[Remote] Lead AI Engineer

Note: The job is a remote job and is open to candidates in USA. KeyBank is seeking a Lead AI Engineer for its Contact Center Technology organization. The role designs, builds, and modernizes AI-powered conversational experiences, IVR platforms, and voice bot solutions on Google Cloud Platform, while owning end-to-end delivery and providing technical guidance without people management responsibilities.

Responsibilities

• Design and develop AI-powered IVR and voice bot solutions leveraging modern conversational AI frameworks
• Lead the technical architecture, engineering design, and implementation of AI-driven customer experience initiatives
• Build and develop Node.js / TypeScript microservices aligned to cloud-native and low-latency voice requirements
• Own end-to-end delivery of complex AI features, from concept and design through deployment and production support
• Apply agentic AI patterns utilizing Gemini, LangGraph, LangChain, and emerging AI frameworks to enhance conversational experiences
• Develop, test, evaluate, and optimize prompts, workflows, and AI orchestration strategies
• Collaborate across the contact center technology ecosystem to support call routing, self-service, and agent handoff scenarios
• Provide technical mentorship and code review support while contributing directly to development efforts
• Establish engineering best practices for AI solution development, testing, deployment, and observability
• Apply SRE principles to ensure resiliency, scalability, monitoring, and production readiness
• Ensure solutions comply with security and regulatory requirements (PII / PCI)

Skills

• * 4+ years of software engineering experience, including 2+ years as a Lead AI Engineer, Lead Engineer, Principal Engineer, or comparable senior technical contributor role
• * Strong hands-on experience building and deploying AI-powered applications and services
• * Strong, hands-on experience with Node.js / TypeScript
• * Proven experience designing and delivering cloud-native solutions on GCP
• * Experience implementing and integrating LLMs, conversational AI platforms, and agentic AI frameworks
• * Solid understanding of microservices architecture, APIs, and distributed systems
• * Hands-on Kubernetes experience, including GKE cluster setup and platform operations
• * Experience with IVR, voice bots, conversational AI, or contact center technologies
• * Strong collaboration skills across engineering, product, and operations teams
• * Excellent technical judgment, communication, and problem-solving skills
• *This position is NOT eligible for employment visa sponsorship for non-U.S. citizens.*
• * Experience with conversational AI and agentic frameworks (Gemini, LangGraph, LangChain)
• * Experience developing AI agents, orchestration workflows, and multi-agent solutions
• * Knowledge of voice flows, call routing, containment, and agent escalation
• * Experience working in regulated or financial services environments
• * Familiarity with CI/CD pipelines, containerization, and Infrastructure as Code
• * Experience working in Agile delivery models at enterprise scale
• * Demonstrated experience with Agentic "Vibe Coding" — rapid prototyping and iterative development using AI-assisted coding tools, prompts, and agent-driven workflows

Benefits

• Eligibility for incentive compensation, which may include production, commission, and/or discretionary incentives.
• Flexible options in circumstances where roles can be performed effectively in a mobile environment.

Company Overview