Principal Data and AI Product Engineer

MetLif; Cary (NC); Hybrid; USD 165,000 - 213,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health insurance

Dental insurance

401(k) with company match

Life insurance

Job summary

MetLife is seeking a Data & AI Product Engineer to set the technical direction for data and AI capabilities across the enterprise. You will translate ambiguous problems into defensible architectures and drive them from concept to production with cross-functional teams.

In this hands-on role, you will design target-state data flows, review designs for production readiness, and engage senior executives to secure alignment and investment for the data platform roadmap.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in CS, Engineering, Math, Stats, or related field.
• 5+ years in data engineering, data science/AI, and data strategy.
• 3+ years leading the technical direction of a platform or capability.
• Proven track record delivering production-grade data or AI solutions.

Responsibilities

• Identify capability needs with domain stakeholders and translate to requirements.
• Shape the technical direction for MetLife's data and AI landscape.
• Lead large cross-cutting initiatives and frame problems for execution.
• Architect target-state data flows and integration diagrams.
• Deliver hands-on data science and data engineering solutions.
• Review designs and code for production readiness.
• Coordinate with executives to align data/AI strategies.
• Ensure teams build on approved platforms and avoid duplication.

Skills

Python

SQL

Data engineering

Data science/AI

RAG architectures

Agent-based AI

Cloud data architectures

APIs

Education

Bachelor’s degree in CS/Engineering/Math/Stats

Advanced degree (preferred)

Job description

At MetLife, data isn’t just a tool – it is a catalyst for growth. As part of our Data & Analytics organization, you’ll unlock trusted insights that drive bold decisions, power personalized customer experiences, and deliver lasting business impact. We’re building the future of data – one that’s governed responsibly, engineered for scalability, and designed for growth. When you join us, you’re not just supporting the business – you’re empowering it. Let’s transform insight into impact and data into action, together.

The Opportunity

The Data & AI Product Engineer is a hands-on technologist who sets the technical direction for how MetLife builds and consumes data and AI capabilities. The role defines what the enterprise needs, architects the target state from a blank page, and drives it through to production. It spans data science, data engineering and data strategy.

This is a forward-deployed role, not a portfolio or project management role. It requires the ability to take an ambiguous, high-stakes problem spanning multiple systems, owners, and constraints and reduce it to a defensible architecture and a sequenced delivery plan, then build against it hands-on. It also requires the credibility to bring that recommendation directly to executive leadership and change the decision on what MetLife should build, what it should not, and how data and AI capabilities integrate with the broader IT landscape.

Key Responsibilities

• Work with domain stakeholders to identify capability needs, assess feasibility early, and translate problems into implementable requirements.
• Help shape the technical direction for MetLife's data and AI landscape, defining the target state, the build-versus-buy position, and the sequence of investments required to get there, and keeping that direction current as the platform and vendor market shifts.
• Take on the large and ambiguous cross-cutting initiatives, such as semantic layer enablement and preparing enterprise data for frontier AI models, and bring structure to them: frame the problem, establish the decision criteria, resolve competing technical positions on evidence, and carry the work from concept through enterprise adoption.
• Architect solutions from a blank page: target-state architectures, data flow and integration diagrams, and component models precise enough to build from directly.
• Design and deliver hands-on solutions across data science and data engineering.
• Review design and code from concept through production and own the production-readiness decision.
• Guide enterprise initiatives toward the right capability, ensuring teams build on approved platforms and existing solutions rather than duplicating them, and steering misaligned approaches early.
• Serve as the trusted technical voice for data and AI with senior executive stakeholders, including the CDO, CIO, and their leadership teams. Frame trade-offs and recommendations so non-technical executives can decide with confidence, and secure the alignment and investment required to move a direction forward.

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Mathematics, Statistics, or a related quantitative field.
• 5+ years of experience in data engineering, data science/AI, and data strategy, including 3+ years leading the technical direction of a platform, product, or capability.
• Proven track record delivering and operating production-grade data or AI solutions.
• Experience designing data and AI architectures, evaluating and building platforms/vendors, and making build vs. buy decisions.
• Strong hands-on skills in Python and SQL, with experience reviewing production code and validating models.
• Experience with machine learning and generative AI, including RAG and agent-based architectures.
• Deep understanding of modern data platforms, data pipelines, APIs, integrations, and cloud-based data architectures.

Preferred Qualifications

• Advanced degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Statistics, Mathematics, or a related quantitative field.
• Regulated-environment platform experience: insurance, financial services, or another regulated industry, including platform security (access controls, PII handling, encryption, audit logging), infrastructure-as-code, and cloud cost management.
• MLOps and model governance: experiment tracking, CI/CD for models, inference patterns, drift monitoring, explainability (SHAP or equivalent), and model-risk readiness.
• Semantic layer and AI-ready data: semantic layer design and metric governance, data contracts, catalog and lineage, making enterprise data consumable by models and agents.
• Leadership and influence: holds a technical position with senior stakeholders and vendors and revises it on evidence rather than seniority; explains technical trade-offs to executive audiences without diluting them and influences across a matrixed organization without formal authority; builds durable credibility with senior executives, becoming the person leadership consults before committing to a data or AI direction; operates without a defined brief, deciding what the organization should work on and not only how to build it; raises the technical bar for peers through review, mentoring, and the architecture patterns they set.

Benefits We Offer

Our U.S. benefits address holistic well-being with programs for physical and mental health, financial wellness, and support for families. We offer a comprehensive health plan that includes medical/prescription drug and vision, dental insurance, and no-cost short- and long-term disability. We also provide company-paid life insurance and legal services, a retirement pension funded entirely by MetLife and 401(k) with employer matching, group discounts on voluntary insurance products including auto and home, pet, critical illness, hospital indemnity, and accident insurance, as well as Employee Assistance Program (EAP) and digital mental health programs, parental leave, paid time off, paid holidays, volunteer time off, tuition assistance and much more! For more information regarding MetLife’s U.S. benefits, please

About MetLife

Recognizedon Fortune magazine's list of the "World's Most Admired Companies",Fortune World’s 25 Best Workplaces™, as well as the Fortune 100 Best Companiesto Work For®, MetLife, through its subsidiaries and affiliates, is one of theworld’s leading financial services companies; providing insurance, annuities,employee benefits and asset management to individual and institutionalcustomers. With operations in more than 40 markets, we hold leading positionsin the United States, Latin America, Asia, Europe, and the Middle East.

As part of our New Frontier strategy, MetLife is building an AI-enabled, people-centered future. We’re looking for people who bring curiosity, adaptability, and a growth mindset as we use AI to enhance how we serve customers, support communities, and evolve the way work gets done. At MetLife, AI is a responsible partner that supports human judgment, creativity, and continuous improvement while helping us build trust, inclusion, and long-term value.

Our purposeis simple - to help our colleagues, customers, communities, and the world atlarge create a more confident future. United by purpose and guided by our corevalues - Win Together, Do the Right Thing, Deliver Impact Over Activity, andThink Ahead - we’re inspired to transform the next century in financialservices. At MetLife, it’s #AllTogetherPossible . Join us!

Location Expectation: This is a hybrid role requiring a minimum of 3 days per week in office.

The expected salary range for this position is $164,600 - $213,100 . This role may also be eligible for annual short-term incentive compensation. All incentives and benefits are subject to the applicable plan terms.

MetLife is an Equal Opportunity Employer. All employment decisions are made without regards to race, color, national origin, religion, creed, sex (including pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions), sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, age, disability, marital or domestic/civil partnership status, genetic information, citizenship status (although applicants and employees must be legally authorized to work in the United States), uniformed service member or veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by applicable federal, state, or local law (“protected characteristics”). If you need an accommodation due to a disability, please email us at [e-mail]. This information will be held in confidence and used only to determine an appropriate accommodation for the application process.
MetLife maintains a drug-free workplace.