Staff/Lead/Senior Backend Engineer - AI Platform/ Data Infrastructure Engineering - Applied Ai

FICO; United States; Remote; USD 137,000 - 215,000; Full time

Job summary

Join a leading global analytics software company as a Lead/Senior AI Platform Engineer. In this pivotal role, you will design and implement robust, scalable services that drive advanced AI capabilities across the platform. Your expertise will contribute to critical functionalities, including fraud investigation and customer engagement. Collaborate with talented teams to develop state-of-the-art solutions and mentor others in backend architecture and data infrastructure. This is an exciting opportunity to make a significant impact in a fast-growing field while enjoying a competitive compensation package and a culture that values diversity and inclusion.

Benefits

Inclusive culture

Professional development opportunities

Competitive compensation

Work/life balance

Employee resource groups

Social events

Qualifications

• Experience in backend and data infrastructure engineering with complex projects.
• Strong coding skills and hands-on experience with scalable backend systems.

Responsibilities

• Lead the design of scalable AI platform and distributed services.
• Collaborate with teams to implement microservices and APIs for AI capabilities.

Skills

Python

Go

Java

Problem-solving

Mentoring

Education

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science

Advanced degree in related field

Tools

Apache Spark

Kafka

Hadoop

AWS

GCP

Azure

Docker

Kubernetes

Job description

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 a Lead/Senior AI Platform Engineer on our Applied AI team, you'll lead the design and implementation of scalable, robust, distributed services and data systems that power advanced AI capabilities. Your work will drive critical functionalities across FICO’s platform, from fraud investigation and decision management to process flow automation and customer engagement. This role requires a forward-thinking mindset and a strong commitment to system reliability and robust governance, placing you at the core of FICO’s innovative, high-impact AI initiatives.

What You’ll Contribute

• You’ll play a key role in developing a centralized AI platform with robust, scalable distributed systems and data infrastructure that integrate generative AI capabilities into FICO’s software platform.
• Build state-of-the-art solutions for data processing and storage, enabling high-throughput and high-fidelity pipelines to support model training and inference.
• Develop production-grade LLM-powered systems with Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) and agentic architectures to power next-generation AI features.
• Collaborate with researchers, ML engineers, and product teams to design and implement microservices and APIs that enable secure, low-latency access to AI capabilities.
• Implement robust guardrails, governance mechanisms, and observability features to maintain safe, auditable, and compliant use of generative AI systems, while proactively addressing system bottlenecks and failures.
• Define and monitor key quality metrics across AI models and systems to drive continuous improvement in performance, reliability, and user impact.
• Mentor engineering teams, driving excellence in backend architecture, data infrastructure, and AI system integration.

What We’re Seeking

• In-depth experience in backend and/or data infrastructure engineering with a track record of leading complex, large-scale projects.
• Strong coding skills in Python, Go, Java, or similar languages.
• Hands-on experience designing and operating scalable, fault-tolerant backend systems with high availability and performance.
• Proficiency with big data frameworks (e.g., Apache Spark, Kafka, Hadoop) and a solid understanding of both relational and NoSQL databases is preferred. Familiarity with cloud platforms (AWS, GCP, or Azure) and container orchestration tools like Docker and Kubernetes.
• Experience with A/B testing frameworks and a solid foundation in performance optimization and system monitoring.
• Exposure to integrating AI/ML solutions, with familiarity in Large Language Models (LLMs), Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG), and vector databases a plus.
• Exceptional problem-solving skills with the ability to mentor others and work cross-functionally with engineering, research, and product teams.
• Bachelor's degree in computer science, Engineering, or a related field, an advanced degree preferred.

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: $137,000 to $215,000 with this range reflecting differences in candidate knowledge, skills and experience.

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Why Make a Move to FICO?

At FICO, you can develop your career with a leading organization in one of the fastest-growing fields in technology today – Big Data analytics. You’ll play a part in our commitment to help businesses use data to improve every choice they make, using advances in artificial intelligence, machine learning, optimization, and much more.

FICO makes a real difference in the way businesses operate worldwide:

• Credit Scoring — FICO Scores are used by 90 of the top 100 US lenders.
• Fraud Detection and Security — 4 billion payment cards globally are protected by FICO fraud systems.
• Lending — 3/4 of US mortgages are approved using the FICO Score.

Global trends toward digital transformation have created tremendous demand for FICO’s solutions, placing us among the world’s top 100 software companies by revenue. We help many of the world’s largest banks, insurers, retailers, telecommunications providers and other firms reach a new level of success. Our success is dependent on really talented people – just like you – who thrive on the collaboration and innovation that’s nurtured by a diverse and inclusive environment. We’ll provide the support you need, while ensuring you have the freedom to develop your skills and grow your career. Join FICO and help change the way business thinks!

Learn more about how you can fulfil your potential at www.fico.com/Careers

FICO promotes a culture of inclusion and seeks to attract a diverse set of candidates for each job opportunity. We are an equal employment opportunity employer and we’re proud to offer employment and advancement opportunities to all candidates without regard to race, color, ancestry, religion, sex, national origin, pregnancy, sexual orientation, age, citizenship, marital status, disability, gender identity or Veteran status. Research has shown that women and candidates from underrepresented communities may not apply for an opportunity if they don’t meet all stated qualifications. While our qualifications are clearly related to role success, each candidate’s profile is unique and strengths in certain skill and/or experience areas can be equally effective. If you believe you have many, but not necessarily all, of the stated qualifications we encourage you to apply.

Information submitted with your application is subject to the FICO Privacy policy at https://www.fico.com/en/privacy-policy