VP of AI Engineering

Baker Tilly; Irvine (CA); On-site; USD 250,000 - 400,000; Full time

Job summary

Baker Tilly is seeking a VP of AI Engineering to lead the firm’s Applied AI and Data & Intelligence engineering capabilities as one integrated organization. This leader will oversee the Agent Factory and Data & Intelligence, including Compass, the BT Intelligence Platform, and associated ontologies and data estates powering agentic solutions.

The role requires executive-level engineering leadership, hands-on credibility with LLM-based and agentic systems, and the ability to scale teams across

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in computer science or engineering (or equivalent).
• 15+ years of software and product engineering leadership experience.
• Hands-on credibility with LLM-based and agentic systems.
• Strong executive communication and stakeholder management.

Responsibilities

• Build and lead an integrated engineering organization across Agent Factory and Data & Intelligence.
• Hire, develop, and retain high-performing teams in the U.S. and India.
• Establish and maintain engineering standards, delivery practices, and talent strategy.
• Design and lead a product pod model with cross-geo teams.
• Translate partner capabilities into Baker Tilly-owned patterns and runbooks.
• Oversee delivery across agentic, intelligence, and platform layers.
• Collaborate with AI Product Management, Design, and Architecture.

Skills

Executive leadership

AI product engineering

LLM/agentic systems

Communication with executives

Global engineering teams

Talent development

Education

Bachelor’s degree or higher in CS/Engineering

Job description

Overview

Baker Tilly is a leading advisory, tax and assurance firm, providing clients with a genuine coast-to-coast and global advantage in major regions of the U.S. and in many of the world’s leading financial centers – New York, London, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago and Boston. Baker Tilly Advisory Group, LP and Baker Tilly US, LLP (Baker Tilly) provide professional services through an alternative practice structure in accordance with the AICPA Code of Professional Conduct and applicable laws, regulations and professional standards. Baker Tilly US, LLP is a licensed independent CPA firm that provides attest services to its clients. Baker Tilly Advisory Group, LP and its subsidiary entities provide tax and business advisory services to their clients. Baker Tilly Advisory Group, LP and its subsidiary entities are not licensed CPA firms.

Baker Tilly Advisory Group, LP and Baker Tilly US, LLP, trading as Baker Tilly, are independent members of Baker Tilly International, a worldwide network of independent accounting and business advisory firms in 141 territories, with 43,000 professionals and a combined worldwide revenue of $5.2 billion. Visitbakertilly.comor join the conversation onLinkedIn,FacebookandInstagram.

Please discuss the work location status with your Baker Tilly talent acquisition professional to understand the requirements for an opportunity you are exploring.

Baker Tilly is an equal opportunity/affirmative action employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, disability or protected veteran status, gender identity, sexual orientation, or any other legally protected basis, in accordance with applicable federal, state or local law.

Any unsolicited resumes submitted through our website or to Baker Tilly Advisory Group, LP, employee e-mail accounts are considered property of Baker Tilly Advisory Group, LP, and are not subject to payment of agency fees. In order to be an authorized recruitment agency (“search firm”) for Baker Tilly Advisory Group, LP, there must be a formal written agreement in place and the agency must be invited, by Baker Tilly’s Talent Attraction team, to submit candidates for review via our applicant tracking system.

Job Description:

Baker Tilly is seeking a VP of AI Engineering to lead the firm’s Applied AI and Data & Intelligence engineering capabilities as one integrated organization. This leader will oversee the Agent Factory, which builds the firm’s AI agents, agentic experiences, and evaluation capabilities, as well as Data & Intelligence, which builds Compass, the BT Intelligence Platform, including the ontology, knowledge and judgment graphs, and product data estate that power the firm’s agentic solutions.

The VP of AI Engineering will establish and maintain the engineering standards, delivery practices, and talent strategy across both areas while ensuring the organization delivers high-quality, production-ready AI products. This leader will build and develop the next phase of engineering teams, including forward-deployed AI engineers, data and knowledge-graph engineers, machine-learning engineers, and AI evaluation talent across the U.S. and India.

A key responsibility of this role will be leading the deliberate transition of engineering capabilities from expert partners to Baker Tilly teams, establishing the processes, standards, patterns, and internal expertise necessary for the firm to own and scale its AI capabilities over time.

This is a player-coach leadership role requiring both executive-level engineering leadership and current technical credibility. The VP of AI Engineering will remain close enough to the work to evaluate agent architectures, evaluation frameworks, engineering estimates, and delivery decisions while building the organization and operating model needed to scale. The role will partner closely with Platform & Production Engineering, Architecture, AI Product Management, Design, subject matter experts, and the India engineering organization to operate as one engineering system.

Responsibilities

• Build and lead an integrated engineering organization across the Agent Factory and Data & Intelligence, establishing engineering standards, delivery systems, culture, and a consistent talent bar.
• Hire, develop, and retain high-performing engineering teams across the U.S. and India, including forward-deployed AI engineers, data and knowledge-graph engineers, machine-learning engineers, and AI evaluation talent.
• Establish and maintain engineering hiring standards and structured selection practices across the organization.
• Design and lead a product pod model that brings together U.S. and India engineers, product managers, subject matter experts, and other partners as integrated teams.
• Partner with the VP, Engineering – India to grow the India engineering organization while maintaining consistent engineering standards and practices across geographies.
• Own engineering delivery across the APG-built portfolio, including agents, Compass product experiences, the intelligence layer, product data estate, and the evaluation evidence supporting release decisions.
• Establish an operating cadence across product teams, engineering partners, and the India organization to drive accountability, visibility, and delivery quality.
• Maintain a high bar for engineering and release quality, ensuring evaluation baselines and evidence inform release decisions.
• Oversee engineering dependencies across the agentic and data layers and ensure release candidates transition effectively to Platform & Production Engineering through established interfaces and release processes.
• Lead the transition of engineering capabilities from expert partners to Baker Tilly teams through a structured shadow, pair, lead, and own model with defined milestones and ownership gates.
• Translate partner-developed capabilities into Baker Tilly-owned patterns, runbooks, engineering practices, and internal expertise.
• Manage partner engineering delivery against defined outcomes and technical standards as capabilities transition in-house.
• Partner closely with Platform & Production Engineering to maintain a clear and effective interface between product development and the path to production.
• Partner with the Chief Architect on technical design, architecture standards, and the interfaces between the agentic, intelligence, and platform layers.
• Collaborate with AI Product Management to translate product definition and acceptance criteria into engineering execution, with evaluation results informing product and release decisions.
• Partner with Design and subject matter experts to ensure agentic products reflect high-quality user experiences and practitioner expertise.
• Provide leadership and mentorship to the Head of Agent Engineering and Head of Data & AI Platform and ensure alignment across both engineering pillars.
• Serve as a senior engineering and delivery advisor to the CAITO, providing clear visibility into delivery progress, risks, dependencies, and organizational needs.
• Represent APG engineering with executive stakeholders and communicate complex engineering topics, trade-offs, risks, and delivery status clearly and effectively.
• Engage in special projects and perform other duties as assigned.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in computer science, engineering, or a related field, or equivalent practical experience; advanced degree preferred.
• 15+ years of software and product engineering experience, including significant senior leadership experience within product engineering organizations.
• Demonstrated experience building an engineering organization from an early or founding stage and successfully delivering AI products through that organization.
• Recent hands-on technical credibility with LLM-based and agentic systems, with the ability to effectively evaluate agent architectures, evaluation suites, technical approaches, engineering estimates, and trade-offs.
• Strong knowledge of agentic AI product engineering, including LLM systems, evaluation-gated delivery, context and memory management, and tool use.
• Experience with data and knowledge systems, including lakehouse environments, knowledge graphs, retrieval systems, and evaluation-driven approaches to retrieval quality.
• Deep engineering management expertise, including establishing technical standards, hiring practices, delivery systems, and dependency-management processes.
• Experience leading engineering organizations that build products and services on platforms owned by separate teams, with demonstrated ability to establish effective interfaces and operating models across organizational boundaries.
• Experience leading distributed U.S. and India engineering organizations as an integrated engineering system.
• Experience leading complex engineering programs across vendors, product teams, partners, and multiple time zones.
• Experience working within forward-deployed, client-embedded, or partner-supported engineering models, including transitioning engineering capabilities from external partners to internal teams.
• Demonstrated ability to develop internal engineering capabilities, practices, and talent while reducing long-term reliance on external delivery partners.
• Strong executive communication skills, with the ability to communicate delivery status, risks, dependencies, and technical considerations clearly and proactively.
• Demonstrated ability to use AI and agentic development tools as a force multiplier in engineering and leadership work.
• Ability to balance hands-on technical depth with organizational leadership, talent development, delivery accountability, and executive stakeholder management.
• No certifications or licenses required.

The pay range for this position is $250,000 to $400,000. This range represents a good-faith and reasonable estimate of the compensation the firm expects to pay for this position at the time of posting. Actual compensation will depend on a variety of relevant factors, including an applicant’s skills, experience, qualifications, professional certifications, work arrangements, geographic location, and other business and organizational needs. It is not typical for an individual to be hired at or near the top of the range, and compensation decisions depend on the facts and circumstances of each case. Baker Tilly offers a compensation and benefits package to eligible employees.