Senior Manager, AI Engineering & Platform

Job description

**Title**: Senior Manager, AI Engineering & Platform **Location:** Overland Park, Kansas (On-site Monday through Thursday; remote work available on Fridays) **Salary Grade**: Salaried Exempt Virtus Insurance, a nine-time Best Places to Work in Insurance award‑winner, is redefining what a modern brokerage looks like. We are fast, specialized, and relentlessly client‑centric, operating across Hospitality, Real Estate, Private Capital, Benefits, Construction, Retail & Distribution, Food & Beverage and Small Business / Personal Lines. Our culture rewards ownership, excellence, and fearless pursuit. We are looking for a builder who wants to create the technology foundation that will power the next chapter of Virtus. ### What This Role Is: The Senior Manager, AI Engineering & Platform is responsible for designing, building, and maintaining the technology infrastructure that supports Virtus' long-term AI and operational strategy. This is not a role that begins with a blank page. Virtus already has internally built applications running in production and in daily use by our client success teams, and our enterprise data platform is under active construction with an external analytics partner. Our Chief Executive Officer has committed the firm to becoming fully AI-enabled, and the operations leadership accountable for that commitment builds with agentic tooling every day. As the first dedicated engineering hire at Virtus, you will be the person who makes that work durable. This is a hands-on building role: you will write and ship production code, not solely review the work of others. The architecture, standards, and platforms you establish in your first year will support everything the firm builds after it. This is a role for someone who wants to build, lead, and leave a lasting mark, with the autonomy to shape the technology platforms that will power Virtus' next decade of growth. ### Who Thrives at Virtus: - Embody the Virtus Core Values: Better Tomorrow, Fearless Pursuit, and One Virtus. - Are energized by building innovative technology solutions and solving complex business challenges. - Design, develop, and support scalable applications with confidence and technical expertise. - Are disciplined operators who value architecture, security, quality, and measurable results. - Communicate with clarity, credibility, and executive presence. - Embrace ownership and accountability for the systems and platforms they build. - Want a seat at the table to help shape the future of technology and AI at Virtus. ### Key Responsibilities: **Data Platform Ownership** - Serve as Virtus' primary technical liaison for the firm's external data platform and analytics partners. - Develop technical requirements, evaluate architecture and data models, and provide oversight of vendor-delivered solutions. - Ensure data warehouse structures support operational applications, reporting needs, and future AI initiatives. - Conduct technical reviews and acceptance testing to ensure solutions meet Virtus standards for quality, scalability, and business value. - Partner with vendors and business stakeholders to support the long-term evolution of the firm's data platform. **API & Integration Architecture** - Design, build, and maintain a Virtus-owned API layer that serves as the primary integration point between enterprise data sources and internal applications. - Establish integration standards that promote system stability, scalability, security, and maintainability. - Ensure applications are architected to operate independently from vendor-managed data environments. - Provide ongoing governance and oversight of enterprise integration strategies. **Knowledge Management & AI Enablement** - Design and maintain the technical architecture supporting Virtus' enterprise knowledge management strategy. - Develop scalable solutions that enable structured, machine-readable access to organizational content, including standard operating procedures, training materials, and business documentation. - Build and maintain retrieval and context-layer capabilities that support AI-powered applications and workflows. - Ensure knowledge assets are organized and accessible to support future automation and AI initiatives. **Application Development & Platform Engineering** - Lead the design, development, and deployment of strategic internal business applications. - Develop scalable platform standards for authentication, deployment, monitoring, backup, and system reliability. - Serve as the primary technical owner for complex application initiatives, including automation and AI-powered solutions. - Ensure all systems are built to support long-term operational stability, scalability, and business growth. - Establish development practices that enable rapid innovation while maintaining security and governance standards. **Technical Leadership & Architecture Oversight** - Provide technical leadership and architectural guidance across the organization's technology portfolio. - Review proposed solutions to identify scalability, security, performance, and operational risks. - Partner closely with Operations Leadership to evaluate technology investments and implementation strategies. - Act as a trusted advisor to executive leadership on technology architecture, platform strategy, and long-term system evolution. - Promote sound engineering practices and ensure technology decisions align with the organization's growth objectives. ### Qualifications: - Five or more years of engineering experience with demonstrated range across full-stack application development and data engineering, including the ability to review data warehouse designs and identify gaps, risks, and opportunities for improvement. - Experience serving as one of the first engineering hires within a growing organization or owning end-to-end production systems in an environment that required a high degree of autonomy and accountability. - Python, SQL, and TypeScript as working languages. - Demonstrated experience designing, deploying, and supporting solutions in cloud environments, preferably Microsoft Azure. Experience with AWS or Google Cloud Platform is acceptable with the ability to quickly become proficient in Azure. - Demonstrated daily use of AI-assisted software development tools and large language model technologies, including practical application in coding, testing, debugging, and solution delivery. Agentic development tools should be a primary part of how you work rather than general familiarity. The interview process includes a live build session using these tools. - Ability to independently deploy, monitor, support, and maintain production systems throughout the full software lifecycle. - Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to translate complex technical concepts for business stakeholders, including executive leadership. ### What Will Make You Stand Out: - Experience serving as the primary business stakeholder or technical lead in outsourced technology or vendor relationships, with the ability to evaluate technical deliverables, provide architectural feedback, and hold partners accountable to established standards. - Experience working within highly regulated industries such as insurance, financial services, healthcare, or other environments where data security, privacy, and compliance are critical. - Experience integrating enterprise systems and platforms, including agency management systems, CRM platforms, ERP systems, EHRs, or other systems of record through APIs, data exports, and related integration methods. - Demonstrated ability to evaluate, prioritize, and apply artificial intelligence technologies in practical business settings, with sound judgment regarding where AI creates value and where traditional approaches are more effective.