Principal AI Engineer (Agentic AI)

Principal AI Engineer

The Principal AI Engineer acts as Humana's senior technical authority for agentic AI platforms, overseeing strategy, architecture, and engineering execution. This role ensures the development and operation of secure, scalable, and innovative AI infrastructure, tools, and services that empower teams to build and deploy autonomous agent-driven applications. By collaborating across engineering, data science, and operations, the Principal AI Engineer advances enterprise AI capabilities, sets technical standards, and delivers production-ready solutions aligned with Humana's long-term technology vision.

Responsibilities

• Lead enterprise architecture, design, and engineering for agentic AI platforms, ensuring secure, scalable, and reliable infrastructure.
• Build and maintain developer tools, CI/CD pipelines, and automation for efficient agentic AI application development and deployment.
• Architect and manage cloud-based AI services (GCP preferred), including Kubernetes, security controls, and observability systems.
• Develop robust backend APIs and services in Python to support agentic AI platform functionality and data management.
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams, set engineering standards, mentor peers, and drive innovation aligned with Humana's AI technology roadmap.

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor's or Master's in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related quantitative field.
• 10+ years of professional software or platform engineering experience.
• Deep expertise in Python, including building production services and shared libraries used by others.
• Hands-on experience with modern AI systems, including LLM integration, RAG, embeddings, and applied generative AI patterns.
• Strong background in machine learning engineering, including model deployment, monitoring, evaluation, and lifecycle management.
• Expert-level understanding of FastAPI, Flask, or similar frameworks, and REST/gRPC service design.
• Strong proficiency with cloud-native development on AWS, GCP, or Azure.
• Minimum 5 years of containerization and orchestration experience (Docker, Kubernetes).
• Production experience with CI/CD pipelines, version control, and modern DevOps practices.
• Demonstrated ability to own large, ambiguous problems and deliver high-value, high-quality solutions.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience shaping engineering culture or influencing architectural direction across teams.
• Experience with generative AI tooling (e.g., LangChain, LlamaIndex, PydanticAI, or similar).
• Strong understanding of deep learning frameworks (PyTorch, TensorFlow).
• Experience with distributed systems (Akka, Flink, or similar).
• Prior work building platforms rather than one-off applications.
• A track record of pragmatic decision-making, balancing innovation with maintainability and long-term value.

This position follows a hybrid work style and must be performed at one of our designated IT hub locations: Louisville, KY; Dallas, TX; Boston, MA; New York City; or Washington, D.C.

To ensure Home or Hybrid Home/Office employees' ability to work effectively, the self-provided internet service of Home or Hybrid Home/Office employees must meet the following criteria:

At minimum, a download speed of 25 Mbps and an upload speed of 10 Mbps is required; wireless, wired cable or DSL connection is suggested. Satellite, cellular and microwave connection can be used only if approved by leadership. Employees who live and work from Home in the state of California, Illinois, Montana, or South Dakota will be provided a bi-weekly payment for their internet expense. Humana will provide Home or Hybrid Home/Office employees with telephone equipment appropriate to meet the business requirements for their position/job. Work from a dedicated space lacking ongoing interruptions to protect member PHI / HIPAA information.

Scheduled Weekly Hours: 40

Pay Range: $172,200 - $236,900 per year

This job is eligible for a bonus incentive plan. This incentive opportunity is based upon company and/or individual performance.

This requisition is not eligible for a referral bonus.

About Us

About Humana: Humana Inc. (NYSE: HUM) is a leading U.S. healthcare company. Through our Humana insurance services and our CenterWell healthcare services, we make it easier for the millions of people we serve to achieve their best health – delivering the care and service they need, when they need it. These efforts are leading to a better quality of life for people with Medicare and Medicaid, families, individuals, military service personnel, and communities at large. Learn more about what we offer at Humana.com and at CenterWell.com.

Equal Opportunity Employer

It is the policy of Humana not to discriminate against any employee or applicant for employment because of race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, marital status, genetic information, disability or protected veteran status. It is also the policy of Humana to take affirmative action, in compliance with Section 503 of the Rehabilitation Act and VEVRAA, to employ and to advance in employment individuals with disability or protected veteran status, and to base all employment decisions only on valid job requirements. This policy shall apply to all employment actions, including but not limited to recruitment, hiring, upgrading, promotion, transfer, demotion, layoff, recall, termination, rates of pay or other forms of compensation and selection for training, including apprenticeship, at all levels of employment.