Senior AI Engineer

Senior AI Engineer At Jack Henry, we're more than a technology company, we're a force for good in financial services. We're redefining how community banks and credit unions connect with the people they serve. Our mission is rooted in people inspired innovation, empowering financial institutions to deliver seamless, secure, and human centered experiences. We deliver cutting-edge solutions that are paving the way for the next generation of digital banking and payments, but our true impact begins with our associates. If you're ready to help transform an industry and grow with a company that values purpose, collaboration, and excellence then we'd love to meet you. Jack Henry's AI Platform team is hiring a Senior AI Engineer to turn promising prototypes into systems people can depend on. We build the platform that AI runs on at Jack Henry, consisting of projects like: The Garage — our hosting platform for vibe-coded apps built by people across the company who mostly aren't engineers The AI Gateway — routes and governs AI requests enterprise-wide MCP servers connecting agents to our core banking systems Self-hosted inference Most of it started as someone's proof of concept. Your job is to make it production-ready: reliable AI workflows with real validation, error handling, retries, logging, and fallback behavior evals and automated testing for agentic systems that don't behave deterministically monitoring that tells us quality has drifted before a user does You'd work directly with the internal users who built those POCs, shaping them into software and workflows that hold up. You'd bring in our experts across cybersecurity and cloud infrastructure rather than guessing at their standards, partner with our AI coaches so others can actually use what we build, and mentor engineers earlier in their careers. You'd also use agentic workflows to do the work itself — we build with these tools, not just on top of them. We're looking for someone who has shipped scalable, maintainable production software and has run AI systems in production rather than only prototyped them. You'll need comfort with change and a bias toward action — this is early work on a small team. Financial services adds a constraint most AI work doesn't have: everything we ship has to be observable, auditable, policy-bounded, and explainable. That combination — real AI engineering under real regulatory constraint — is a rare and durable skill set, and there aren't many places to build it. You'd help us carve out the agentic future at Jack Henry. This position is a hybrid role requiring at least 1 day per week in any of the following office locations: Allen, TX, Louisville, KY, Birmingham, AL, Cedar Falls, IA, Charlotte, NC, Lenexa, KS, Monett, MO or Springfield, MO. This position is ineligible for immigration sponsorship and support. Please do not apply if at any time you will need immigration support now or in the future (i.e., H-1B, PERM). What you'll be responsible for: Performs and leads system analysis and programming activities that take AI proofs of concept to production-ready software — including the research needed where no established pattern exists yet, and timely, quality delivery into production. Performs, and may lead, technical/engineering support for new and existing applications from code delivery until the retirement of the application. Develops, tests and reviews applications based on business requirements and industry best practices. Uses best practices, standard guidance, and agentic development workflows to create and modify code. Considers how code changes will affect end users and internal teams. Reviews code created by less experienced team members. Collaborates with quality and security partners — cybersecurity, cloud infrastructure, and AI governance — to ensure timely delivery of high-quality products. Performs and may lead work with cross-team as projects dictate. Works on and leads critical tasks and deliverables with no assistance, and sets and updates expectations on size, scope, and timelines. Participates in and may lead team in cross-functional meetings and discussions. Creates required technical documentation. Stays updated with emerging AI technologies and industry trends, recommending innovative solutions to improve software development processes. Adheres to documented departmental and corporate standards. Participates in the definition and documentation of standards — including what "production-ready" means for AI systems at Jack Henry. Lead unit tests, integration tests, and evals to ensure the reliability, security, and performance of developed software, especially AI systems and workflows. Debugs and troubleshoots issues as they arise, providing timely resolutions — including failure modes specific to AI systems, like quality drift, prompt regressions, provider outages, and cost spikes. May contribute to product architecture. May perform other job duties as assigned. What you'll need to have: Must have a minimum of 6 years of technical experience in software development. Production ownership of AI systems (AI agents, AI features in products, MCP servers, etc). Experience with a major cloud environment (GCP, AWS, or Azure). Experience with unit testing and end-to-end automated testing. Experience with Kubernetes. Comfort with ambiguity and shifting priorities. Must be self-directed, and willing to push through roadblocks rather than wait them out. Must be able to travel up to 5% to attend internal business meetings, training and/or professional conferences. What would be nice for you to have: Bachelor's degree. Fintech experience. Experience with GCP and infrastructure as code (Terraform). Experience in cloud security and DevOps. Experience with model fine-tuning, evaluation (e.g. controlling for bias), and validation. Experience with AI observability, evals, and model monitoring. If you got this far, we hope you're feeling excited about this opportunity. Even if you don't feel you meet every single requirement on this posting, we still encourage you to apply. We're looking for passionate, driven individuals who align with our mission and can bring unique perspectives to our team. At Jack Henry, we live by the motto: "Do the right thing, do whatever it takes, and have fun." It's more than a tagline, it's the foundation of our culture. We recognize that our associates are the key to our success, and we're deeply committed to their wellbeing. That's why we offer comprehensive benefits designed to support your physical, mental, and financial health so you can thrive both personally and professionally. We're also leading the way in technology modernization, helping financial institutions evolve with speed, security, and flexibility. Our strategy focuses on delivering secure data access, mitigating fraud, and enabling seamless integration. Empowering our teams to build innovative solutions that meet the evolving needs of accountholders. Culture of Commitment Ask our associates why they love Jack Henry, and many will tell you it is because our culture is exceptional. We do great things together. Our culture empowers us to rise to challenges, seek new opportunities, and support one another through change. It's this shared commitment that drives our success. We're proud to foster an environment where inclusion, sustainability, and community impact are more than values, they're how we operate. Visit our Corporate Sustainability site to learn more about our culture and commitment to our people, customers, community, environment, and shareholders. Equal Employment Opportunity At Jack Henry, we know we are better together. We value, respect, and protect the uniqueness each of us brings. Innovation flourishes by including all voices and makes our business - and our society - stronger. Jack Henry is an equal opportunity employer and we are committed to providing equal opportunity in all of our employment practices, including selection, hiring, performance management, promotion, transfer, compensation, benefits, education, training, social, and recreational activities to all persons regardless of race, religious creed, color, national origin, ancestry, physical disability, mental disability, genetic information, pregnancy, marital status, sex, gender, gender identity, gender expression, age, sexual orientation, and military and veteran status, or any other protected status protected by local, Jack Henry and Associates