Principal AI Engineer

Principal AI Engineer

New York, New York, United States; Office - Chicago

DriveWealth is on a mission to make investing easier. We believe that everyone should have the ability to control their financial future, and that access to financial markets should not be limited by geography, wealth, or legacy systems. We are a global B2B financial technology organization dedicated to democratizing access to financial independence around the world. Our mission is realized through an API-based platform, empowering our partners to offer seamless investing and trading experiences to clients worldwide, all from their mobile devices. Our technology provides partners with a modern, extensible toolkit, enabling traditional investment workflows and innovative techniques like fractional share ownership. DriveWealth has evolved into a global platform offering trading of US equities, mutual funds, ETFs, fixed income, and options.

There's never been a better time to build a category-defining business and there has rarely been a team better positioned for this opportunity. Our culture blends the pace and agility of a fintech start-up with the impact, stability, and discipline of Wall Street. We encourage creativity and experimentation while ensuring institutional-grade execution and regulatory compliance in everything we do. Join us and help build the future of global investing!

About the Role:

We are looking for a Principal AI Engineer who thrives at the intersection of data platform engineering and applied artificial intelligence. You will bring AI-native thinking to our data ecosystem and lead building intelligent pipelines, embedding models into data workflows and creating AI-powered analytics capabilities that transform how the business consumes and acts on data. The ideal candidate is excited to own end-to-end AI solutions grounded in data platform reality, not just prototype them.

The Data & Analytics organization at DriveWealth powers the company's data ecosystem end-to-end. This role sits within the Data Platform Engineering team and introduces a third critical pillar alongside Data Ingestion and the Semantic Data Layer:

• Applied AI & Intelligence Layer - Focused on designing and deploying AI/ML-powered capabilities that sit on top of our data platform, enabling smarter analytics, automation and insight generation at scale

What You'll Do:

• Design, build and deploy AI and ML-powered solutions that operate on top of our data platform, including LLM integrations, RAG pipelines, embedding workflows and intelligent agents
• Build and maintain the data infrastructure that supports AI use cases: feature stores, vector databases, model input/output pipelines and evaluation datasets
• Partner with data engineers, analysts and product teams to identify where AI can automate, augment or accelerate data workflows and analytical decision-making
• Develop AI-assisted data quality, anomaly detection and observability capabilities that improve the reliability and trustworthiness of our data products
• Establish best practices for responsible AI development on data systems, including prompt engineering standards, model evaluation frameworks, versioning and documentation
• Contribute to self-service AI-powered data products that make data more accessible to all consumers like natural language interfaces, intelligent semantic search, automated insight surfacing
• Mentor and support other engineers in building AI literacy and integrating AI-first approaches into data platform work

What You'll Need:

• 5+ years of professional experience in data engineering, ML engineering or a related field, with a demonstrated track record of taking AI/ML solutions from concept to production.
• Technical Skills:
• Strong proficiency in Python and SQL
• Hands-on experience with LLMs, prompt engineering, RAG architectures and AI orchestration frameworks (e.g. LangChain or equivalent)
• Familiarity with vector databases and embedding pipelines
• Proficiency with Databricks and AWS, including ML-oriented services (e.g. SageMaker, MLflow, Databricks Model Serving)
• Experience with data transformation and orchestration tools (e.g. dbt, Airflow)
• Familiarity with infrastructure as code and MLOps practices (e.g. Terraform, CI/CD for model deployment)
• Solid understanding of data platform fundamentals - pipeline design, data modeling, semantic layers; and how AI capabilities integrate with and depend on them
• Proven ability to work cross-functionally with product, engineering, analytics and business stakeholders to translate AI opportunities into shipped solutions
• Curiosity, accountability and a drive to apply AI thoughtfully with attention to data quality, model reliability and real-world usability
• BS in Computer Science, Data Science or equivalent

Nice To Have, But Not Required:

• Fintech or capital markets experience and awareness of compliance constraints relevant to AI (e.g. model explainability, auditability)
• Experience with agentic AI systems and multi-step reasoning workflows
• Familiarity with AI evaluation frameworks and dataset curation for fine-tuning or RLHF
• Prior experience mentoring engineers or contributing to AI/ML best practice development within a team

Pay Range : $265,000 USD - $285,000 USD

Working at DriveWealth

We do our best work when we're in the same room. To maintain the speed our partners expect, our New York, Chicago, and Lithuania teams work in-office 4 days a week. We've found that being physically side-by-side is the only way to solve complex problems in real-time and stay truly accountable to the products we ship. When you're here, you're working directly with the people making the decisions. To support that work, we provide competitive compensation, equity, and a 401(k) match. We also offer full insurance coverage, a wellness reimbursement, a company-provided phone, and a personal development allowance. Finally, we value the time you spend away from the office with generous PTO, observed holidays, and extended leave.

Work Authorization

Applicants must possess the legal right to work in the country where the position is located at the time of application. DriveWealth requires all employees to provide original documentation verifying their work authorization on or before their first day of employment.

For US-based roles: Applicants must be currently authorized to work in the United States on a full-time basis without the need for current or future visa sponsorship. DriveWealth does not provide visa sponsorship or support for employment authorization, including transfers, at this time. Offers of employment are strictly contingent upon an individual's ability to secure and maintain the legal right to work at the Company.

How We Think About AI

We leverage AI to work smarter and move faster. We seek AI-curious talent who are proactive about using emerging tools to increase signal quality, reduce friction, and improve outcomes to deliver products faster, provide better service to our partners, and to streamline processes. Your ability to leverage our internal tools and technology to drive results is as important to us as your core domain expertise.

Compensation

Pay is generally based on the level, complexity, responsibility, location, and job duties/requirements of the specific position. We then source candidates with the requisite skills, expertise, education, training, and experience. If you are selected for an interview, please feel welcome to speak to a recruiter about our compensation philosophy and other available benefits. This role is eligible for base, bonus, equity, 401(k) match, and heavily subsidized benefits and perks.

Equal Employment Opportunity

To build technology and products that are used and loved by people and solve real-world problems, we need to build a team with many different perspectives and experiences. We are an equal opportunity employer. We do not discriminate based on race, religion, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status. We encourage candidates from all backgrounds to apply.

Agency Disclaimer

DriveWealth does not accept agency resumes. Do not forward resumes to our jobs alias, employees, or any other organization location. DriveWealth is not responsible for any fees related to unsolicited resumes.