Principal AI​/ML Engineer

As a Principal AI/ML Engineer in the EAiR team, you will be at the forefront of scaling and productizing groundbreaking research in Large Language Models, Agentic AI, Responsible AI, and Cognitive AI Architecture. You will bring your extensive experience in ML, ML Ops, and GenAI to lead cutting‑edge projects and collaborate with world‑class researchers. In addition to your expertise in AI, you will foster strong relationships with stakeholders, identify strategic alignment opportunities, and provide engineering thought leadership and mentorship across the division.

Your ability to combine deep technical knowledge with strong communication skills will enable you to effectively translate complex concepts for diverse audiences, ensuring the organization remains at the forefront of AI innovation and ethical practices.

Vanguard’s Enterprise AI and Research (EAiR) team is actively working on advancing AI innovation by integrating cutting‑edge concepts into the Vanguard AI ecosystem, establishing strategic AI partnerships, and building enterprise‑level AI capabilities to empower Vanguard clients with advanced AI research and technology. The team aims to ultimately accelerate critical business solutions with AI capabilities. Some of the team’s areas of research include Agentic AI, Responsible AI, and Cognitive AI Architecture.

• Leads complex model development and deployment pipelines. Establishes best practices and drives innovation in data preparation and consumption. Expert in end‑to‑end data and model pipeline deployment and automation technologies.
• Integrates and optimizes existing complex data and model pipelines in a production environment. Identifies and diagnoses data inconsistencies and errors, documents assumptions, and forages to fill data gaps. Applies expert knowledge of experimental methodologies, statistics, optimization, probability theory, and machine learning concepts to create self‑running artificial intelligence (AI) systems to automate predictive models. Expert level knowledge in SDLC and related tools and processes.
  
  Serves as a thought partner for Machine Learning Operations team.
• Leads engineering design for complex data pipeline designs. Proficient in developing highly efficient designs and strategy for both batch and real‑time data pipelines.
• Partners with data science teams to understand data requirements, performs data discovery for model development. Performs detailed analysis of raw data sources for data quality, applies business context, and model development needs. Drives best practices and innovation in data discovery techniques.
• Engages with internal stakeholders to understand and probe business processes and develop hypotheses. Brings structure to requests and translates requirements into an analytic approach. Participates in and influences ongoing business planning and departmental prioritization activities.
• Writes model monitoring scripts as needed. Diagnoses root causes based on model monitoring alerts and triages issues. Coordinates and plans response to model monitoring alerts and resolves issues.
• Serves as a machine learning engineering subject matter expert on cross‑functional teams for large strategic initiatives and contributes to the growth of the Vanguard analytic community. Serves as data and Machine Learning engineering thought partner for the enterprise.
• Participates in special projects and performs other duties as assigned.

• Undergraduate degree or equivalent combination of training and experience. Graduate degree preferred.
• Minimum of ten years related work experience.
• Advanced degree (Post‑Doctorate, PhD, or Master’s in Computer Science, AI, Data Science or related field).
• At least 10+ years of industry experience.
• Deep expertise in machine learning and advanced techniques (NLP/NLU), ML OPS, ML pipeline design, model deployments and scaling.
• Familiarity with Responsible AI practices, model governance and data governance frameworks.

Vanguard is not offering visa sponsorship for this position.