Senior Software Engineer - AI Operations Team (Open to hiring at the Lead Software Engineer Level)

We are a mutual insurance company owned by our policyholders across Iowa and South Dakota, and we’ve built our reputation on over 80 years’ worth of trust. We are not motivated by profits—we are motivated by the well-being of our friends, family, and neighbors—our members. If you’re passionate about joining an organization working hard to put its members first, provide best-in-class service, and commit to sustainability and innovation, consider applying today!

About the role

As a senior technical contributor on the AI Platform and Operations team, you will help build and operate Apollo, Wellmark's governed, composable foundation for safe, secure, and scalable enterprise AI adoption. You will design, build, and operate core AI platform capabilities including governed AI access, model routing, prompt management, agent orchestration and runtime services, tool execution, knowledge retrieval, evaluation, observability, enterprise guardrails, and cost management.

You will guide engineers through complex technical challenges and drive adoption of architecture standards, automated testing, CI/CD practices, reusable SDKs, infrastructure-as-code, templates, and reference implementations. In partnership with product, architecture, security, compliance, legal, data governance, cloud, and engineering teams, you will strengthen platform reliability, security, auditability, and operational excellence while enabling teams across Wellmark to responsibly adopt and scale AI solutions.

Responsibilities

• Design, build, and operate core AI platform capabilities such as governed AI access, model routing, prompt management, agent orchestration, runtime services, tool execution, knowledge retrieval, evaluation, observability, enterprise guardrails, and cost management.
• Guide engineers through complex technical challenges and drive adoption of architecture standards, automated testing, CI/CD practices, reusable SDKs, infrastructure-as-code, templates, and reference implementations.
• Strengthen platform reliability, security, auditability, and operational excellence in partnership with product, architecture, security, compliance, legal, data governance, cloud, and engineering teams.
• Provide high-level analysis and implementation of innovative, efficient, and cost-effective business solutions for multiple platforms, utilizing information technology, business, and industry trends.
• Guide other engineers in the design, development, code testing, debugging, and resolution of issues that utilize emerging technology.
• Provide advanced support in gathering information, performing root cause analysis, problem definition, solution implementation, verification, and ongoing optimization.
• Ensure analysis of defects to find root cause and guide others in identifying potential improvement opportunities.
• Mentor, guide, and problem-solve with other technology areas in the development and implementation of solutions.
• Use data and cost measures (AWS, infrastructure, labor, etc.) to influence timely decisions, build consensus, and take actions to successfully deliver project or production support objectives.
• Identify known issues, impacts to project or production outcomes if not resolved, and escalate as necessary.
• Build relationships with Wellmark leaders and act as a consultant on business status, issues, process improvements, and technology enhancements or capabilities.
• Participate in project proposals, estimates, and proof-of-concept activities as needed.
• Maintain awareness of industry best practices and standards and proactively participate in industry/knowledge reference groups relative to role.
• Other duties as assigned.

Qualifications

Preferred:

• Experience developing cloud-native applications and platform services using TypeScript, Node.js, Python, or similar technologies.
• Experience with AWS cloud services and familiarity with AI/ML capabilities such as Amazon Bedrock, Bedrock AgentCore, SageMaker, OpenSearch, Lambda, API Gateway, DynamoDB, EventBridge, Step Functions, or related services.
• Familiarity with Microsoft Azure AI services, Azure OpenAI, Azure AI Foundry, Azure AI Search, or other Azure-native AI capabilities.
• Experience designing, building, or operating AI platform capabilities such as model routing, prompt management, agent orchestration, agent runtimes, tool integration, or AI governance controls.
• Experience implementing knowledge retrieval solutions including embeddings, vector indexing, citation frameworks, semantic search, or retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) patterns.
• Experience creating reusable SDKs, APIs, templates, reference implementations, platform services, or developer self-service capabilities.
• Knowledge of identity, authentication, authorization, policy enforcement, privacy, security controls, and enterprise guardrails for AI-enabled solutions.
• Experience designing solutions for regulated environments with requirements for compliance, auditability, lineage, traceability, evidence capture, and operational governance.
• Experience implementing observability practices including tracing, metrics, logging, dashboards, alerting, incident response, platform monitoring, and operational readiness.
• Experience with AI observability and evaluation practices, including monitoring AI application quality, retrieval effectiveness, agent performance, model behavior, safety controls, and operational health.
• Experience defining, implementing, or analyzing quantitative and qualitative AI performance metrics, including accuracy, latency, cost, groundedness, hallucination detection, user feedback signals, and LLM-as-a-judge evaluation methodologies.
• Experience developing automated evaluation or quality measurement frameworks for AI applications, including models, prompts, retrieval systems, agents, safety controls, and accuracy validation.
• Understanding of AI usage tracking, cost attribution, reporting, and optimization strategies across models, services, and workloads.
• Experience enabling engineering teams to adopt shared platforms, standards, and reusable capabilities while balancing enterprise consistency with solution-specific needs.
• Ability to evaluate emerging AI technologies, models, providers, frameworks, and implementation patterns based on capability, reliability, latency, cost, compliance, security, and business requirements.
• Experience working within an Agile team environment.

Required:

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, MIS, or related field of study, and at least 2 years of software development experience (e.g., Angular, NodeJS, TypeScript, etc.) OR 6 years of related and applicable experience.
• Strong analytical problem-solving skills.
• Accuracy and high attention to detail.
• Previous experience troubleshooting and developing creative technical solutions.
• Ability to provide innovative solutions to complex issues.
• Demonstrated experience in software development lifecycle methodologies.
• Big picture thinker with the ability to translate the value of the WaaS strategy to company strategy when making design and development decisions.
• Demonstrated, strong ability to gather information, perform necessary research needed for root cause analysis, problem definition and formulation, recommend solution implementation, verification, and ongoing optimization, using data to support recommendations and best practices.
• Demonstrated ability to build relationships to reach outcomes that gain the support and acceptance of all parties.
• Ability to communicate key information in a timely manner to the appropriate stakeholder audience with the ability to adjust communication style that will best suit the audience.
• Ability to communicate with and coach/mentor team members, while setting an example in maintaining a positive attitude, staying calm under pressure, being approachable, and respectful and taking responsibility for failures.
• Ability to thrive in a fast-paced environment with changing priorities.
• Excellent organizational skills.
• Strong time management skills with the ability to set and meet established timeframes with little direction, while assuring data and information integrity.
• Eagerness to learn and stay current on industry trends and have a continuous learning mindset.
• Ability to collaborate and work as a team to accomplish goals and/or solve problems.
• Ability to earn trust and respect from peers, leadership, and stakeholders.
• Ability to learn by actively listening and applying coaching feedback.
• Ability to lead, support, and work within a diverse development team model including global staffing, crowd sourcing, etc.

At this time, Wellmark is not considering applicants for this position that require any type of immigration sponsorship (additional work authorization or permanent work authorization) now or in the future to work in the United States.