Director of AI Engineering

      

Thrivent is seeking an experienced Director of AI Engineering to provide strategic and technical leadership for building scalable, secure, and compliant production AI platforms and products. This role sets the vision and direction for multiple teams delivering agentic AI, LLM/RAG, and classical ML capabilities across AWS and Azure, ensuring measurable business outcomes, operational excellence, and strong engineering culture.

This leader operates through engineering managers and senior technologists, balancing hands-on technical credibility with enterprise-scale strategy, governance, and stakeholder partnership. Success looks like resilient AI platforms, trusted and compliant AI solutions, empowered teams, and clear alignment between technology investment and business value.

         

          

DUTIES & RESPONSIBILITIES

Designing Solutions

• Sets the vision for AI engineering teams and empowers teams to design scalable, secure, and compliant solutions.
• Reviews overall and high‑level designs, providing feedback and guidance to engineering leaders and teams.
• Helps teams understand architecture strategy for assigned product groups and how solutions align with the broader enterprise architecture and AI platform direction.

Developing Software

• Demonstrates strong critical thinking and technical judgment related to software development, architecture, and platform design.

Learning and Applying New Techniques

• Influences teams to adopt modern engineering and AI techniques; shares technical insights and best practices across product groups.
• Continuously seeks innovative techniques and solutions to address complex business problems and strategic initiatives.

Collaborating Within Team

• Promotes collaboration, engagement, and accountability across teams.
• Provides opportunities to recognize, celebrate, and reinforce team and individual successes.

Collaborating Across Teams

• Regularly engages in product group sprint demos to understand delivered capabilities and achieved outcomes; provides constructive feedback to support continuous improvement.
• Encourages engagement across product groups to share learnings, reuse solutions, and leverage best practices.
• Understands the organization’s broader technology ecosystem and how product groups contribute to enterprise outcomes.
• Breaks down product group barriers that impede delivery, alignment, and continuous improvement.

Collaborating Across the Organization

• Builds strong relationships across the organization and across business and technology disciplines.
• Brings teams together to solve the organization’s most strategic and complex problems and deliver new capabilities collaboratively.
• Creates shared understanding and alignment on goals and strategies for both the enterprise and the technology organization.
• Provides senior leadership visibility into accomplishments, risks, and progress of teams.
• Supports organizational rollout of new DevOps, MLOps, and platform capabilities and version updates across teams.

Setting Product / Platform Technology Strategy

• Builds and establishes software engineering foundations, practices and cadences
• Partners with product management to set AI platform and product technology vision and desired outcomes.
• Provides mentorship and motivation to engineering leaders and teams to select and execute technology strategies that support organizational growth and long‑term sustainability.

Defining Engineering Standards / Patterns

• Promotes engineering standards, patterns, and continuous improvement practices, including DevOps, observability, and platform reliability.

DevOps

• Supports development lifecycle processes and operational model guidelines across product groups.
• Ensures operational health is clearly defined, measured, and continuously improved.
• Creates and promotes cross‑learning opportunities for engineers to adopt new DevOps and operational practices.

Selecting & Managing Technology Vendors

• Acts as an advocate to define criteria for selecting appropriate platforms and technologies.
• Owns overall technology solutions and platforms for product groups, including vendor relationships.
• Provides direction and feedback to ensure selection of vendors aligns with architectural strategy, security, and long‑term objectives.

Coaching Engineers

• Holds regular 1:1s with direct reports and conducts periodic skip‑level and team meetings.
• Provides opportunities and frameworks for leadership and career growth.
• Gives constructive feedback and coaching to help engineering managers grow their skills, experience, and impact.

Recruiting / Building Talent

• Plans in advance for future talent needs across product groups and collaborates with other leaders on recruitment strategies.
• Drives the hiring process for engineering managers and engineers and participates in recruiting for the product area.
• Engages in the technology community to strengthen the Thrivent technology brand and position Thrivent as an employer of choice.
• Recruits, develops, and sustains high‑performing teams while promoting a culture of shared accountability, operational excellence, and partnership across the organization.
• Models Thrivent’s leadership competencies — courage, collaboration, and commitment — by demonstrating resiliency, making thoughtful decisions, and holding self and others accountable.
• Supports and fosters an environment focused on continuous improvement, exceptional employee engagement, and unwavering commitment to clients. Shapes a culture aligned to Thrivent’s purpose, promise, and values, ensuring trust and reputation remain strong.
• Manages a team of direct and indirect staff.

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QUALIFICATIONS & SKILLS:  

 Required

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or other technical field or equivalent work experience 
• 10+ years of progressively responsible positions in Information Technology including a 5+ years’ management/supervisory experience in specific IT functional area discipline. 
• Strong leader with a demonstrated track record recruiting and developing teams in current- and next-generation platforms and systems’ needs. 
• Demonstrated experience in creating, leading, and implementing large scale strategic projects. 
• Strong communication skills and excellence in negotiation with business partners 
• Strong relationship building and interpersonal skills. 
• Demonstrated ability to work collaboratively with executive leadership, lines of business stakeholders, and technology staff across the organization. 
• Background in information delivery including BI/analytic reporting, operational reporting, KPIs, using reporting services. 
• Experience in development of business strategies, Center of Expense strategies and delivery of enterprise data services. 

 Preferred

• MBA 
• Financial Services industry experience 
• Experience in IT planning and business relationship management 
• Experience working in a matrix management organization 
• Experience with product development and management 

              

Pay Transparency

 

Thrivent’s long-term growth depends on attracting, rewarding, and retaining people who are committed to helping others thrive with purpose. We accomplish this by offering a wide variety of market competitive compensation programs to attract, reward, and retain top talent. The applicable salary or hourly wage range for this full-time role is $177,984.00 - $240,803.00 per year, which factors in various geographic regions. The base pay actually offered will be determined by a variety of factors including, but not limited to, location, relevant experience, skills, and knowledge, business needs, market demand, and other factors Thrivent deems important.

 

Thrivent is unique in our commitment to helping people to be wise with money and live balanced and generous lives. That extends to our benefits.

 

The following benefits may be offered: various bonuses (including, for example, annual or long-term incentives); medical, dental, and vision insurance; health savings account; flexible spending account; 401k; pension; life and accidental death and dismemberment insurance; disability insurance; supplemental protection insurance; 20 days of Paid Time Off each year; Sick and Safe Time; 10 paid company holidays; Volunteer Time Off; paid parental leave; EAP; well-being benefits, and other employee benefits. Eligibility for receipt of these benefits is subject to the applicable plan/policy documents. Thrivent’s plans/policies are subject to change at any time at Thrivent’s discretion.

 

Thrivent provides Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) without regard to race, religion, color, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, pregnancy, national origin, age, disability, marital status, citizenship status, military or veteran status, genetic information, or any other status protected by applicable local, state, or federal law. This policy applies to all employees and job applicants.

Thrivent is committed to providing reasonable accommodation to individuals with disabilities. If you need a reasonable accommodation, please let us know by sending an email to [email protected] or call 800-847-4836 and request Human Resources.