Senior Staff Engineer, Applied AIGEICO is seeking a Senior Staff Engineer, Applied AI to provide technical architecture and leadership for medium to large, complex, cross-functional AI initiatives that have visibility at the tech VP level. This is a self-directed, senior individual contributor role for someone with deep technical expertise, proven ability to influence across organizational boundaries, and a track record of delivering scalable, resilient, production-ready AI systems that drive measurable business outcomes.You will provide technical direction and architecture for capabilities spanning multiple teams, working closely with Staff Engineers, engineering leaders, product management, and business stakeholders to design and scale AI-powered solutions. You will actively mentor and sponsor mid-level engineers, set technical standards for AI/ML engineering excellence, and drive adoption of best practices across the organization.Technical Architecture & LeadershipSpecify architectures and system decompositions for AI/ML capabilities that involve significant integrations and cross-team collaboration across multiple product areasProvide technical architecture and leadership for medium to large, complex, cross-functional AI initiatives with visibility at the tech VP levelArchitect and lead implementation of advanced Generative AI solutions including agent-based systems, intelligent automation, document intelligence, and decision support systems that span multiple business domainsDesign and implement sophisticated agentic workflows that orchestrate multiple AI agents, tools, APIs, reasoning steps, and business logic to automate complex enterprise processes at scaleQuestion status quo with an eye for simpler designs and more secure approaches, influencing tech VPs to set direction for multiple teamsBuild systems and platforms that meet the highest standards for scalability, resilience, performance, availability, security, and complianceProduct & InnovationIdentify and scope opportunities for automating business processes using AI across multiple product areas and business domainsAdvance the state-of-the-art in applied AI by integrating knowledge graphs, vector reasoning, retrieval architectures, and multi-agent systems to solve complex business problemsDrive innovation by exploring new models, frameworks, reasoning techniques, and AI architectures and applying them strategically to high-impact business challengesRun rigorous experimentation programs including hypothesis definition, A/B testing, measurement frameworks, and iterative improvement across production AI systemsTranslate ambiguous business problems into clear technical solutions, working with product and engineering leadership to define roadmaps and prioritiesEngineering Excellence & StandardsServe as principal contributor and approver for design patterns, architectural standards, and best practices for AI/ML systems across multiple teamsEstablish and drive adoption of engineering best practices for reliability, interpretability, safety, governance, monitoring, and responsible AI deploymentEnsure AI system implementations meet functional and non-functional requirements including security, compliance, data handling, and regulatory standardsLead rigorous code reviews, architecture reviews, and design discussions, setting the bar for engineering excellenceProactively identify and resolve technical debt, architectural inconsistencies, and scalability issues across AI platform capabilitiesCollaboration & InfluencePartner deeply with Staff Engineers, engineering managers, product leaders, and business stakeholders to co-create scalable AI solutions across organizational boundariesInfluence technical direction across multiple teams by articulating clear vision, building consensus, and demonstrating thought leadershipWork with tech VPs and senior leadership to align technical strategy with business objectives and communicate complex technical topics in business termsCollaborate with engineering leaders to define team structure, hiring needs, and capability development for AI/ML engineeringMentorship & CommunityActively mentor and sponsor mid-level engineers (Engineer II through Staff level) who want to develop advanced AI, LLM, and agentic workflow capabilitiesProvide technical guidance and coaching through pairing sessions, architecture reviews, and one-on-one mentorshipContribute to community-led organizations including open-source projects and communities of practice within GEICO and the broader industryHelp other engineers gain technical and non-technical leadership skills needed to progress in their careersFoster a culture of continuous learning, curiosity, and innovation across the engineering organizationWhat We Are Looking For (Must Have)8 or more years of professional software engineering or applied machine learning experience, including 2 or more years working with Generative AI or LLM-based systems in productionProven track record of architecting and delivering complex AI/ML capabilities that span multiple teams and have measurable business impactDeep hands-on expertise with Python and modern AI frameworks including LangChain, LangGraph, LangSmith, LlamaIndex, Hugging Face, OpenAI/Anthropic APIs, and emerging agentic frameworksDemonstrated experience building and deploying production RAG(Retrieval-Augmented Generation) systems including document ingestion, chunking strategies, vector search, and context retrievalDemonstrated experience designing and operating production AI systems including multi-agent architectures, intelligent automation, and workflow orchestrationStrong understanding of agent architectures, workflow orchestration, retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), vector databases, knowledge graphs, and semantic reasoningFamiliarity with Agent-to-Agent (A2A) communication protocols and Model Context Protocol (MCP) for building interoperable AI systemsExperience ensuring platform scalability, cross-domain coherence, and alignment with AI platform capabilities and strategyStrong expertise in distributed systems, microservices architecture, service design, performance optimization, and reliability engineeringProven ability to influence technical direction across multiple teams and build consensus among engineers and engineering leadersTrack record of mentoring engineers at various levels and helping them develop AI and technical leadership capabilitiesDemonstrated ability to translate business needs into scalable technical solutions and communicate effectively with both technical and non-technical stakeholdersHistory of delivering measurable business outcomes from AI systems in production environmentsNice to HaveExperience building advanced Generative AI capabilities including domain-tuned LLMs, specialized retrieval architectures, or prompt optimization frameworksExperience in knowledge graph design, ontology development, and graph-based reasoning for business domainsExperience with insurance, financial services, or other highly regulated industries including compliance and risk managementExperience deploying AI components in Java ecosystems including Spring AI, LangChain4j, or Embabel for enterprise integrationBackground in document intelligence, fraud detection, anomaly modeling, or decision support systemsExperience with AI safety practices, evaluation frameworks, monitoring, observability, and regulatory complianceExperience with MLOps platforms including model training, deployment, and monitoringContributions to open-source projects, technical blogging, or community participationAbility to map technical concepts to GEICO's business context and insurance industry specificsWho You AreA self-directed technical leader who can identify opportunities, scope problems, and drive execution across organizational boundaries without explicit directionA hands-on architect who ships reliable, scalable, production-grade systems and stays engaged in code and technical implementationSomeone who thinks from first principles and questions status quo to drive simpler, more elegant, and more secure solutionsA collaborative partner who works effectively with Staff Engineers, engineering leaders, product managers, and business stakeholders to deliver shared outcomesA systems thinker who can architect complex solutions spanning LLMs, agents, vector search, knowledge graphs, and enterprise integrationsA natural mentor and sponsor who invests in developing mid-level engineers and helps them advance their technical leadership capabilitiesAn innovative technologist who stays current with AI/ML trends, evaluates emerging technologies, and applies them thoughtfully to business problemsSomeone who demonstrates empathy for customers, associates, and systems, always considering the broader impact of technical decisionsDriven by measurable business impact, engineering excellence, and building sustainable, long-term solutionsAn excellent communicator who can articulate complex technical ideas at various levels of depth depending on audience and contextWhy Join GEICOLead the technical vision