AVP, Applied AI & Engineering

Job description

Together we fight for everyone’s opportunity for a better financial future. We will do this together — with customers, partners and colleagues. We will fight for others, not against: We will stand up for and champion everyone’s access to opportunities. The status quo is not good enough … we believe every individual and every community deserves access to financial opportunities. We are determined to support both individuals and communities in reaching a better financial future. We know that reaching this future depends on our actions today. Like our Purpose Statement, Voya believes in being bold and committed to action. We are committed to a work environment where the differences that we are born with — and those we acquire throughout our lives — are understood, valued and intentionally pursued. We believe that our employees own our culture and have a responsibility to foster an environment where we all feel comfortable bringing our whole selves to work. Purposefully bringing our differences together to positively influence our culture, serve our clients and enrich our communities is essential to our vision. Are you ready to join a company with a strong purpose and a winning culture? Start your Voyage – Apply Now Get to Know the Opportunity We’re looking for a hands-on Applied AI and Engineering leader to help accelerate the practical adoption of AI across Voya Investment Management. This role will focus on applying AI to real business and technology challenges across Investment Management, including investment research, portfolio analytics, operations, distribution, sales, marketing, and technology delivery. The ideal candidate will be able to identify where AI can create value, partner with business and technology stakeholders, guide engineering teams toward scalable solutions, and help transform successful AI capabilities into reusable assets across the organization. You will help bridge Investment Management AI engineering, Data Science, and broader Investment Management technology teams while working closely with AI engineering leaders responsible for agentic platforms, runtime architecture, observability, AI security, and engineering standards. The successful candidate should be equally comfortable discussing investment workflows with business partners, AI solution design with engineers, and business outcomes with senior leadership. Voya is committed to a flexible workplace model. This role may be remote or hybrid, depending on business needs, candidate location, and alignment with the team’s operating model. The Contributions You'll Make Scale AI Solutions Across Business Domains Ensure AI solutions are designed for scalability, consistency, extensibility, and business adoption across domains. Promote successful AI solutions across Investment Management and Distribution and expand them into reusable capabilities for related business use cases. Promote collaboration, knowledge sharing, and common practices between AI engineering, data science, and business technology teams. Reuse common assets such as agents, prompt libraries, RAG patterns, evaluation approaches, semantic search, APIs, and workflow automation. Lead Applied AI Across Investment Management Build stronger connectivity between domain-specific AI teams while preserving the business context each team requires. Partner with leaders across investment research, portfolio management, operations, distribution, sales, marketing, and technology to identify practical AI use cases. Translate ambiguous business challenges into scalable AI-enabled solutions. Help business teams move beyond AI experimentation toward production-ready capabilities that improve how work gets done. Promote Engineering Scalability Across IM Technology Drive the adoption of AI-enabled engineering practices across Investment Management technology teams. Help technology teams use AI to improve software development, data engineering, testing, documentation, support, and operational productivity. Promote reusable engineering patterns, accelerators, templates, and implementation approaches. Identify opportunities to apply capabilities built by one team to other areas across Investment Management. Reduce duplicated effort by turning successful AI implementations into reusable capabilities, shared services, and common engineering practices. Encourage disciplined engineering practices for AI solutions, including versioning, testing, evaluation, monitoring, documentation, and production readiness. Provide Hands-On AI Solution Leadership Stay actively involved in AI solution design, architecture discussions, prototyping, and implementation planning. Guide teams in applying modern AI technologies such as Generative AI, Agentic AI, RAG, semantic search, AI agents, and intelligent automation. Evaluate emerging AI tools, frameworks, and platform capabilities for practical use within Investment Management. Mentor AI engineers, data scientists, and technology teams on scalable AI implementation practices. Help teams balance speed, reliability, cost efficiency, maintainability, and business value. Partner with AI Engineering and Platform Leaders Work closely with AI engineering leaders responsible for agentic platforms, multi-agent frameworks, runtime architecture, AgentOps, observability, AI security, and engineering standards. Ensure AI engineering roadmaps remain aligned with Investment Management business priorities. Help define how AI platforms and reusable capabilities can support multiple teams and use cases. Promote scalable implementation approaches across platforms such as Microsoft AI Foundry, Microsoft 365 Copilot, Copilot Studio, Databricks, Snowflake Cortex, Azure AI Services, and related AI engineering frameworks. Build AI Capability and Talent Across IM Mentor developing AI engineers, data scientists, and technology professionals. Help younger AI team members build stronger understanding of Investment Management business workflows. Promote practical AI education, knowledge sharing, and communities of practice across Investment Management technology. Foster a culture of experimentation, engineering excellence, business partnership, and measurable outcomes. Help build a scalable Applied AI capability that can support growing demand across the organization. Communicate AI Value and Adoption Present AI opportunities, implementation plans, and business outcomes to technology and business leadership. Develop clear business cases that connect AI investments to measurable productivity, efficiency, decision quality, and operational improvements. Track adoption, value realization, reuse, and scalability of AI solutions. Serve as a trusted advisor to business and technology stakeholders on practical AI adoption within Investment Management. Minimum Knowledge & Experience Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Data Science, Information Systems, Finance, Business, or a related discipline. 10+ years of experience in technology, data science, AI, analytics, software engineering, or digital transformation. 5+ years of leadership experience managing technical teams, cross-functional initiatives, or enterprise-scale technology programs. Experience delivering AI, analytics, data science, automation, or software solutions into production environments. Strong understanding of Generative AI, Agentic AI, AI engineering, intelligent automation, and modern software delivery practices. Practical experience translating business problems into AI-enabled solution designs. Ability to guide engineers and data scientists while also engaging effectively with business stakeholders. Strong communication skills with the ability to explain AI concepts, business value, and implementation tradeoffs to technical and non-technical audiences. Demonstrated ability to drive adoption, influence across teams, and deliver measurable business outcomes. Preferred Knowledge & Experience Experience in Asset Management, Investment Management, Wealth Management, Financial Services, or another regulated business environment. Experience supporting investment research, portfolio management, investment operations, distribution, sales, marketing, or client-facing business functions. Hands-on familiarity with modern AI platforms and engineering tools such as: Databricks Genie AI Snowflake Cortex Microsoft AI Foundry Microsoft 365 Power Platform Python & SQL GitHub Copilot or similar AI-assisted engineering tools Experience with: Agentic AI Multi-agent architectures Retrieval-Augmented Generation Semantic search Prompt engineering AI evaluation and monitoring AI workflow automation API and tool integration Reusable engineering frameworks Experience leading or mentoring AI engineers, data scientists, software engineers, or technology teams. Experience creating reusable technical capabilities, shared services, engineering accelerators, or common implementation patterns. #Remote #LI-LW1 Compensation Pay Disclosure: Voya is committed to pay that’s fair and equitable, which means comparable pay for comparable roles and responsibilities. The below annual base salary range reflects the expected hiring range(s) for this position in the location(s) listed. In addition to base salary, Voya offers incentive opportunities (i.e., annual cash incentives, sales incentives, and/or long-term incentives) based on the role to reward the achievement of annual performance objectives. Please note that this salary information is solely for candidates hired to perform work within one of these locations, and refers to the amount Voya Financial is willing to pay at the time of this posting. Actual compensation offered may vary from the posted salary range based upon the candidate’s geographic location, work experience, education, licensure requirements and/or skill level and will be finalized at the time of offer. Salaries for part-time roles will be prorated based upon the agreed upon number of hours to be regularly worked. $171,300 - $214,120 USD Be Well. Stay Well. Voya provides the resources that can make a difference in your lives. To us, this means thriving physically, financially, socially and emotionally. Voya benefits are designed to help you do just that. That’s why we offer an array of plans, programs, tools and resources with one goal in mind: To help you and your family be well and stay well. What We Offer Health, dental, vision and life insurance plans 401(k) Savings plan – with generous company matching contributions (up to 6%) Voya Retirement Plan – employer paid cash balance retirement plan (4%) Tuition reimbursement up to $5,250/year Paid time off – including 20 days paid time off, nine paid company holidays and a flexible Diversity Celebration Day. Paid volunteer time — 40 hours per calendar year Learn more about Voya benefits (download PDF) Critical Skills At Voya, we have identified the following critical skills which are key to success in our culture: Customer Focused : Passionate drive to delight our customers and offer unique solutions that deliver on their expectations. Critical Thinking : Thoughtful process of analyzing data and problem solving data to reach a well-reasoned solution. Team Mentality : Partnering effectively to drive our culture and execute on our common goals. Business Acumen : Appreciation and understanding of the financial services industry in order to make sound business decisions. Learning Agility : Openness to new ways of thinking and acquiring new skills to retain a competitive advantage. Learn more about Critical Skills Equal Employment Opportunity Voya Financial is an equal-opportunity employer. Voya Financial provides equal opportunity to qualified individuals regardless of race, color, sex, national origin, citizenship status, religion, age, disability, veteran status, creed, marital status, sexual orientation, gender identity, genetic information, or any other status protected by state or local law. Reasonable Accommodations Voya is committed to the inclusion of all qualified individuals. As part of this commitment, Voya will ensure that persons with disabilities are provided reasonable accommodations. If reasonable accommodation is needed to participate in the job application or interview process, to perform essential job functions, and/or to receive other benefits and privileges of employment, please reference resources for applicants with disabilities . Misuse of Voya's name in fraud schemes