Manager of Machine Learning - AI Modeling and Operation

Workiva Inc.; Iowa (LA); Hybrid; USD 163,000 - 290,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Discretionary bonus

RSUs

401(k) match

Comprehensive benefits

Job summary

Workiva is seeking a Manager of Machine Learning - AI Modeling and Operation to own the infrastructure powering AI features at scale. You will lead ML infrastructure, model operations, and AI quality—driving lifecycle management, evaluation, observability, and model routing across frontier providers.

You’ll manage a team of ML engineers, mentor staff, and collaborate with product squads to ensure production-ready, reliable AI services.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Data Science or equivalent combination of education and experience.
• 7+ years total experience in software engineering and/or ML, with at least 2 years as an Engineering Manager.
• Experience with ML pipeline orchestration tools (ClearML, Kubeflow, Airflow, or similar).
• Hands-on background with Kubernetes, microservices, container orchestration, and infrastructure-as-code.
• Track record of improving reliability/availability metrics for production ML systems.
• Proven ability to manage senior individual contributors, resolve technical conflicts, and build a culture of psychological safety and high performance.
• Solid leadership skills in an Agile/Sprint working environment.
• Experience operating production ML systems in cloud environments (AWS, Azure, or GCP).

Responsibilities

• Own the ML model lifecycle: training pipelines, model registry, deployment, monitoring, and guardrails.
• Build and maintain CI/CD for ML - automated testing, evaluation, and promotion of models across environments.
• Drive observability across AI services: latency tracking, drift detection, cost monitoring, alerting.
• Establish SLOs/SLIs for AI services and lead incident response for ML-related production issues and maintain high service availability.
• Reduce complexity through simplification, automation, and thoughtful system design.
• Lead and grow an existing strong team of machine learning engineers.
• Provide hands-on coaching, performance feedback, and growth opportunities for engineers at varying experience levels.
• Foster a collaborative, inclusive, and high-ownership team culture grounded in trust, accountability, and continuous improvement.
• Partner with Intelligence pillar engineering squads and Product teams to ensure AI services are production-ready, observable, and scalable.
• Communicate complex technical issues to both technical and non-technical audiences effectively.
• Manage integrations with frontier model providers (AWS Bedrock, Azure OpenAI, Google) including model routing, load balancing, and fallback strategies.
• Drive AI analytics dashboards that give leadership and product visibility into platform health and usage.

Skills

Leadership

Communication

Agile/Sprint

Coaching

Education

Bachelor's degree in CS/Engineering/Data Science

Master's degree in CS/Engineering/Data Science

Tools

Kubernetes

Infrastructure as Code

ClearML

Kubeflow

Airflow

Datadog

Prometheus

Grafana

Job description

Join our team at Workiva as an Manager of Machine Learning - AI Modeling and Operation! As a pivotal member of our AI/ML team, you’ll own the infrastructure that makes every AI feature at Workiva reliable, observable, and deployable. You will lead the team responsible for ML infrastructure, model operations, and AI quality at Workiva. Your team owns the systems that make AI reliable in production from model lifecycle management to evaluation frameworks, observability, and model routing across frontier providers. You'll build the operational backbone that every AI feature at Workiva depends on. Join us if you want to own the infrastructure layer that makes enterprise AI work at scale, not just build demos. Discover more about Workiva's Generative AI.

What You’ll Do

• Operational Excellence
• Own the ML model lifecycle: training pipelines, model registry, deployment, monitoring, and guardrails
• Build and maintain CI/CD for ML - automated testing, evaluation, and promotion of models across environments
• Drive observability across AI services: latency tracking, drift detection, cost monitoring, alerting
• Establish SLOs/SLIs for AI services and lead incident response for ML-related production issues and maintain high service availability
• Reduce complexity through simplification, automation, and thoughtful system design
• Leadership & Team Management
• Lead and grow an existing strong team of machine learning engineers
• Provide hands-on coaching, performance feedback, and growth opportunities for engineers at varying experience levels
• Foster a collaborative, inclusive, and high-ownership team culture grounded in trust, accountability, and continuous improvement
• Cross Functional Collaboration
• Partner with Intelligence pillar engineering squads (AGFW, AIEI, AIQG, Applied AI, Search) and Product teams to ensure AI services are production-ready, operationally sound, and observable
• Communicate complex technical issues to both technical and non-technical audiences effectively
• Technical Strategy & Execution
• Manage integrations with frontier model providers (AWS Bedrock, Azure OpenAI, Google) including model routing, load balancing, and fallback strategies
• Drive AI analytics dashboards that give leadership and product visibility into platform health and usage
• Drive improvements in latency, service availability, developer experience, and integration usability across internal and external interfaces
• Guide architectural decisions to ensure platform scalability, reliability, and alignment with Workiva’s long-term technical vision

What You’ll Need

Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Data Science or equivalent combination of education and experience
• 7+ years of total experience in software engineering and/or Machine Learning, with at least 2 years of dedicated experience as an Engineering Manager
• Experience with ML pipeline orchestration tools (ClearML, Kubeflow, Airflow, or similar)
• Hands‑on background with Kubernetes, microservices, container orchestration, and infrastructure‑as‑code
• Track record of improving reliability/availability metrics for production ML systems
• Proven ability to manage senior individual contributors, resolve technical conflicts, and build a culture of psychological safety and high performance
• Solid leadership skills in an Agile/Sprint working environment
• Experience operating production ML systems in cloud environments (AWS, Azure, or GCP)

Preferred Qualifications

• Master’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Data Science or equivalent combination of education and experience
• Experience with core concepts of Generative AI such as RAG, Agentic frameworks, etc
• Experience building model evaluation or quality measurement systems
• Familiarity with cost optimization for GPU/model serving workloads
• Familiarity with observability tooling (Datadog, Prometheus, Grafana)

Working Conditions

• Willingness to travel up to 15% for team and corporate meetings, fostering relationships and representing company interests
• Reliable internet access for remote working opportunities

How You’ll Be Rewarded

• Salary range in the US: $163,000.00 - $290,000.00
• A discretionary bonus typically paid annually
• Restricted Stock Units granted at time of hire
• 401(k) match and comprehensive employee benefits package

The salary range represents the low and high end of the salary range for this job in the US. Minimums and maximums may vary based on location. The actual salary offer will carefully consider a wide range of factors, including your skills, qualifications, experience and other relevant factors.

Why Join Workiva

Workiva is the platform designed to bring confidence, control, and a competitive edge to the world’s most complex organizations. Our AI-powered platform unifies finance, risk, and sustainability on a single, secure foundation—ensuring data is trusted, traceable, and ready to act on. With an unbroken path from source to output, leaders gain confidence in their numbers, visibility into current and emerging risks, and the ability to move with speed and precision in a constantly changing world. At Workiva, you’ll bring technology to market that executives, boards, and regulators depend on. The work you do here helps organizations navigate uncertainty, maintain trust, and make decisions that stand up to scrutiny. If you’re energized by meaningful challenges, inspired by collaborative teams, and motivated to help organizations turn uncertainty into advantage, we’d love to meet you.

Employment decisions are made without regard to age, race, creed, color, religion, sex, national origin, ancestry, disability status, veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, genetic information, marital status, citizenship status or any other protected characteristic. Workiva is committed to working with and providing reasonable accommodations to applicants with disabilities. Workiva employees are required to undergo comprehensive security and privacy training tailored to their roles, ensuring adherence to company policies and regulatory standards. Workiva supports employees in working where they work best - either from an office or remotely from any location within their country of employment.