Sr/Lead AI Backend Data Engineering - GenAI

FICO (NYSE: FICO)is a leading global analytics software company, helping businesses in 100+ countries make better decisions. Join our world-class team today and fulfill your career potential! The Opportunity As a Senior or Lead Backend Engineer on our Applied AI team, you will be at the forefront of integrating robust data engineering with next-generation AI capabilities. You will design, build, and maintain scalable backend systems and data pipelines that power critical functions across our platform - from fraud investigation and decision automation to process optimization. In this role, you will champion high data quality, system reliability, and stringent governance across all AI-driven initiatives, making a lasting impact on FICO's platform. This is an opportunity to collaborate with a high-caliber team and drive meaningful innovation through your deep expertise in backend engineering and applied AI. What You'll Contribute • Design and deploy scalable backend systems and data pipelines that seamlessly integrate applied AI capabilities into FICO's analytics and decision management platform. • Build high-quality solutions for data ingestion, transformation, and storage, ensuring reliable, high-throughput data flow for real-time analytics. • Design and implement LLM-powered solutions for decision automation, fraud investigation, and process automation within FICO's platform. • Develop sophisticated prompting strategies and Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) architectures tailored to high-stakes, mission-critical applications. • Partner with data scientists, ML engineers, and product teams to develop microservices and APIs that enable intelligent, data-driven decision-making. • Optimize distributed architectures and implement real-time processing frameworks to support high-volume, low-latency workloads. • Implement advanced monitoring, testing, and performance optimization techniques to ensure system reliability, security, and scalability. • Define and evolve architectural patterns that support FICO's analytics and decisioning solutions at scale. • Lead and mentor engineering team members, promoting best practices in software development, data engineering, AI integration, and systems design. What We're Seeking • In-depth experience in backend or data engineering, with a demonstrated track record of delivering complex, large-scale production systems. • Strong coding skills in Python, Go, Java, or equivalent languages, with a commitment to clean, maintainable, and well-tested code. • Hands-on experience with big data frameworks (e.g., Apache Spark, Kafka, Hadoop) and a strong understanding of both relational and NoSQL databases. • Experience with cloud platforms (AWS, GCP, or Azure) and container orchestration tools such as Docker and Kubernetes. • Proven ability to design, build, and maintain scalable, production-grade backend systems with a focus on reliability and performance. • Solid experience with testing frameworks (including A/B testing), performance optimization, and production monitoring/observability practices. • Demonstrated experience integrating AI/ML solutions into production systems, including working with Large Language Models (LLMs) and related techniques. • Experience with Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) architectures and familiarity with vector databases (e.g., Pinecone, Weaviate, pgvector) is strongly preferred. • Strong problem-solving and communication skills, with the ability to mentor engineers, influence technical direction, and collaborate effectively across disciplines. • Bachelor's or Master's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field. An advanced degree is a plus but not required. Our Offer to You • An inclusive culture strongly reflecting our core values: Act Like an Owner, Delight Our Customers and Earn the Respect of Others. • The opportunity to make an impact and develop professionally by leveraging your unique strengths and participating in valuable learning experiences. • Highly competitive compensation, benefits and rewards programs that encourage you to bring your best every day and be recognized for doing so. • An engaging, people-first work environment offering work/life balance, employee resource groups, and social events to promote interaction and camaraderie. • The targeted base pay range for this role is: $1,40,000 to $2,20,000 with this range reflecting differences in candidate knowledge, skills and experience. Why Make a Move to FICO? At FICO, you can develop your career with a leading organization in one of the fastest-growing fields in technology today - Big Data analytics. You ll play a part in our commitment to help businesses use data to improve every choice they make, using advances in artificial intelligence, machine learning, optimization, and much more. FICO makes a real difference in the way businesses operate worldwide: • Credit Scoring - FICO Scores are used by 90 of the top 100 US lenders. • F...