Senior AI Software Engineer - NYC AI Labs – Investment Management

Senior AI Software Engineer

NYC AI Labs – Investment Management

J Harlan Group is currently conducting a search for a Senior AI Software Engineer to join the firm's AI Engineering team at a prominent global Investment Manager.

This role offers the opportunity to collaborate with talented engineers, product owners, and business partners building high-impact AI products with leverage across the firm

As a Senior Software Engineer in the firm's Labs' AI Engineering team, you will independently design, build, and scale production-grade AI agents and intelligent systems that solve complex business problems. You will lead technical workstreams, incubate new AI products, experiment with emerging technologies and innovative ideas, and partner with business-aligned technology teams to enable broader adoption at enterprise scale.

This is a hands-on, end-to-end engineering opportunity for an experienced engineer with strong software engineering fundamentals, practical AI engineering experience, and a product mindset. You will take ownership of complex and ambiguous technical problems, mentor other engineers, and contribute to the engineering patterns and practices that help shape AI engineering across the firm.

What makes this opportunity particularly compelling is the combination of deep software engineering and applied AI. The team is building production systems incorporating AI agents, agent orchestration, tool and function calling, retrieval-based systems, prompt and context engineering, structured outputs, evaluation frameworks, observability, guardrails, and appropriate human-in-the-loop patterns.

The position is not focused on AI research or training foundation models. Instead, it focuses on building and productionizing modern AI applications and intelligent systems that are reliable, scalable, measurable, secure, and capable of operating within a sophisticated enterprise environment.

The firm's AI Labs focuses on building its next generation of data and AI capabilities and developing high-impact technology solutions that can ultimately be scaled across the organization.

Responsibilities

• Own the end-to-end design and delivery of production-grade AI agents and intelligent systems, including architecture, implementation, testing, evaluation, deployment, observability, and production support.
• Design agentic workflows using orchestration, tool integration, retrieval-based systems, structured outputs, context management, and appropriate human-in-the-loop patterns.
• Partner with product owners and business stakeholders to take control of complex or ambiguous problems, evaluate alternative approaches, and translate needs into scalable AI solutions.
• Lead technical workstreams from rapid experimentation and validation through production adoption.
• Establish evaluation and testing approaches for non-deterministic AI systems, including quality metrics, regression testing, failure analysis, and production monitoring.
• Make informed engineering trade-offs across models, prompts, context, tools, latency, cost, reliability, security, and maintainability.
• Contribute to reusable AI capabilities and shared engineering patterns that improve speed, quality, and consistency across teams.
• Lead code and design reviews, mentor less-experienced engineers, and help others solve complex technical problems.
• Own technical debt and continuously improve the quality, reliability, and maintainability of the systems you build.
• Rapidly evaluate emerging AI technologies and determine when and how they can be applied to deliver meaningful business value.
• Support the Build-Operate-Transfer model by preparing successful AI solutions for long-term ownership and scale by business-aligned technology teams.

Business Knowledge

• Work directly with business stakeholders and product owners to understand priorities, shape solution direction, and deliver measurable outcomes.
• Translate complex business needs into effective technology solutions and clearly communicate technical trade-offs.
• Balance innovation, business value, scalability, risk, fiscal responsibility, and long-term maintainability when making technical decisions

The Ideal Candidate Would Have a Background:

Required

• BS or MS in Computer Science or a related technical field, or equivalent practical experience, with 5+ years of professional software engineering experience.
• Strong hands-on development experience in object-oriented languages such as Python, Java, or JavaScript/TypeScript.
• Hands-on experience building AI-enabled applications, intelligent workflows, or agentic systems using modern LLMs and AI development frameworks.
• Practical experience with modern AI engineering patterns such as agent orchestration, tool/function calling, retrieval-based systems, prompt and context engineering, structured outputs, evaluation, observability, or guardrails.
• Experience taking AI-enabled systems beyond prototypes toward production, including testing, monitoring, reliability, security, and operational considerations.
• Strong experience with cloud-native architectures, containerized microservices, APIs, and modern software delivery practices.
• Strong analytical, problem-solving, software design, and debugging skills.
• Demonstrated commitment to engineering quality through automated testing, code reviews, observability, and continuous delivery.
• Ability to independently own complex technical problems and clearly communicate designs, decisions, and trade-offs.
• A product mindset, strong learning agility, and passion for staying current with the rapidly evolving AI engineering landscape.

Preferred

Experience mentoring engineers or leading technical workstreams.

Understanding of financial markets, asset management, or financial instruments.

The ideal candidate is an individual who has a passion for AI, loves solving deep and complex technical and business problems, and wants to have an outsized impact through the systems and products they build.

This individual will combine strong software engineering fundamentals with practical AI engineering experience, intellectual curiosity, independent technical ownership, sound engineering judgment, and an unparalleled drive to deliver world-class technology solutions.

Interested Candidates

If you or anyone in your network would be interested in this opportunity, please send your resume to Jerry Goldberg at

jgoldberg@jharlan.com

or contact us directly at (212) 792-0099.

About the Client

The firm is a publicly owned global asset management firm with approximately $1.8 trillion of assets under management. The firm offers funds, advisory services, account management, and retirement plans and services for individuals, institutions, and financial intermediaries.

The talent and dedication of their people are critical to their success. They offer an opportunity for developing one's professional career while working with individuals trained in a variety of disciplines in a collegial and dynamic environment. They offer a broad range of competitive benefits on a global basis.

They seek candidates who are high-energy self-starters who want to join an investment management firm on the leading edge of global markets and technology. The management team needs individuals of the highest professional caliber who are leaders, problem solvers, analytical, detail-oriented, intellectually curious, and entrepreneurial.

Everyone at the firm works in a highly collaborative and dynamic environment.

Successful candidates are:

Analytic and relentless in pursuit of the right answer
Strong communicators who excel at rapid synthesis
Able to demonstrate sound business and technical judgment
Able to independently take ownership of complex and ambiguous problems
Able to digest complexity while maintaining an understanding of the big picture of business needs
Intellectually curious and willing to challenge existing approaches
Team players who are energized by a collaborative enterprise

The firm's employees maintain the highest professional and ethical standards. The firm has earned a reputation for honesty, fair dealing, and transparency in a competitive industry. They believe these standards are the foundation for superior investment performance and are critical to delivering performance to clients.

Compensation

SALARY RANGE: The salary range is $151,000 - $258,000 plus employees may also be eligible for annual discretionary incentive compensation. Actual compensation within that range will be dependent upon the individual's skills, experience, qualifications, location, and applicable laws.

Work Flexibility: This role is eligible for hybrid work, with up to three days per week working from home.

Benefits: The firm invests in its people through a broad range of programs and benefits, including:

Competitive compensation and annual bonus eligibility
A generous retirement plan
Hybrid and flexible work opportunities
Health and wellness benefits, including online therapy
Paid time off for vacation, illness, medical appointments, and volunteering days
Family-care resources, including fertility and adoption benefits

Work Authorization

Applicants for employment in the United States must have work authorization that does not now or in the future require sponsorship of a visa for employment authorization in the United States, including H-1B, F-1/OPT, TN, or another non-immigrant work status.

FINRA licenses are not required and will not be supported for this role.

J Harlan Group LLC is an executive search and advisory firm specializing in recruiting for Financial Services, Technology, Management Consulting, and Public Accounting organizations. The organization works with major companies in the U.S. and global investment capitals around the world. Built by industry leaders to meet the talent demands of highly professional and specialized organizations, J Harlan Group operates under the highest levels of professional and quality standards, providing a customized project approach for each client and search assignment.