Senior Software Engineer - AI Operations Team (Open to hiring at the Lead Software Engineer Level)

Wellmark, Inc.; Des Moines (IA); On-site; USD 120,000 - 170,000; Full time

Job summary

Wellmark, Inc. seeks a Senior Software Engineer for the AI Operations Team, open to Lead Software Engineer level. The role focuses on designing and operating Apollo, Wellmark's AI platform, with governance, model routing, prompt management and agent orchestration.

You will collaborate across product, security, data governance, and cloud teams to ensure reliability, security, auditability, and scalable AI solutions. Strong cloud experience is required.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree or higher in Computer Science, MIS or related field with software development experience.
• Experience with modern software stacks and cloud platforms is expected.
• Strong analytical problem-solving skills, attention to detail and ability to work in a fast-paced environment.

Responsibilities

• Design, build, and operate core AI platform capabilities including governance, model routing, prompt management and observability.
• Collaborate with product, security, data governance, and engineering teams to enable scalable AI adoption.
• Mentor engineers, promote CI/CD, IaC, SDKs, templates, and reference implementations.

Job description

Senior Software Engineer - AI Operations Team (Open to hiring at the Lead Software Engineer Level)

• Full-time
• Department: Technology
• Pay Grade: 23

Why Wellmark: We are a mutual insurance company owned by our policy holders across Iowa and South Dakota, and we’ve built our reputation on over 80 years’ worth of trust. We are not motivated by profits. We are motivated by the well-being of our friends, family, and neighbors–our members. If you’re passionate about joining an organization working hard to put its members first, to provide best-in-class service, and one that is committed to sustainability and innovation, consider applying today!

Why Wellmark Technology?Wellmark is building innovative, modern solutions using cutting edge technology. We are driving organizational transformation and business strategy by empowering our technology team to innovate new and elegant solutions to enhance the customer experience. Together, we are leaning into the future, owning the outcome, and driving organizational change to transform how we work.

As a senior technical contributoronthe AI Platform and Operations team, you will help build andoperateApollo, Wellmark's governed, composable foundation for safe,secureand scalableenterprise AI adoption.

You will design, build, andoperatecore AI platform capabilities including governed AI access, model routing, prompt management, agent orchestration and runtime services, tool execution, knowledge retrieval, evaluation, observability, enterprise guardrails, and cost management. You will guide engineers through complex technical challenges and driveadoptionof architecture standards, automated testing, CI/CD practices, reusable SDKs, infrastructure-as-code, templates, and reference implementations.

In partnership with product, architecture, security, compliance, legal, data governance, cloud, and engineering teams, you will strengthen platform reliability, security, auditability, and operational excellence while enabling teams across Wellmark to responsibly adopt and scale AI solutions.

Preferred:

• Experience developing cloud-native applications and platform services using TypeScript, Node.js, Python, or similar technologies.
• Experience with AWS cloud services and familiarity with AI/ML capabilities such as Amazon Bedrock, BedrockAgentCore, SageMaker, OpenSearch, Lambda, API Gateway, DynamoDB,EventBridge, Step Functions, or related services.
• Familiarity with Microsoft Azure AI services, Azure OpenAI, Azure AI Foundry, Azure AI Search, or other Azure-native AI capabilities.
• Experience designing, building, or operating AI platform capabilities such as model routing, prompt management, agent orchestration, agent runtimes, tool integration, or AI governance controls.
• Experience implementing knowledge retrieval solutions including embeddings, vector indexing, citation frameworks, semantic search, or retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) patterns.
• Experience creating reusable SDKs, APIs, templates, reference implementations, platform services, or developer self-service capabilities.
• Knowledge of identity, authentication, authorization, policy enforcement, privacy, security controls, and enterprise guardrails for AI-enabled solutions.
• Experience designing solutions for regulated environments with requirements for compliance, auditability, lineage, traceability, evidence capture, and operational governance.
• Experience implementing observability practices including tracing, metrics, logging, dashboards, alerting, incident response, platform monitoring, and operational readiness.
• Experience with AI observability and evaluation practices, including monitoring AI application quality, retrieval effectiveness, agent performance, model behavior, safety controls, and operational health.
• Experience defining, implementing, or analyzing quantitative and qualitative AI performance metrics, including accuracy, latency, cost,groundedness, hallucination detection, user feedback signals, and LLM-as-a-judge evaluation methodologies.
• Experience developing automated evaluation or quality measurement frameworks for AI applications, including models, prompts, retrieval systems, agents, safety controls, and accuracy validation.
• Understanding ofAI usage tracking, cost attribution, reporting, and optimization strategies across models, services, and workloads.
• Experience enabling engineering teams to adopt shared platforms, standards, and reusable capabilities while balancing enterprise consistency with solution-specific needs.
• Ability to evaluate emerging AI technologies, models, providers, frameworks, and implementation patterns based on capability, reliability, latency, cost, compliance, security, and business requirements.
• Experience working within an Agile team environment.

Required:

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, MIS, or related field of study, and at least 2 years of software development experience (ex. Angular, NodeJS, TypeScript,etc) OR6 years of related and applicable experience.
• Strong analytical problem-solving skills. Accuracy and high attention to detail.Previousexperiencetroubleshooting and developing creative technical solutions. Ability to provide innovative solutions to complex issues.
• Demonstrated experience in software development lifecycle methodologies.
• Big picture thinker with the ability to translate the value of theWaaSstrategy to company strategy when making design and development decisions.
• Demonstrated, strong ability to gather information, perform necessary research needed for root cause analysis, problem definition and formulation, recommend solution implementation, verification, and ongoing optimization, using data to support recommendations and best practices.
• Demonstrated ability to build relationships to reach outcomes that gain the support and acceptance of all parties. Ability to communicate key informationin a timely mannerto theappropriate stakeholderaudience with the ability to adjust communication style that will best suit the audience.
• Ability to communicate with and coach/mentor team members, while setting an example inmaintaininga positive attitude, staying calm under pressure, being approachable, andrespectfuland taking responsibility for failures.
• Ability to thrive infast-paced environment with changing priorities. Excellent organizational skills. Strong time management skills with the ability to set and meet establishedtimeframeswith little direction, while assuring data and information integrity.
• Eagerness to learn and stay current on industry trends and have a continuous learning mindset.
• Ability to collaborate and work as a team toaccomplishgoals and/or solve problems. Ability to earn trust and respect from peers, leadership, and stakeholders. Ability to learn by actively listening and applying coaching feedback.
• Ability to lead, support and work within a diverse development team model including global staffing, crowd sourcing, etc.

a. Provide high-level analysis and implementation of innovative, efficient, and cost-effective business solutions for multiple platforms, whileutilizinginformation technology, business, and industry trends.

b. Guide other engineers in the design, development, code testing, debugging and resolution of issues thatutilizeemerging technology and meet and exceed Wellmark's evolving business needs.

c. Provide advanced support in the gathering of information, necessary research needed for root cause analysis, problem definition and formulation, solution implementation, verification, and ongoing optimization. Ensure analysis of defects to find root cause and guide others in the identification of potential improvement opportunities.

d. Mentor, guide and problem-solve with other technology areas in the development and implementation of solutions, including how to use new or enhanced software/applications.

e. Use data and cost measures (AWS, infrastructure, labor, etc.) to influencetimelydecisions, build consensus, and take actions to successfully deliver project or production supportobjectivesand support benefits realization.Identifyknown issues, impactstoproject or production outcomes if not resolved, andescalateas necessary.

f. Build relationships with Wellmark leaders and acts as consultant on business status, issues, process improvements and technology enhancements or capabilities.

g. Participatein project proposals, estimates and proof-of-concept activities as needed.

h. Maintainawareness of industry’s best practices and standards and proactivelyparticipatesin industry/knowledge reference groupsrelativeto role.

i. Otherduties as assigned.

All your information will be kept confidential according to EEO guidelines.

An Equal Opportunity Employer

The policy of Wellmark Blue Cross Blue Shield is to recruit, hire, train and promote individuals in all job classifications without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, veteran status, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity or any other characteristic protected by law.

Applicants requiring a reasonable accommodation due to a disability at any stage of the employment application process should contact us at [emailprotected]

At this time, Wellmark is not considering applicants for this position that require any type of immigration sponsorship (additional work authorization or permanent work authorization) now or in the future to work in the United States. This includes, but IS NOT LIMITED TO: F1-OPT, F1-CPT, H-1B, TN, L-1, J-1, etc. For additional information around work authorization needs please refer to the following resources:Nonimmigrant Workers and Green Card for Employment-Based Immigrants

Wellmark supports and expects the responsible use of AI for our workforce! We welcome the responsible use of these tools by job seekers as well and are interested in learning from you; you will have an opportunity in the application process to share which tools you used and how you applied them.

By clicking the link above or any third-party link within this posting, you are leaving this site and going to a third-party website where the third-party website's terms and privacy policy apply