Principal AI Engineer

New York Life; New York (NY); Hybrid; USD 185,000 - 265,000; Full time

Job summary

New York Life is seeking a Principal AI Engineer to lead the design, development, and delivery of enterprise AI capabilities. This hands-on leadership role spans traditional ML, Generative AI, and agentic AI, delivering scalable, secure AI applications across the organization.

You will mentor engineers, influence AI strategy, and partner with business stakeholders to measure and maximize AI value while staying current with emerging technologies and industry best practices.

Qualifications

• Master's or PhD in Computer Science, Artificial Intelligence, Engineering, Mathematics, or related quantitative discipline.
• Eight+ years of experience delivering machine learning and AI solutions with leadership and ownership.
• Expertise designing and delivering production AI applications spanning ML, Generative AI, and agentic AI architectures.
• Strong software engineering skills in Python, with working knowledge of SQL and JavaScript/TypeScript; experience with CI/CD, Docker, and Kubernetes.

Responsibilities

• Lead the end-to-end delivery of AI and Generative AI solutions with cross-functional teams to achieve measurable business outcomes.
• Design, build, deploy, and operate production AI applications on the enterprise AI platform using CI/CD pipelines and platform services.
• Architect and implement advanced AI solutions, including agentic AI systems and multi-agent orchestration.
• Evaluate and integrate AI technologies across the solution stack for scalable, secure, and maintainable systems.
• Establish engineering standards for AI development, automated testing, observability, and responsible AI practices.

Skills

Python

SQL

JavaScript/TypeScript

CI/CD

Docker

Kubernetes

LLMs

RAG

Agentic AI

Education

Master's/PhD in CS/AI/Engineering/Math

Tools

Databricks

Vertex AI

SageMaker

Bedrock

Job description

Location Designation: Hybrid - 3 days per week

Job Level: LEVELPF6

Technology, Data, AI and Ventures

Within the Tech, Data, AI, Ventures (TDAV) organization, our work is guided by a shared vision: deploying the power of technology, data, AI and ventures to accelerate sustainable competitive advantage for New York Life's businesses. We build solutions that power how we serve policy owners, agents, advisors and employees while delivering measurable business outcomes.

Across technology, data, AI, cyber, product, digital experience, architecture and infrastructure, TDAV combines the scale and investment of an industry leader, access to leading-edge technologies and the opportunity to help shape how a world-class financial services company competes in the AI era - all backed by the stability and purpose of a mutual company built to last.

Role Overview

As a Principal AI Engineer within the Artificial Intelligence & Data (AI&D) organization, you will serve as a senior technical leader responsible for designing, building, and delivering enterprise AI solutions that create measurable business value. This is a hands‑on engineering role that spans traditional machine learning, Generative AI, and Agentic AI, requiring deep technical expertise across the full AI solution lifecycle—from opportunity assessment and solution architecture through deployment, monitoring, and continuous improvement.

Working closely with business stakeholders, product managers, data scientists, software engineers, and technology partners, you will lead the delivery of production‑ready AI solutions on New York Life's enterprise AI platform. Rather than developing the underlying platform infrastructure, you will leverage enterprise capabilities to rapidly deliver scalable, secure, and responsible AI applications that solve complex business problems.

In addition to leading technical delivery, you will help define AI engineering standards, influence enterprise AI strategy, mentor engineers, and partner with the business to measure and maximize the value generated by AI investments.

What You'll Do

• Lead the end-to-end delivery of AI and Generative AI solutions, partnering with business, product, technology, and data teams to identify opportunities, shape solution strategies, and deliver measurable business outcomes.
• Design, develop, deploy, and operate production AI applications using the enterprise AI platform, leveraging existing CI/CD pipelines, infrastructure templates, security controls, and platform services.
• Architect and implement advanced AI solutions, including agentic AI systems, multi‑agent orchestration, retrieval‑augmented generation (RAG), hybrid retrieval strategies, and human‑in‑the‑loop workflows to address complex business challenges.
• Evaluate, select, and integrate AI technologies across the solution stack, including foundation models, orchestration frameworks, cloud AI services, and modern software engineering tools, ensuring solutions are scalable, secure, and maintainable.
• Establish engineering best practices for AI development, including evaluation frameworks, automated testing, observability, responsible AI, safety validation, and production monitoring.
• Rapidly prototype AI‑enabled applications and user experiences to validate concepts, accelerate adoption, and inform product direction using modern development frameworks.
• Leverage AI‑assisted software development tools to accelerate engineering productivity while maintaining high standards for code quality, testing, and governance. Develop internal engineering agents that improve software delivery through automation of testing, code review, deployment validation, and other engineering workflows.
• Provide technical leadership, mentorship, and architectural guidance to AI engineers and data scientists, fostering a culture of innovation, experimentation, technical excellence, and continuous learning.
• Partner with business leaders to define success metrics, measure solution performance, and continuously optimize AI solutions to maximize business value.
• Stay current on emerging AI technologies, evaluate their applicability to enterprise use cases, and influence the organization's AI roadmap and engineering practices.

This role involves limited travel (less than 10%) for vendor meetings, industry conferences, and team collaboration.

What You'll Bring

Required Skills

• Master's or PhD in Computer Science, Artificial Intelligence, Engineering, Mathematics, or a related quantitative discipline.
• Eight or more years of experience delivering machine learning and AI solutions that solve complex business problems, with increasing technical leadership and ownership.
• Demonstrated expertise designing and delivering production AI applications spanning machine learning, Generative AI, and agentic AI architectures.
• Strong software engineering skills in Python, with working knowledge of SQL and JavaScript or TypeScript. Experience building, testing, deploying, and supporting production software using modern engineering practices, including CI/CD, code review, Docker, and Kubernetes.
• Deep hands‑on experience with large language models, prompt engineering, retrieval‑augmented generation (RAG), hybrid retrieval techniques, knowledge graphs, and production retrieval architectures.
• Experience designing and implementing multi‑agent AI systems using modern orchestration frameworks (such as LangGraph, Google ADK, CrewAI, or similar) and tool integration protocols such as MCP or equivalent approaches.
• Experience evaluating AI systems using automated evaluation pipelines, safety testing, red teaming, hallucination detection, performance monitoring, and responsible AI practices.
• Experience deploying AI solutions on enterprise cloud platforms, particularly Google Cloud Vertex AI, with familiarity across AWS AI services such as Bedrock and SageMaker, as well as modern data platforms including Databricks.
• Experience using AI‑assisted software engineering tools (such as Codex, Claude Code, or similar) to improve developer productivity, including developing engineering agents that automate software delivery workflows.
• Excellent communication, stakeholder management, and collaboration skills with the ability to influence technical direction and communicate effectively with both technical and business audiences.
• Demonstrated ability to mentor engineers, lead technical initiatives, and drive engineering excellence across teams.

Preferred Skills

• Experience within life insurance, financial services, or other highly regulated industries.
• Experience defining enterprise AI architecture, engineering standards, or AI governance frameworks.
• Experience leading cross‑functional AI transformation initiatives across multiple business domains.
• Contributions to the AI community through publications, open‑source projects, conference presentations, or technical thought leadership.

Success Looks Like

• AI‑powered solutions are successfully deployed into production and deliver measurable business value across multiple business domains.
• Strong partnerships with business stakeholders result in high adoption, clear business outcomes, and sustained value realization.
• Reusable AI solution patterns, engineering practices, and architectural standards accelerate delivery across the organization.
• Engineering teams consistently deliver secure, scalable, and responsible AI solutions while embracing AI‑assisted development practices.
• The organization continues to raise its technical capabilities through your mentorship, innovation, and thought leadership.

Pay Transparency

Salary Range: $185,000-$264,500

Overtime eligible: Exempt

Discretionary bonus eligible: Yes

Sales bonus eligible: No

Actual base salary will be determined based on several factors but not limited to individual’s experience, skills, qualifications, and job location. Additionally, employees are eligible for an annual discretionary bonus. In addition to base salary, employees may also be eligible to participate in an incentive program.

Company Overview

At New York Life, our 180-year legacy of purpose and integrity fuels our future. As we evolve into a more technology-, data-, and AI‑enabled organization, we remain grounded in the values that drive lasting impact.

Our diverse business portfolio creates opportunities to make a difference across industries and communities—inviting bold thinking, collaborative problem‑solving, and purpose‑driven innovation. Here, you’ll find the rare balance of long‑standing stability and forward momentum, supported by an inclusive team that honors tradition while embracing progress.

As a Fortune 100 mutual company, we offer a place to grow your skills, contribute to meaningful work, and deliver solutions that matter. Your ideas drive what’s next, and your growth powers it.

Our Benefits

We provide a full package of benefits for employees – and have unique offerings for a modern workforce, including leave programs, adoption assistance, and student loan repayment programs. Based on feedback from our employees, we continue to refine and add benefits to our offering, so that you can flourish both inside and outside of work.

Our Commitment to Inclusion

At New York Life, fostering an inclusive workplace is fundamental to who we are and how we serve our communities. We have a longstanding commitment to creating an environment where individuals can contribute their best and succeed together. This foundation is rooted in our core values of humanity and integrity, ensuring that every employee feels valued and supported. By embracing a broad range of perspectives and experiences, we achieve greater success and fulfill our promise of providing financial security and peace of mind to families across all communities.

Recognized as one of Fortune’s World’s Most Admired Companies, New York Life is committed to improving local communities through a culture of employee giving and volunteerism, supported by the Foundation. We’re proud that due to our mutuality, we operate in the best interests of our policy owners.