Lead / Principal AI Engineer

Synechron; Charlotte (NC); On-site; USD 120,000 - 140,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Paid annual leave

Parental leave

Insurance plan

Retirement plan

Commuter benefits

Udemy for Business

Coaching opportunities

Professional development

Job summary

Synechron is seeking a Lead/Principal AI Engineer to architect and deliver enterprise-grade AI and LLM-powered solutions in a regulated environment. You will lead design, deployment, and governance of AI systems aligned with enterprise standards, with hands-on work on Bedrock, Azure OpenAI, and related APIs.

The role emphasizes building scalable data pipelines, secure APIs, and observability while addressing compliance, risk, and regulatory oversight in financial services contexts.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Information Systems, or related field.
• Extensive experience designing, developing, deploying production-grade AI/ML or LLM systems in enterprise environments.
• Hands-on experience with Bedrock, Azure OpenAI, or direct LLM APIs.

Responsibilities

• Lead the architecture, design, and implementation of enterprise-grade AI solutions using LLMs.
• Design and deploy LLM-based applications with Bedrock, Azure OpenAI, or direct integrations.
• Build scalable orchestration layers for prompt execution, routing, and resilience.
• Develop RAG frameworks to support enterprise search and decision-support.
• Architect AI-powered ingestion, extraction, and analysis pipelines.
• Transform unstructured documents into structured data for automation.
• Design and optimize data pipelines for ingestion, enrichment, indexing, and retrieval.
• Develop backend services using Python, Node.js, Java and modern integration patterns.
• Build RESTful APIs, microservices, and distributed components for AI products.
• Utilize MongoDB, Azure Data Services, and Azure AI Search for data solutions.
• Enable intelligent indexing, semantic retrieval, and enterprise search.
• Establish observability and monitoring for AI systems and governance metrics.
• Ensure security, privacy, governance, risk, and regulatory compliance.

Skills

Python

Node.js

Java

LLM engineering

RAG architectures

Prompt engineering

REST APIs

Cloud services

Data pipelines

Security & governance

Education

Bachelor's degree in CS/Engineering

Tools

MongoDB

Azure Data Services

Azure AI Search

Amazon Bedrock

Azure OpenAI

Job description

At Synechron, we believe in the power of digital to transform businesses for the better. Our global consulting firm combines creativity and innovative technology to deliver industry-leading digital solutions. Synechron’s progressive technologies and optimization strategies span end-to-end Artificial Intelligence, Consulting, Digital, Cloud & DevOps, Data, and Software Engineering, servicing an array of noteworthy financial services and technology firms. Through research and development initiatives in our FinLabs we develop solutions for modernization, from Artificial Intelligence and Blockchain to Data Science models, Digital Underwriting, mobile-first applications and more. Over the last 20+ years, our company has been honored with multiple employer awards, recognizing our commitment to our talented teams. With top clients to boast about, Synechron has a global workforce of 16,700+, and has 57 offices in 22 countries within key global markets.

We are seeking a highly experienced Lead / Principal AI Engineer to lead the design, development, and deployment of advanced AI and large language model (LLM)-powered solutions within a regulated enterprise environment. This role will be responsible for architecting and delivering scalable, secure, and production-ready AI systems that align with enterprise technology standards, governance frameworks, and compliance requirements.

Additional Information*

The base salary for this position will vary based on geography and other factors. In accordance with law, the base salary for this role if filled within Charlotte, NC is $120k - $140k/year & benefits (see below).

The Role

• Lead the architecture, design, and implementation of enterprise-grade AI solutions leveraging large language models and related AI technologies.
• Design and deploy LLM-based applications using platforms such as Amazon Bedrock, Azure OpenAI, and direct model/API integrations.
• Build scalable orchestration layers for prompt execution, model routing, completion handling, response optimization, and service resiliency.
• Design and implement retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) frameworks to support enterprise search, reasoning, and decision-support use cases.
• Architect and develop AI-powered document ingestion, conversion, parsing, extraction, and analysis pipelines.
• Transform large volumes of complex, unstructured enterprise and financial documents into structured data suitable for downstream AI reasoning and business process automation.
• Design and optimize data pipelines and ETL processes that enable efficient ingestion, enrichment, indexing, and retrieval of enterprise content.
• Design and develop backend services using Python, Node.js, Java, and modern enterprise integration patterns.
• Build and maintain RESTful APIs, microservices, and distributed application components supporting AI-enabled products and services.
• Design and implement data solutions utilizing technologies such as MongoDB, Azure Data Services, and Azure AI Search.
• Enable intelligent document indexing, metadata extraction, semantic retrieval, and enterprise-wide search capabilities.
• Establish observability and monitoring frameworks for AI systems, including pipeline health, model performance, latency, usage, quality, and cost metrics.
• Ensure AI platforms and services comply with enterprise requirements related to security, privacy, governance, risk, and regulatory oversight.
• Build systems with strong support for auditability, traceability, explainability, and operational transparency, particularly in regulated environments.

Requirements:

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Information Systems, or a related technical discipline; advanced degree preferred.
• Extensive experience designing, developing, and deploying production-grade AI/ML or LLM-based systems in enterprise environments.
• Demonstrated hands‑on expertise with Amazon Bedrock, Azure OpenAI, and/or direct integration with LLM APIs and model services.
• Strong experience designing retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) architectures, prompt engineering workflows, and LLM service orchestration layers.
• Proven experience in AI pipeline engineering, including document ingestion, transformation, structured extraction, and downstream AI consumption.
• Strong programming expertise in Python, with additional experience in Node.js and/or Java.
• Experience building and integrating REST APIs, microservices, and cloud‑native services.
• Strong knowledge of ETL processes, data engineering concepts, database design, and enterprise integration patterns.
• Hands‑on experience with MongoDB, Azure Data Services, and Azure AI Search.
• Strong understanding of scalability, security, performance optimization, and enterprise software design principles.
• Experience developing solutions in regulated environments, preferably within financial services, banking, lending, or compliance‑driven organizations.

Preferred, but not required:

• Advanced degree in Computer Science, Artificial Intelligence, Data Science, or a related field.
• Experience delivering AI solutions for financial services compliance, risk management, lending operations, or governance functions.
• Familiarity with enterprise frameworks for AI risk management, model governance, and responsible AI practices.
• Experience implementing observability and evaluation frameworks for LLM applications in production.
• Knowledge of secure cloud deployment models across Azure and/or AWS enterprise ecosystems.
• Demonstrated success leading complex technical initiatives and influencing architecture decisions across multiple teams.

We offer:

• A highly competitive compensation and benefits package.
• A multinational organization with 60 offices in 20 countries and the possibility to work abroad.
• 10 days of paid annual leave (plus sick leave and national holidays).
• Maternity & paternity leave plans.
• A comprehensive insurance plan including medical, dental, vision, life insurance, and long-/short-term disability (plans vary by region).
• Retirement savings plans.
• A higher education certification policy.
• Commuter benefits (varies by region).

Extensive training opportunities, focused on skills, substantive knowledge, and personal development.

On-demand Udemy for Business for all Synechron employees with free access to more than 5000 curated courses.

Coaching opportunities with experienced colleagues from our Financial Innovation Labs (FinLabs) and Center of Excellences (CoE) groups.

Cutting edge projects at the world’s leading tier-one banks, financial institutions and insurance firms.

A flat and approachable organization.

A truly diverse, fun-loving, and global work culture.

SYNECHRON’S DIVERSITY & INCLUSION STATEMENT

Diversity & Inclusion are fundamental to our culture, and Synechron is proud to be an equal opportunity workplace and is an affirmative action employer. Our Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) initiative ‘Same Difference’ is committed to fostering an inclusive culture – promoting equality, diversity and an environment that is respectful to all. We strongly believe that a diverse workforce helps build stronger, successful businesses as a global company. We encourage applicants from across diverse backgrounds, race, ethnicities, religion, age, marital status, gender, sexual orientations, or disabilities to apply. We empower our global workforce by offering flexible workplace arrangements, mentoring, internal mobility, learning and development programs, and more.

All employment decisions at Synechron are based on business needs, job requirements and individual qualifications, without regard to the applicant’s gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, race, ethnicity, disabled or veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law.