Principal, AI Engineer

Northern Trust; Chicago (IL); On-site; USD 137,000 - 234,000; Full time

Job summary

Northern Trust in Chicago, IL seeks an experienced AI Engineering leader to design and implement secure, scalable AI platforms powered by LLMs, including Azure AI Foundry, with governance and compliance in a highly regulated financial environment.

You will lead cross-functional teams to deliver client-facing AI capabilities, data pipelines, and enterprise context engineering, collaborating with data scientists, model risk, and procurement to scale responsible AI.

Qualifications

• Lead development of client-facing AI capabilities and integration into client front ends and dashboards.

Responsibilities

• Lead development of client-facing AI capabilities and integration into front ends and dashboards.
• Develop and oversee data integration across enterprise AI framework with engineering teams.
• Architect and implement data pipelines for structured and unstructured data.
• Advance enterprise context engineering and governance.
• Collaborate with stakeholders to define data requirements for AI models in finance.
• Ensure metadata management, data lineage, and audit trails for AI data assets.
• Provide leadership to multiple technical delivery teams.
• Guide vendor negotiations and data solution terms.
• Provide guidance for regulatory compliance.
• End-to-end data integration product management vision.
• Support real-time and batch data ingestion from vendor platforms.
• Optimize data workflows for performance and cost in hybrid cloud.
• Mentor engineers and act as team lead.

Skills

Python

SQL

REST APIs

PostgreSQL

PGVector

AI/ML frameworks

Cloud platforms (Azure, AWS, GCP)

Docker/Kubernetes

LLM/GenAI

Education

Bachelor's/Master's in CS or Data Engineering

Tools

Azure

AWS

GCP

Databricks

Snowflake

Exadata

Oracle

Job description

About Northern Trust

As a global leader in innovative wealth management, asset servicing, asset management and banking services, Northern Trust (Nasdaq: NTRS) is proud to guide the world7s most successful individuals, families, corporations and institutions.

About Northern Trust

As a global leader in innovative wealth management, asset servicing, asset management and banking services, Northern Trust (Nasdaq: NTRS) is proud to guide the world7s most successful individuals, families, corporations and institutions.

Since 1889, we have aligned our efforts with our three guiding Principles That Endure: Service, Expertise, and Integrity. Together, they reflect the three cornerstones of business conduct which we strive to instill in our employees, whom we call partners, and to provide to our clients and the communities we serve worldwide.

With more than 135 years of financial experience and over 24,000 partners, we serve the world7s most sophisticated clients using leading technology and exceptional service.

Job Description Summary

As a key member of our AI Engineering team who builds, ships, and owns production-grade generative AI systems, the lead the design and implementation of secure, scalable, and compliant AI platform powered by LLM7s-powered on Azure AI Foundry, working across multiple model providers (Claude / Anthropic, GPT / OpenAI, and others), applying modern AI design patterns (RAG, agents, tool use, orchestration) to solve real business problems in a highly regulated financial environment.

Job Description

• Lead development of a portfolio of client-facing AI capabilities and integration methods, embedding them into client front ends and interactive dashboards to ensure these capabilities are well aligned and meet required validation and responsible AI standards.
• Develop and oversee business unit wise approach to integrate structured and unstructured data into NT’s enterprise AI framework in collaboration with the AI architecture, AI engineering, and data platform engineering teams.
• Develop and lead the practice of data pipeline engineering, rationalizing custom data integrations over time to establish common methods and approaches.
• Architect and implement data pipelines that integrate structured and unstructured data from internal banking systems, external feeds, and cloud platforms for AI/ML use cases.
• Drive our semantic architecture and engineering approach for Northern Trust intelligence to advance enterprise context engineering and architecture disciplines.
• Collaborate with the AI consulting team, business units, data scientists, model risk teams, and other stakeholders to understand data requirements for AI models supporting key use cases such as portfolio management, quants & research, reconciliations, and customer intelligence; drive engineering specifications and delivery for these capabilities.
• Ensure sound practices are executed to deliver and maintain metadata management, data lineage, and audit trails for AI data assets as development and data teams expand AI data access.
• Provide leadership to multiple Technical Delivery teams to prioritize and refine critical data deliverables based on business use cases and high-value data assessments.
• Work closely on vendor negotiations and guide data solutions with procurement and transformation teams to enable scalable consumption with favorable and appropriate terms and capabilities, including understanding support or vendor SLA requirements.
• Provide guidance for regulatory compliance processes, audits, and internal reviews.
• Act as End-to-End Data Integration Product Management Vision and Roadmap leader in support of AI transformation programs.
• Support real-time and batch data ingestion from asset management vendor platforms i.e. Aladdin, Eagle, iCapital, and third-party APIs.
• Optimize data workflows for performance, reliability, and cost-efficiency across hybrid cloud environments.
• Partner with cybersecurity and compliance teams to ensure data privacy, encryption, and access controls are enforced.
• Contribute to the development of enterprise-wide AI architecture standards and governance frameworks, ensuring secure and efficient data consumption.
• Provide indirect leadership across lateral teams of data analysts focused on improving data accountability, access control, and user enablement.
• Provide mentoring and coaching to senior, mid-level, and junior engineers, product managers, and architects; function as a team lead as required as the AI and AI data integration practice is scaled.
  
  


• Strong proficiency in Python, SQL, VS Code, GitHub Copilot, and data integration tools (e.g., SQL, Pyspark, experience with cloud platforms (Azure, AWS, GCP) and container architecture.
• Hands-on experience building LLM / GenAI applications production grade AI patterns like MCP, Agentic AI, RAG, NLP2SQL etc.
• Solid SQL and PostgreSQL skills; experience with PGVector or a comparable vector database (Pinecone, Neo4j etc.).
• Comfort designing and consuming REST APIs; understanding of authentication, rate limiting, and error handling.
• Working knowledge of at least one major model provider API—Anthropic (Claude) and/or OpenAI (GPT)—including prompt design, function/tool calling, and streaming.
• Experience with AI/ML frameworks and AI concepts.
• Familiarity with financial data providers (e.g., Bloomberg, Refinitiv, Factset etc.).
• Deep understanding of and asset management domain, data governance, regulatory compliance, and risk management in banking.
• Excellent communication and stakeholder management skills.
• Understanding of SQL, Oracle, Exadata, Snowflake, Data Bricks, etc..
• Understanding of development Languages: Python , .NET/C#, React, and Java
• Understanding of operating systems: Unix/BASH Shell, Windows, Linux OS
• Proficient in generative AI and LLM data preparation for financial use cases.
  
  
Experience


• Bachelor7s or Master7s degree in Computer Science, Data Engineering, or related field.
• 10+ years of experience in data engineering or integration, preferably in financial services or banking.
  
  
Salary Range

$137,400 - 233,600 USD

Salary range is a good faith estimate of base pay. Northern Trust provides a comprehensive benefits package including retirement benefits (401k and pension), health and welfare benefits (medical, dental, vision, spending accounts and disability), paid time off, parental and caregiver leave, life & accident insurance, and other voluntary and well-being benefits. Northern Trust also provides a discretionary bonus program that may include an equity component.

Work Authorization

Applicants must be authorized to work in the U.S. without the need for employment-based visa sponsorship now or in the future. Northern Trust will not sponsor applicants for U.S. work visa status for this opportunity (no sponsorship is available for H-1B, L-1, TN, O-1, E-3, H-1B1, F-1, J-1, OPT, CPT or any other employment-based visa).

Working with Us

As a Northern Trust partner, you will be part of a flexible and collaborative work culture, which has a strong history of financial strength and stability. Movement within the organization is encouraged, senior leaders are accessible, and you can take pride in working for a company committed to an inclusive workplace and assisting the communities we serve.

Philanthropy is deeply rooted in Northern Trust 7s history and is an essential element of our culture. Employees around the world give their time and talent to work for the greater good of their communities.

Reasonable Accommodation

Northern Trust is committed to working with and providing adjustments to individuals with health conditions and disabilities. If you need a reasonable accommodation for any part of the employment process, please email our HR Service Center at [e-mail], or alternatively you can discuss your individual requirements with the recruiter you are working with.