AI Platform Engineer - Principal

The Software Engineer, Principal for the Enterprise AI Platform is a hybrid leadership role responsible for both people leadership (51-75%) and hands-on technical delivery (25-49%). This leader will guide a team of engineers while actively contributing to the design and development of enterprise AI platform capabilities.

This role is critical to enabling scalable AI adoption across ETG through modern tools such as Copilot Studio, AI Foundry, Agent Force, IBM Orchestrate, and Claude, ensuring the platform supports rapid innovation, governance, and enterprise-grade reliability.

What you’ll be doing: (Job duties and responsibilities) 

• Provide regular coaching, performance feedback, and career development support
• Foster a strong engineering culture focused on accountability, innovation, and collaboration.
• Lead, mentor, and develop a high-performing team of AI/ML and platform engineers.
• Drive recruitment, onboarding, and retention of top engineering talent.
• Set team priorities, align work to strategic objectives, and ensure execution against roadmap.
• Design, develop, and deploy AI platform services including model lifecycle management, orchestration, and inference.
• Build and enhance capabilities leveraging, Microsoft Copilot Studio, AI Foundry, Agent Force, IBM Orchestrate, and Claude (Anthropic).
• Implement and scale GenAI and LLM-based solutions across ETG use cases.
• Establish and maintain MLOps and GenAIOps practices (CI/CD, monitoring, evaluation, governance).
• Collaborate with enterprise architecture team to build technical roadmaps for cloud-native, distributed AI systems
• Participate directly in coding, design reviews, and troubleshooting of complex platform issues.
• Partner with product managers, data scientists, and business stakeholders to translate business needs into scalable platform solutions.
• Ensure the AI platform supports a wide range of internal customers and use cases.
• Define and execute the ETG AI Platform roadmap, balancing innovation with stability.
• Communicate platform strategy, technical trade-offs, and progress to leadership.
• Shape the long-term vision for ETG’s AI platform and ecosystem.
• Evaluate emerging AI tools and frameworks for enterprise adoption.
• Champion responsible AI practices including governance, security, and compliance.
• Drive adoption of reusable AI capabilities and standardized patterns across teams.

What we'll want you to have: (Job requirements and preferences) 

• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or related field.
• 8+ years of software engineering experience.
• 2+ years of experience in a technical leadership or team lead role.
• Proven experience balancing hands-on development with people management.
• Strong background in building scalable, cloud-native platforms.
• Hands-on experience with AI/ML systems and model deployment.
• Proficiency in C# .NET.
• Ability to deliver work which meets all minimum standards for quality, security and operability.

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Blackbaud powers social impact through purpose‑driven technology and responsible AI. Guided by our Intelligence for Good® vision, we’re building a culture where innovation, trust, and human expertise come together to help organizations make a greater difference in the world.

Blackbaud is proud to be an equal opportunity employer and is committed to maintaining an inclusive work environment. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, national origin, physical or mental disability, age, or veteran status or any other basis protected by federal, state, or local law.