Senior Software Engineer - Contact Center Technology

Ascensus; Chicago (IL); On-site; USD 100,000 - 160,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

401(k) match

Medical

Dental

Vision

Paid-Time-Off

Job summary

Ascensus is seeking a Software Engineer to build and maintain AI-driven conversational experiences across contact center platforms using NICE CXone, Azure OpenAI, and related technologies. You will design flows, prompts, and integration points to improve agent and customer interactions while ensuring reliability and compliance.

You will collaborate with cross-functional teams, apply prompt engineering, and deploy containerized solutions with Docker and Azure DevOps.

Qualifications

• Extensive experience using .NET to develop web applications and back-end services.
• Experience designing, developing, and integrating REST APIs in distributed systems.
• Ability to design, develop, test, and maintain scalable MCP server architectures using Python.
• Experience with Docker, Git, Azure DevOps, CI/CD pipelines and IaC.
• Experience building AI solutions using Azure OpenAI, LangChain and AI agents.
• Experience with prompt engineering for accurate, reliable LLM interactions.
• Experience with NICE CXone or similar contact center platforms.
• Understanding of contact center operations, inbound/outbound engagement.
• Familiarity with IVR, routing, self-service automation, CRM integration.

Responsibilities

• Design, develop, test, and maintain conversational AI experiences using NICE CXone and Azure OpenAI.
• Create and optimize prompts, intents, and knowledge retrieval for better CX.
• Analyze transcripts to improve AI accuracy and customer satisfaction.
• Develop integrations between NICE CXone and internal systems via APIs and event-driven architectures.
• Support intelligent routing, self-service, and automation in the contact center ecosystem.
• Collaborate with business teams to identify AI-driven automation opportunities.
• Work with cross-functional teams to integrate AI capabilities using Azure OpenAI and LangChain.
• Apply prompt engineering to improve precision and business value.
• Monitor AI solution performance and enforce safeguards for reliability and compliance.
• Build and deploy containerized apps using Docker and Azure DevOps pipelines.
• Design data models with PostgreSQL and other data tech; develop REST APIs.
• Participate in Agile/Scrum sprints; contribute to continuous learning.
• Stay current with AI tech and promote experimentation.

Skills

NET development

REST APIs

Python

Docker

Azure DevOps

CI/CD

Prompt engineering

Azure OpenAI

LangChain

NICE CXone

NLP/NLU

Agile/Scrum

Git

Cursor

Tools

Git

Docker

Azure DevOps

PostgreSQL

Job description

Ascensus is the leading independent technology and service platform powering savings plans across America, providing products and expertise that help nearly 16 million people save for a better today and tomorrow.

Section 1: Position Summary

At Ascensus, we are building a team that is empowered to use AI to solve the business needs by having a rapid development and deployment pipeline with a focus on rapid iteration, continuous delivery, and intelligent automation.

We are looking to add a software engineer who will design, develop, and support conversational AI solutions that enhance customer and associate experiences across our contact center platforms. This role combines software engineering, generative AI, prompt engineering, and customer engagement technologies to deliver virtual agents, intelligent self-service capabilities, agent assist solutions, and AI-powered business workflows. If you’re AI-Forward and excited to explore and apply the latest tools and technologies to solve real-world business problems, this is the role for you. You’ll work with a modern tech stack including Python, .NET, Azure OpenAI, LangChain, PostgreSQL, Docker, Cursor, Git, Azure DevOps, NICE CXone, AI Agents, and conversational AI technologies to deliver high value software to our business.

Section 2: Job Functions, Essential Duties and Responsibilities

• Design, develop, test, and maintain conversational AI experiences including voice bots, chatbots, virtual assistants, and agent-assist solutions using NICE CXone, Azure OpenAI, and related technologies.
• Create and optimize conversational flows, prompts, intents, and knowledge retrieval mechanisms to improve customer and associate experiences.
• Analyze conversation transcripts and interaction data to continuously improve AI accuracy, containment rates, and customer satisfaction.
• Develop integrations between NICE CXone and internal systems using APIs, event-driven architectures, and AI services.
• Support the design and implementation of intelligent routing, self-service, and automation capabilities within the contact center ecosystem.
• Partner with contact center business teams to identify opportunities for AI-driven process automation and customer experience improvements.
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams to integrate AI capabilities using Azure OpenAI, Langchain, and AI Agents.
• Apply prompt engineering techniques to optimize LLM interactions for precision, consistency, and business value.
• Monitor AI solution performance and implement safeguards to ensure accuracy, compliance, reliability, and responsible AI usage.
• Build and maintain containerized applications using Docker and deploy via Azure DevOps pipelines.
• Work with PostgreSQL and other data technologies to design efficient, reliable data models.
• Develop and consume REST APIs to enable seamless integration across services and platforms.
• Participate in sprint planning, estimation, and retrospectives as part of an Agile Scrum team.
• Contribute to the evolution of our AI-driven development environment using tools like Cursor.
• Stay current with emerging technologies and bring a mindset of continuous learning and experimentation.

Section 3: Experience, Skills, Knowledge Requirements

• A strong interest in leveraging AI and the latest tools to drive innovation and efficiency.
• Extensive experience using .NET to develop web applications and back-end services
• Extensive experience designing, developing, and integrating REST APIs in distributed systems and enterprise applications.
• Ability to design, develop, test, and maintain scalable MCP server architectures using Python
• Experience with Docker, Git, Azure DevOps, CI/CD pipelines, automated testing, and infrastructure as code.
• Experience building AI solutions using Azure OpenAI, LangChain, Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG), AI agents, prompt engineering techniques, and related AI development frameworks.
• Experience with prompt engineering and optimizing LLM interactions for accuracy and reliability.
• Experience with NICE CXone or similar contact center platforms such as Genesys, Five9, Amazon Connect, or Cisco Contact Center.
• Understanding of contact center operations, including inbound and outbound customer engagement.
• Familiarity with IVR design, intelligent routing, call flows, skills-based routing, and self-service automation.
• Experience integrating contact center platforms with CRM, case management, and enterprise business systems.
• Experience designing, implementing, or supporting virtual agents, chatbots, voice bots, or conversational AI platforms.
• Understanding of natural language processing (NLP), natural language understanding (NLU), speech recognition, and text-to-speech technologies.
• Experience evaluating and improving AI-generated responses for accuracy, effectiveness, and customer experience outcomes.
• Experience working with other developers, quality engineers (QE), ops engineers and support engineers to ensure smooth deployment and continual operation
• Strong problem-solving skills, attention to detail, and a passion for learning and applying new technologies.
• Excellent communication skills with the ability to collaborate effectively with both technical and non-technical stakeholders.
• Familiarity or experience with Agile engineering practices (test driven development, continuous integration and pair programming, etc.
• Ability to work with legacy systems while contributing to modernization efforts.
• Familiarity with Agile methodologies and open-source development practices.

The national average salary range for this role is$100K-160K in base pay, exclusive of any bonuses and benefits. This base salary range represents the low and high end of the salary range for this position. Actual salary offered will vary and may be above or below the range based on various factors including but not limited to location, experience, performance, and internal pay alignment. We do not anticipate that candidates hired will begin at the top of the range however, from time to time, it may occur on a case-by-case basis. Other rewards and benefits may include: 401(k) match, Medical, Dental, Vision, Paid-Time-Off, etc. For more information, please visit careers.ascensus.com/#Benefits