Lead Generative AI Engineer, VP

Citi, the leading global bank, has approximately 200 million customer accounts and does business in more than 160 countries and jurisdictions. Citi provides consumers, corporations, governments, and institutions with a broad range of financial products and services, including consumer banking and credit, corporate and investment banking, securities brokerage, transaction services, and wealth management.

As a bank with a brain and a soul, Citi creates economic value that is systemically responsible and in our clients’ best interests. As a financial institution that touches every region of the world and every sector that shapes your daily life, our Enterprise Operations & Technology teams are charged with a mission that rivals any large tech company. Our technology solutions are the foundations of everything we do from keeping the bank safe, managing global resources, and providing the technical tools our workers need to be successful to designing our digital architecture and ensuring our platforms provide a first-class customer experience. We reimagine client and partner experiences to deliver excellence through secure, reliable, and efficient services.

Our commitment to diversity includes a workforce that represents the clients we serve from all walks of life, backgrounds, and origins. We foster an environment where the best people want to work. We value and demand respect for others, promote individuals based on merit, and ensure opportunities for personal development are widely available to all. Ideal candidates are innovators with well-rounded backgrounds who bring their authentic selves to work and complement our culture of delivering results with pride. If you are a problem solver who seeks passion in your work, come join us. We’ll enable growth and progress together.

Position Overview

Citi is looking for a Lead AI/GenAI Engineer to drive the design, development, and deployment of next-generation intelligent operations and automation platforms within the AI Automation Forward Deployed Engineering (FDE) team, part of Consumer Operations Technology. In this senior hands-on role, you will build and operationalize generative AI solutions using cutting-edge open-source models 

and enterprise cloud platforms, while architecting the governance frameworks needed to ensure security, compliance, and reliability at scale. Your work will directly shape how Citi applies AI to transform its operations and deliver measurable impact across the business.

Key Responsibilities

• AI Solution Delivery: Lead the hands-on development and delivery of intelligent operations solutions, including advanced chatbots, agentic workflow automation, and AI-assisted decision platforms.
• Model Engineering & Orchestration: Fine-tune, prompt-engineer, and deploy open-source LLMs (Llama, Mistral, Gemma, etc) and proprietary models via Google Vertex AI. Implement RAG (Retrieval-Augmented Generation) pipelines.
• AI Governance & Guardrails: Architect and implement robust AI safety frameworks, guardrails (e.g., NeMo Guardrails, Llama Guard), and deterministic controls to prevent hallucinations, ensure data privacy, and maintain regulatory compliance.
• Cloud-Native Architecture: Design and deploy scalable AI pipelines using Python, containerization (Docker, Kubernetes), and cloud-native architectures.
• Financial Services Compliance: Apply deep knowledge of financial services technology to ensure AI models adhere to strict risk management, auditability, and financial data security standards.

Required Skills & Qualifications

• AI & LLM Expertise: Deep understanding of LLM architectures, vector databases (e.g., Pinecone, Milvus, Chroma), embedding models and AI orchestration frameworks (Google ADK, LangChain etc).
• Cloud & Tools: Hands-on experience with Google Vertex AI (or equivalent cloud AI suites) and deploying open-source models (Llama, Mistral, Gemma).
• AI Governance & Safety: Proven experience implementing deterministic controls, semantic routing, guardrails, and bias/hallucination detection in production AI systems.
• Programming: Expert-level Python skills, including AI/ML libraries (PyTorch, Hugging Face, Pandas, NumPy) and API development (FastAPI, Flask).
• Infrastructure: Strong experience with containerization (Openshift,Docker, Kubernetes), CI/CD pipelines, and cloud-native application delivery.
• Domain Knowledge: Experience in financial services technology, with an understanding of financial products, compliance requirements, and the competitive AI landscape in fintech.
• Leadership: Demonstrated ability to lead AI and automation programs from concept to production, setting credible technical direction at a senior level.

• Experience deploying and tuning models on Google Vertex AI or equivalent enterprise-grade cloud AI platforms.
• Familiarity with additional AI orchestration tools and emerging open-source LLM frameworks beyond core requirements.
• A Bachelor’s degree/University degree or equivalent experience. Master's degree in Computer Science, Artificial Intelligence, or a related technical discipline, preferred. 

At Citi, you will work at the intersection of AI innovation and financial services, contributing to programs that operate at global scale and shape how intelligent technology is applied across one of the world's most complex organizations. This is an opportunity to take genuine ownership of high-impact AI delivery while continuing to grow your technical expertise in a performance-driven, collaborative environment.

• Hybrid working model with 3 days in the office and 2 days working remotely, giving you flexibility while keeping you connected to the team.
• Direct influence over technical strategy, with the autonomy to architect AI governance frameworks and set engineering standards across a senior-level program.
• Access to enterprise AI platforms, open-source tooling, and cloud infrastructure at a scale few organizations can offer, enabling you to solve genuinely complex technical challenges.
• Continuous learning and development opportunities, including exposure to cutting-edge generative AI and machine learning advancements within a global technology organization.
• A collaborative team environment where technical excellence, peer mentorship, and delivery ownership are valued and recognized.
• Competitive financial wellbeing and benefits package, designed to reflect the seniority and impact of this role.

Apply now to bring your AI engineering expertise to a role where your work will directly shape the future of intelligent operations within global financial services.

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In addition to salary, Citi’s offerings may also include, for eligible employees, discretionary and formulaic incentive and retention awards. Citi offers competitive employee benefits, including: medical, dental & vision coverage; 401(k); life, accident, and disability insurance; and wellness programs. Citi also offers paid time off packages, including planned time off (vacation), unplanned time off (sick leave), and paid holidays. For additional information regarding Citi employee benefits, please visit citibenefits.com. Available offerings may vary by jurisdiction, job level, and date of hire.

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We use automated processing, including artificial intelligence, for our legitimate business interests (or our reasonable and appropriate business purposes) to identify and align the candidate's skills and abilities with a specific job opening. Additionally, if you so choose, or consent, we can match your skills and abilities to other suitable roles at Citi.

Importantly, all our hiring processes and decisions, including determining your suitability for a role, are conducted, checked, and decided by individuals. Our automated processing and AI do not involve relying on automatic or autonomous decision-making. Please refer to any Jurisdictional Considerations, with specific provisions for your country (where relevant) for further details.

Illinois residents – AI Notice and Right

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Citi is an equal opportunity employer, and qualified candidates will receive consideration without regard to their race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, status as a protected veteran, or any other characteristic protected by law.

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View Citi’s EEO Policy Statement and the Know Your Rights poster.