Principal AI Engineer

You are as unique as your background, experience and point of view. Here, you’ll be encouraged, empowered and challenged to be your best self. You'll work with dynamic colleagues - experts in their fields - who are eager to share their knowledge with you. Your leaders will inspire and help you reach your potential and soar to new heights. Every day, you'll have new and exciting opportunities to make life brighter for our Clients - who are at the heart of everything we do.

At Sun Life, we're driven by our Purpose: helping our Clients achieve lifetime financial security and live healthier lives. Our values shape how we work: caring, authentic, bold, inspiring, and impactful.

When you join Sun Life, you'll work with passionate colleagues and empowering leaders who support your growth and celebrate your contributions, so you can make a meaningful difference in our Clients' lives.

Discover how you can make a difference in the lives of individuals, families and communities around the world.

Job Description:

You believe life is about aiming high and making an impact. At Sun Life Financial, we work together, share common values and help each other grow and achieve goals.  With roots tracing back to 1865 in Canada, Sun Life Financial has grown to become an established and trusted name in insurance and financial services, with offices and operations in key markets around the world This role presents a unique opportunity to join an innovative team shaping the future for our internal business teams. The successful candidate will play a pivotal role in delivering cutting-edge solutions that enhance our customer experience and operational efficiency. 

Role Summary: 

Canada IT – Platforms and Engineering Domain is looking for a Principal AI Engineer with at least 10 years of engineering experience. This role will be instrumental in driving innovation, implementing cloud capabilities, and building GenAI solutions across our contact centers in Canada, Asia, and the US. This role offers an exciting opportunity to shape the future of our contact center technology and drive innovation at a global scale. The ideal candidate has a passion for cutting-edge technologies and a proven track record of building large-scale, complex software systems. 

What you will do:  

• Partner with and guide the Enterprise Architect to design and implement solutions to design and implement solutions that align with the platform capabilities roadmap 

• Define and communicate the technical vision and strategy for AI/ML initiatives across the platform 

• Establish and champion a culture of technical excellence and continuous innovation, setting standards that the squad follows 

• Mentor and develop the engineering squad, fostering technical excellence, code quality standards, and career growth 

• Design, deploy, and manage API infrastructure on AWS platforms 

• Create and maintain technical design artifacts that describe application functionality, solution designs, data models, interfaces, and integrations 

• Use and enhance our DevOps practices and tools to enforce software guardrails, increase automation, and help engineers build code faster, at a lower cost, and lower risk 

• Influence and collaborate across multiple teams to ensure AI/ML solutions integrate effectively with broader platform initiatives 

• Own and evolve the end-to-end deployment strategy and CI/CD practices, ensuring scalability and reliability across the squad's deliverables 

• Handle model components versioning across dev and prod environments 

• Support infrastructure automation and infrastructure-as-code practices 

• Actively shape squad adoption of industry advancements, evaluating and recommending emerging technologies and practices 

• Provide post-production support for deployed applications, including troubleshooting, performance optimization, and continuous improvement 

What you need to succeed:  

• Bachelor’s degree in computer science or a relevant field 

• Extensive experience designing and deploying AI/ML architectures with GenAI models, agentic systems, RAG techniques, and production-scale patterns 

• Exceptional communication and presentation skills with demonstrated ability to influence technical and executive stakeholders; proven track record of thought leadership in AI/ML 

• Deep architectural expertise across multiple languages (Python, Java) and AWS services, with hands-on ability to design scalable solutions 

• Advanced expertise in AI/ML architecture patterns, model lifecycle management, and production-scale deployment strategies 

• Strong expertise in AWS services and cloud infrastructure 

• Advanced proficiency with modern DevOps practices, deployment automation, CI/CD pipelines, containerization, and orchestration technologies at scale 

• Demonstrated ability to design and establish technical standards for AI/ML infrastructure, security, and operational excellence 

• Proficiency in API development and management 

• Proven leadership skills, with the ability to guide agile teams across multiple locations 

• Strong problem-solving abilities and analytical skills with a keen eye for detail and the ability to assess alternatives, risks, and benefits 

• Commitment to fostering a collaborative, transparent, and trust-based team culture 

• Demonstrated success in coaching and mentoring junior engineers in an Agile team setting 

What’s in it for you: 

• We’re honoured to be recognized as a 2025 Best Workplaces in Ontario by Great Place to Work® Canada. 

• We are thrilled to be recognized by Excellence Canada with their top-level certification, the Canada Order of Excellence for Mental Health at Work®,  for prioritizing employee well-being, fostering a positive work culture, and achieving excellence in mental health. 

• We’re proud to be recognized as a company with a 2023 Most Trusted Executive team by Great Place to Work® Canada. 

• Wellness programs that support the three pillars of your health – mental, physical, and financial 

• The opportunity to move along a variety of career paths with amazing networking potential. 

• As a hybrid organization, you and your leader use business and Client needs to choose where you work, at home or in the office 

The Base Pay range is for the primary location for which the job is posted. It may vary depending on the work location of the successful candidate or other factors. In addition to Base Pay, eligible Sun Life employees participate in various incentive plans, payment under which is discretionary and subject to individual and company performance. Certain sales focused roles have sales incentive plans based on individual or group sales results.

Diversity and inclusion have always been at the core of our values at Sun Life. A diverse workforce with wide perspectives and creative ideas benefits our Clients, the communities where we operate and all of us as colleagues. We welcome applications from qualified individuals from all backgrounds.

Persons with disabilities who need accommodation in the application process, or those needing job postings in an alternative format, may e-mail a request to thebrightside@sunlife.com.

We are proud to be a hybrid organization that offers our employees the choice and flexibility to work from both the office and virtually based on the needs of the business, our Clients and you.

We may use artificial intelligence to support candidate sourcing, screening, interview scheduling.

We thank all applicants for showing an interest in this position. Only those selected for an interview will be contacted.

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