culture, foster strong cross-functional relationships, and effectively manage technical teams in a fast-paced, startup-like environment. This is an exciting opportunity for a seasoned engineering leader who thrives in a dynamic environment and is passionate about scaling teams and advancing AI capabilities that empower customer experiences. You will help drive our CRM platform transformation as we shift from a traditional system of record to an AI-powered system of intelligence and action, championing engineering excellence while co-creating a culture of innovation and continuous improvement. You will lead the foundational work in the evolution of our CRM platform that enables proactive identification of churn and risk, systematic reduction in cost to serve, consistency of service quality, scalable application of AI, and enterprise-grade resilience with 99.99% availability across multi-region active-active infrastructure. Our team thrives and succeeds in delivering high quality technology products and services in a hyper-growth environment where priorities shift quickly.

• Lead architectural decisions for Agent Workspace, Knowledge Management, Customer Insights platform, and core CRM AI capabilities
• Define and implement multi-region active-active infrastructure to achieve 99.99% availability, removing single-region failure exposure
• Establish engineering standards and operational excellence practices for observability, auto-failover, self-healing systems, and SLA management
• Mentor Staff and Senior Engineers, elevating technical capabilities across AI/ML, distributed systems, and operational excellence while establishing engineering standards for the organization
• Drive incident response and blameless post-mortems, turning outages into systemic improvements
• Scope, design, and build scalable, resilient distributed systems
• Build product definition and leverage technical depth to drive toward the right architectural solutions
• Engage in cross-functional collaboration throughout the entire software lifecycle, partnering with AI research, product, infrastructure, and Microsoft/AWS teams
• Lead by example by sharing best practices, measuring outcomes, demonstrating adaptability, and sponsoring continuous learning across teams
• Work in a team environment utilizing AI and ML to streamline the CRM platform work

QUALIFICATIONS

• Advanced programming experience with at least two modern languages such as Java, C++, Python, or C# including object-oriented design
• Proficient with AI/ML stack and libraries; experience in shipping applied AI products including LLM-based systems, agentic frameworks, or conversational AI
• Proven understanding of micro-services oriented architecture and extensible REST APIs
• Experience building architecture and design (design patterns, reliability, scalability) of new and current systems
• Experience designing and operating highly available systems (99.9%+ uptime) with multi-region deployments and operational automation
• Experience with continuous delivery and infrastructure as code
• Strong problem-solving ability
• Ability to excel in a fast-paced, startup-like environment
• Knowledge of developer tooling across the software development life cycle (task management, source code, building, deployment, operations, real-time communication)
• In-depth knowledge of CS data structures and algorithms
• Exemplary ability to design, perform experiments, and influence engineering direction and product roadmap
• Experience partnering with engineering teams and transferring research to production
• Track record of technical thought leadership through publications, blogs, open-source contributions, or patents (preferred)

EXPERIENCE

• 12+ years of experience working as a technical software engineering leader
• 5+ years applied AI/ML experience, with exposure to LLMs or generative AI
• 10+ years of experience with architecture and design
• 6+ years of experience with AWS, GCP, Azure, or another cloud service
• 6+ years of experience in CICD deployments and infrastructure as code
• 6+ years of experience in open-source frameworks
• Experience with Salesforce or enterprise CRM platforms is a plus

EDUCATION

Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, or equivalent education or work experience

Annual Salary $150,000.00 - $300,000.00 The above annual salary range is a general guideline. Multiple factors are taken into consideration to arrive at the final hourly rate/ annual salary to be offered to the selected candidate. Factors include, but are not limited to, the scope and responsibilities of the role, the selected candidate’s work experience, education and training, the work location as well as market and business considerations. GEICO will consider sponsoring a new qualified applicant for employment authorization for this position.

The GEICO Pledge: Great Company: At GEICO, we help our customers through life’s twists and turns. Our mission is to protect people when they need it most and we’re constantly evolving to stay ahead of their needs. We’re an iconic brand that thrives on innovation, exceeding our customers’ expectations and enabling our collective success. From day one, you’ll take on exciting challenges that help you grow and collaborate with dynamic teams who want to make a positive impact on people’s lives. Great Careers: We offer a career where you can learn, grow, and thrive through personalized development programs, created with your career – and your potential – in mind. You’ll have access to industry leading training, certification assistance, career mentorship and coaching with supportive leaders at all levels. Great Culture: We foster an inclusive culture of shared success, rooted in integrity, a bias for action and a winning mindset. Grounded by our core values, we have an an established culture of caring, inclusion, and belonging, that values different perspectives. Our teams are led by dynamic, multi-faceted teams led by supportive leaders, driven by performance excellence and unified under a shared purpose. As part of our culture, we also offer employee engagement and recognition programs that reward the positive impact our work makes on the lives of our customers. Great Rewards: We offer compensation and benefits built to enhance your physical well-being, mental and emotional health and financial future. Comprehensive Total Rewards program that offers personalized coverage tailor-made for you and your family’s overall well-being. Financial benefits including market-competitive compensation; a 401K savings plan vested from day one that offers a 6% match; performance and recognition-based incentives; and tuition assistance. Access to additional benefits like mental healthcare as well as fertility and adoption assistance. Supports flexibility- We provide workplace flexibility as well as our GEICO Flex program, which offers the ability to work from anywhere in the US for up to four weeks per year. The equal employment opportunity policy of the GEICO Companies provides for a fair and equal employment opportunity for all associates and job applicants regardless of race, color, religious creed, national origin, ancestry, age, gender, pregnancy, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, familial status, disability or genetic information, in compliance with applicable federal, state and local law. GEICO hires and promotes individuals solely on the basis of their qualifications for the job to be filled. GEICO reasonably accommodates qualified individuals with disabilities to enable them to receive equal employment opportunity and/or perform the essential functions of the job, unless the accommodation would impose an undue hardship to the Company. This applies to all applicants and associates. GEICO also provides a work environment in which each associate is able to be productive and work to the best of their ability. We do not condone or tolerate an atmosphere of intimidation or harassment. We expect and require the cooperation of all associates in maintaining an atmosphere free from discrimination and harassment with mutual respect by and for all associates and applicants. At GEICO,we offer a rewarding career where your ambitions are met with endless possibilities. Every day we honor our iconic brand by offering quality coverage to millions of customers and being there when they need us most. We thrive on relentless innovation to exceed our customers' expectations while making a real impact on local communities nationwide. Founded in 1936, GEICO is a member of the Berkshire Hathaway family of companies and one of the largest auto insurers in the United States. Opportunities for Students & Grads Learn more about GEICO Benefits