Lead AI Engineer

Who are we

Western National Insurance Group is a private mutual insurance company with over 120 years of experience serving customers property-and-casualty insurance needs in the Midwestern Northwestern and Southwestern United States. Known as The Relationship Company we define success as a measure of the relationships weve built over everything that we do we know that delivering a friendly and helpful interaction makes for a better experience for everyone involved. Thats the power of nice. At Western National nice is something we work to bring to every person and organization with whom we partner and serve.

Does this opportunity interest you

Western National is seeking an AI Engineer IV to join our team!

The individual in this role will have the opportunity to design develop test and deploy enterprise-grade generative AI solutions. This individual will define and mature a Generative AI-specific Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC) including requirements definition model evaluation testing standards deployment processes and governance checkpoints.

The individual in this role will serve as a technical builder who transforms generative AI concepts into secure scalable production-ready systems that deliver measurable business value.

What are the responsibilities and opportunities of this role

• Designs builds tests and deploys generative AI-enabled applications and services.
• Writes production-quality code prompts evaluation scripts and integration components.
• Integrates generative AI initiatives into established enterprise SDLC processes.
• Prepares and executes testing strategies for AI systems including prompt testing and regression validation model evaluation (accuracy hallucination mitigation bias detection and toxicity review) and integration performance and security testing.
• Builds and maintains CI / CD pipelines and automated deployment workflows for AI services.
• Implements logging monitoring telemetry and feedback loops for AI systems in production.
• Collaborates with product security legal infrastructure and architecture teams to ensure compliant and secure deployments.
• Creates and maintains documentation including architecture diagrams evaluation benchmarks risk assessments and operational runbooks.
• Ensures timely delivery of high-quality solutions while clearly communicating tradeoffs risks and constraints.
• Designs and implements solutions leveraging large language models (LLMs) embeddings retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) and conversational AI frameworks.
• Builds secure integrations between AI services and enterprise systems (core platforms APIs document repositories and data stores).
• Develops reusable foundational components such as prompt frameworks and reusable templates RAG pipelines and retrieval orchestration layers and guardrails validation and output verification layers.
• Optimizes model usage for cost latency reliability and scalability.
• Implements human-in-the-loop validation and structured feedback capture mechanisms.
• Leads troubleshooting and resolution of AI-related production issues.
• Diagnoses failures related to prompts retrieval pipelines integrations and model behavior.
• Drives automation of repetitive AI workflows and development processes.
• Makes independent technical judgment on architecture tooling deployment models and SDLC enhancements for generative AI systems.
• Contributes to AI-related technical decisions across product teams and engineering leadership.
• Applies deep technical expertise to balance innovation with reliability and risk management.
• Evaluates tradeoffs between model providers and architectural patterns.
• Translates ambiguous AI use cases into concrete and deployable solutions within the SDLC.
• Identifies opportunities to improve operational efficiency and user experience using automation.
• Proactively identifies risks related to bias hallucination privacy and regulatory requirements.
• Consistently acts according to customer experience standards including responsiveness ownership and clear communication.
• Designs AI systems that enhance internal productivity and improve user and business partner experiences through reliability transparency and measurable value delivery.

What are the must-have qualifications for a candidate

• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills.
• Ability to independently deliver complex technical solutions.
• High attention to detail particularly in model behavior testing and validation.
• Demonstrated ability to communicate effectively with both technical and nontechnical stakeholders.
• Demonstrated ability to rapidly learn and apply emerging technologies with minimal formal training.
• Advanced organizational skills and ability to manage multiple high-impact AI initiatives.
• Proven experience building and deploying production-grade applications.
• Demonstrated ability to define and implement engineering standards and quality controls.
• Ability to translate emerging AI capabilities into structured repeatable SDLC practices.
• Demonstrated ability to prototype evaluate and iterate on solutions in ambiguous problem spaces.
• Advanced proficiency in Python (preferred) or Java / Spring.
• Experience with LLMs and prompt engineering and structured output techniques.
• Experience integrating services via APIs into enterprise systems.
• Knowledge of CI / CD pipelines DevOps tooling and cloud platforms.
• Experience with logging monitoring and observability frameworks.
• Bachelor of Science in computer science data science engineering mathematics or related field preferred; equivalent experience acceptable.

What will our ideal candidate have

• Experience implementing micro-service architecture.
• Experience defining coding processes and standards.
• Experience building reusable coding frameworks.
• Ability to mentor others and elevate overall engineering maturity.

Compensation overview

The targeted hiring range for this role is $122300 - $160000 annually. However the base pay offered may vary depending on the job-related knowledge skills credentials and experience of each candidate as well as other factors such as the scope and location of the role. Candidates looking for compensation outside of the posted range are encouraged to apply and will be considered based on their individual qualifications and / or may be considered for other positions.

Western National Insurance Group reserves the right to fill this position at a level below the level included in this posting.

Culture and Total Rewards

Western National has long been known as The Relationship Company and caring for our employees is part of that relationship commitment. We value connectiveness empowerment and accountability and we believe that our employees are our biggest asset.

Currently ranked as the 41st largest private company by revenue in Minnesota (Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal) Western National has earned accolades year-over-year as an employer of choice and garnered multiple awards for wellness in the workplace. Western National has also been named a Top Workplace by the Star Tribune for consecutive addition the Group is consistently recognized as a Wards 50 property-and-casualty insurance company for its outstanding financial results.

Western National offers full-time employees a significant Total Rewards Package including:

• Medical insurance plan options and other standard employee benefits including dental insurance vision benefits life insurance disability insurance and more!
• Health Savings Accounts (HSA) and Flexible Spending Accounts (FSA)
• 401(k) Plan (participants are eligible for 100% matching on the first 6% of their contributions)
• Wellbeing Program including onsite fitness studio
• Paid Time Off including holiday vacation and volunteer
• 100% company-paid tuition reimbursement for approved job-relevant coursework and access to The Institutes (Risk and insurance education)
• Paid parental leave
• Bonus opportunities

Western National believes in supporting balance between work and life by providing a flexible work environment which includes a variety of hybrid and remote work arrangements designed to balance individual job department and company needs.

Applicants must be authorized to work for any employer in the U.S. We are unable to sponsor or take over sponsorship of an employment Visa at this time.

Western National provides employment opportunities to all employees and applicants for employment and prohibits discrimination and harassment of any type without regard to race color religion age sex national origin disability status genetics protected veteran status sexual orientation gender identity or expression or any other characteristic protected by federal state or local laws.

#LI-AN1

#Ind123