Senior Director - AI Engineering/ Applied AI

FICO; Northern (KY); Hybrid; USD 193,000 - 303,000; Full time

Job summary

FICO seeks a Senior Director of AI Engineering to lead a high-performing team delivering LLM-powered decision automation, fraud detection, and process optimization across the platform. You will set the technical vision, drive innovation, ensure scalable, secure, and responsible AI, and partner with product managers to translate business priorities into product roadmaps.

This remote role requires 15+ years in software/ML, strong leadership, hands-on experience with model fine-tuning, backtesting,

Qualifications

• 15+ years of industry experience in software, ML, or data engineering.
• Proven leadership and mentoring in fast-paced environments.
• Hands-on experience with model fine-tuning and in-context learning.
• Experience with backtesting, A/B testing, and drift detection.
• Strong governance, monitoring, and compliance practices for AI systems.
• Knowledge of regulatory requirements in AI-driven decisioning.
• Bachelor's or Master’s in CS/DS/AI or related field.

Responsibilities

• Lead and coach a high-performing AI engineering team.
• Define tech vision for AI platforms and LLM applications.
• Translate business priorities into actionable AI roadmaps.
• Ensure governance, monitoring, and compliant AI systems.
• Collaborate with UX, product, and other leaders to align AI efforts.

Skills

LLM expertise

Leadership

Backtesting

A/B testing

Drift detection

Governance

Compliance

Software engineering

Cross-functional collaboration

Education

Bachelor's or Master's in CS/DS/AI or related field

Job description

## Senior Director - AI Engineering/ Applied AIApply: Work from Home, United States: Full time: Posted Today: 32077**FICO (NYSE: FICO)** is a leading global analytics software company, helping businesses in 100+ countries make better decisions. Join our world-class team today and fulfill your career potential!**The Opportunity**As Senior Director of AI Engineering, you will lead innovation and strategic growth across FICO's platform. Working at the forefront of our Generative AI efforts, you'll drive the application of large language models and cutting-edge AI technologies to enhance fraud detection, streamline decision authoring, automate customer communication workflows, and optimize overall performance. You will set the technical vision for our AI systems, ensuring they are robust, scalable, and responsibly governed. Most importantly, you'll lead a high-performing engineering team to deliver transformative AI solutions that address real business challenges and advance FICO's platform capabilities.**What You'll Contribute*** Lead, develop, and coach a high-performing engineering team by fostering a culture of aligned autonomy, clear communication, and continuous learning — while actively recruiting top talent and setting clear direction for hiring strategies.* Drive the design and implementation of AI solutions — including LLM-powered decision automation, fraud detection, and process optimization — to strengthen FICO's position as a market leader.* Partner with stakeholders and product managers to understand business priorities and translate them into actionable engineering roadmaps that harness advanced AI capabilities for meaningful outcomes.* Define best practices for model evaluation, governance, and monitoring to ensure AI systems remain accurate, reliable, secure, and compliant at scale.* Build and maintain systems for continuous model monitoring, A/B testing, backtesting, and drift detection to keep deployed models performing at their best over time.* Collaborate closely with UX designers, product teams, and engineering leaders to align AI capabilities across the platform and deliver a cohesive user experience.**What We're Seeking*** Proven experience building and leading engineering teams to deliver advanced AI solutions, with deep expertise in Large Language Models and their application to decision automation, fraud detection, and process optimization.* 15+ years of industry experience in software, machine learning, or data engineering, with a demonstrated history of leading complex, large-scale projects and applying LLMs to solve real-world challenges.* A track record of effective leadership, coaching, and mentoring that fosters innovation, accountability, and a high-performance culture in dynamic, fast-paced environments.* Hands-on experience with model fine-tuning, in-context learning, and custom evaluation frameworks, alongside a strong command of backtesting, A/B testing, and drift detection methodologies to ensure reliable model performance in production.* Solid understanding of model monitoring, governance, and compliance practices, with a commitment to responsible AI and the ability to architect scalable, secure, AI and data-driven systems that meet rigorous production standards.* Familiarity with compliance and regulatory requirements in AI-driven decisioning environments, and a working knowledge of modern software engineering practices and design patterns.* Strong cross-functional collaboration skills, with the ability to work across departments and align engineering efforts to broader business goals.* Thought leadership in AI and machine learning — through publications, patents, or open-source contributions — is a plus.* Bachelor's or Master's degree in Computer Science, Data Science, AI, or a related field.**Our Offer to You*** An inclusive culture strongly reflecting our core values: Act Like an Owner, Delight Our Customers and Earn the Respect of Others.* The opportunity to make an impact and develop professionally by leveraging your unique strengths and participating in valuable learning experiences.* Highly competitive compensation, benefits and rewards programs that encourage you to bring your best every day and be recognized for doing so.* An engaging, people-first work environment offering work/life balance, employee resource groups, and social events to promote interaction and camaraderie.* The targeted base pay range for this role is: $192,500 to $302,500 with this range reflecting differences in candidate knowledge, skills and experience.