Senior Consulting Manager, Lead AI DevOps Engineer

About Cognizant Consulting

Cognizant Consulting is more than Cognizant's consulting practice-we're a global community of 5,000+ experts dedicated to helping clients reimagine their business. Blending our deep industry and technology advisory capability, we create innovative business solutions for Fortune 500 clients. And now, we're looking for our next colleague who'll join us in shaping the future of business. Could it be you?

About the role

As a Senior Consulting Manager, Lead Engineer - AI Delivery & Platform Engineering, you will make an impact by designing, modernizing, and operationalizing enterprise-grade CI/CD and platform engineering capabilities that accelerate software and AI solution delivery. You will be a valued member of the Cognizant Consulting team and work collaboratively with client stakeholders, software engineering teams, platform teams, and AI engineering practitioners to improve deployment maturity, reliability, and innovation.

In this role, you will:

• Design and implement scalable CI/CD pipelines across GitHub Actions, GitLab CI, Azure DevOps, and Jenkins environments to improve deployment reliability and speed.
• Establish modern software delivery practices including GitOps, Kubernetes-based deployment automation, Infrastructure as Code, progressive delivery, and observability frameworks.
• Partner directly with client and internal engineering teams to assess delivery maturity, implement best practices, and provide hands-on coaching that enables long-term success.
• Build and operationalize AI-enabled software delivery capabilities, including LLM evaluation pipelines, AI-assisted development workflows, agentic system deployment automation, and model governance controls.
• Develop reusable accelerators, reference architectures, playbooks, and platform templates that can be adopted across multiple consulting engagements.

Work model

We believe hybrid work is the way forward as we strive to provide flexibility wherever possible. Based on this role's business requirements, this position requires 3 days a week in a client or Cognizant office in Chicago, Illinois. Regardless of your working arrangement, we are here to support a healthy work-life balance through our various wellbeing programs.

The working arrangements for this role are accurate as of the date of posting. This may change based on the project you're engaged in, as well as business and client requirements. Rest assured; we will always be clear about role expectations.

What you must have to be considered

• 8+ years of experience in software engineering, platform engineering, DevOps, Site Reliability Engineering, or related disciplines, including extensive experience designing and supporting production CI/CD environments.
• Deep expertise with GitHub Actions and hands-on experience with at least two additional enterprise CI/CD platforms such as GitLab CI, Azure DevOps, CircleCI, Buildkite, or Jenkins.
• Strong experience with Kubernetes, GitOps platforms (ArgoCD or Flux), Infrastructure as Code tools such as Terraform or Pulumi, and cloud-native deployment practices.
• Experience implementing observability solutions, including OpenTelemetry, distributed tracing, metrics collection, and DORA-based delivery measurement.
• Hands-on experience supporting AI/LLM-powered applications, evaluation pipelines, AI development tooling, or agent-based systems in enterprise environments.

These will help you succeed

• Experience developing automation and tooling using Python, including API integrations and workflow automation.
• Experience with progressive delivery technologies such as Argo Rollouts, Flagger, LaunchDarkly, or equivalent solutions.
• Familiarity with AI evaluation and governance frameworks such as Promptfoo, DeepEval, Ragas, LangSmith, Braintrust, or comparable solutions.
• Experience building reusable engineering accelerators, developer platforms, gold-path templates, and internal enablement programs.
• Consulting, advisory, or client-facing experience supporting complex enterprise transformation initiatives.

We''re excited to meet people who share our mission and can make an impact in a variety of ways. Don''t hesitate to apply, even if you only meet the minimum requirements listed. Think about your transferable experiences and unique skills that make you stand out as someone who can bring new and exciting things to this role.

Compensation

$98,853 - $176,250 per year

This position is eligible for Cognizant's discretionary annual incentive program, based on performance and subject to the terms of Cognizant's applicable plans.

Benefits

• Medical, dental, vision and life insurance
• 401(k) plan and contributions
• Employee stock purchase plan
• Employee assistance program
• 10 paid holidays plus PTO
• Paid parental leave and fertility assistance
• Learning and development certifications and programs

About Cognizant:

Cognizant (Nasdaq: CTSH) is an AI Builder and technology services provider, bridging the gap between AI investment and enterprise value by building full-stack AI solutions for our clients. Our deep industry, process and engineering expertise enables us to build an organization's unique context into technology systems that amplify human potential, drive tangible outcomes and keep global enterprises ahead in a fast-changing world. See how at cognizant.ai or @cognizant.

Additional employment information

Compensation information is accurate as of the date of this posting. Cognizant reserves the right to modify this information at any time, subject to applicable law.

Applicants may be required to attend interviews in person or by video conference. In addition, candidates may be required to present their current state or government issued ID during each interview.

Cognizant is an equal opportunity employer. Your application and candidacy will not be considered based on race, color, sex, religion, creed, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, genetic information, pregnancy, veteran status or any other characteristic protected by federal, state or local laws.

If you have a disability that requires reasonable accommodation to search for a job opening or submit an application, please email CareersNA2@cognizant.com for roles based in the Americas or CareersIndia2@cognizant.com for roles based in India.