Principal AI Engineer - AI Engineering & Enablement

Questrade Financial Group (QFG), through its companies - Questrade, Questbank, Questrade Wealth Management, Community Trust Company, Zolo, and Flexiti, provides securities and foreign currency investment, professionally managed investment portfolios, mortgages, real estate services, financial services and more. We use cutting-edge technology to help Canadians become much more financially successful and secure.

At QFG, we combine human-centric collaboration with AI-driven innovation to redefine financial services. The ideal candidate will be a catalyst for change, using AI to transform and deliver unparalleled customer experiences and shaping a future where AI empowers our teams to do their best work.

Join our diverse, inclusive, and hybrid workplace to unleash your creativity and nurture your curiosity without limits. If you share this sense of infinite possibility, come shape your future at QFG.

What’s in it for you as an employee of QFG?

Health & wellbeing resources and programs.

Paid vacation, personal, and sick days for work-life balance.

Competitive compensation and benefits packages.

Work-life balance in a hybrid environment with at least 3 days in office.

Career growth and development opportunities.

Community contribution opportunities to support various causes.

Inclusive environment working with diverse team members in a collaborative setting.

This job posting is for an existing vacancy.

We’re looking for our next Principal AI Engineer. Could It Be You?

We are on a mission to democratize finance and empower investors through technology. We are hiring a Principal AI Engineer, a hands-on technical leader and force multiplier in AI Engineering & Enablement, to advance AI-assisted SDLC: engineering productivity, AI CI/CD and pipeline integration, automation, and related platform capabilities safely and at scale in Questrade’s regulated technology environment. You work within squad-aligned priorities and technical trade-offs agreed with engineering leadership, combining deep implementation skill with sound judgment to help teams ship through pragmatic patterns, clear technical direction, and strong cross-functional alignment.

Need more details? Keep reading...

In this role, responsibilities include but are not limited to:

Technical leadership: Define and drive technical direction for complex initiatives within the AI Engineering & Enablement charter and squad-aligned priorities, spanning AI-assisted engineering, internal tooling, SDLC automation, AI CI/CD and pipeline-level patterns, and integration across services and platforms.

Lead solutioning for ambiguous problems by producing crisp technical artifacts (RFCs, decision records, runbooks, evaluation summaries, and onboarding guides) that enable teams to move faster with confidence.

Hands-on delivery: Lead spikes, reference implementations, and critical-path engineering work when it accelerates outcomes; perform code reviews and pairing to uplift engineering quality and consistency.

AI, automation, and developer productivity: Establish and evolve safe, scalable patterns for AI-assisted development and automation—including coding assistants, agent workflows, tool-use patterns (APIs, MCP, CLI-based agents), retrieval and RAG patterns where contextual AI is productized, and evaluation/traceability approaches that improve engineering velocity without compromising controls.

Quality and testing in the SDLC: Contribute to test strategy, quality gates in CI/CD, and AI-assisted testing approaches that fit regulated engineering standards.

Partner with security, enterprise architecture, and cloud platform teams so designs reflect identity, access, spend guardrails, auditability, operational ownership, and standards for AI APIs and AI CI/CD where applicable.

Enablement: Connect product and platform teams so promising ideas mature into deployed, consumed capabilities.

Improve instrumentation and feedback loops (dashboards, limits, alerts, lightweight metrics) so adoption and risk are visible to leadership.

Mentor engineers through complex technical challenges; facilitate productive conversations across engineering, risk, and leadership during planning, incident learnings, and architecture reviews.

Stakeholder communication: Represent engineering positions in working groups; articulate trade-offs, sequencing, and costs with clarity; escalate when needed and document decisions for durable alignment.

Vendor and external engineering: When directed, support technical assessments, PoCs, and review of partner or external engineering deliverables against defined standards and acceptance criteria.

Within the first 6–12 months, deliver measurable impact aligned to squad roadmap through shipped improvements, reusable templates and reference implementations, and trusted partnerships across security, EA, and platform teams.

So are YOU our next Principal AI Engineer? You are if you…

BS or Master’s degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, Systems Engineering, or a related field (or equivalent combination of education and experience).

10 years of professional software or systems engineering experience with a proven track record shipping features in ambiguous, cross-team environments typical of senior IC scope. Familiarity with metrics (e.g., Datadog, OpenTelemetry)

Knowledge of FinOps principles and working on a FinOps enabled environment

Demonstrated experience building or operating LLM-, agent-, or ML-backed capabilities in production—or an exceptional combination of strong software delivery plus deep applied AI engineering experience.

Technical proficiency: Hands-on mastery in at least one modern engineering stack used for services or automation (e.g., Python, TypeScript/Node, .NET).

Strong experience with CI/CD, software quality practices, and operating services with attention to reliability, performance, and observability.

Familiarity with LLM application patterns (including RAG and retrieval design), agent orchestration concepts, workflow automation platforms, and evaluation / observability approaches for non-deterministic systems.

Architecture & data: Practical grounding in APIs, microservices, and data governance considerations for AI model serving and data flows is highly preferred.

Exposure to enterprise identity, SaaS administration models, and common engineering collaboration tooling (e.g., GitLab, Jira, Confluence).

Experience with major cloud providers (e.g., GCP) and cloud-native practices is highly preferred.

Leadership & communication: Excellent written and verbal communication skills; ability to translate technical concepts for engineering, risk, and leadership audiences.

Proven success influencing outcomes within technical priorities agreed with engineering leadership, without direct people-management authority.

Experience in regulated or high-stakes environments (financial services preferred) is a strong asset.

Additional kudos if you…

Contributions to technical standards or communities of practice; experience with human-in-the-loop automation patterns; prior technical assessments or vendor/PoC evaluations.

Experience operating in regulated industries (financial services, healthcare) with familiarity of compliance and security constraints for AI infrastructure

Hands-on experience implementing AI security controls including prompt injection mitigation, output filtering, and PII detection

Familiarity with AI governance frameworks and responsible AI engineering practices including model audit logging and fairness monitoring

Demonstrated ability to influence technical direction at organizational level through architecture reviews and cross-functional stakeholder engagement

Contributions to open-source AI/platform engineering projects, technical publications, or conference presentations at recognized forums

Compensation Information:

Base salary range: $115,000 - $170,000.

The final package will be commensurate with experience, skills, and geographic location (Canada).

Includes a comprehensive benefits plan and a competitive incentive (bonus) program.

"Sounds like you?"

At Questrade Financial Group of Companies, with multiple office locations around the world, we are committed to fostering a diverse, inclusive and accessible work environment. This is an environment where individuals are treated with dignity and respect. Here, the unique skills and experience you bring will be valued. You will be supported and motivated, so that you can harness your unlimited potential. Our team reflects the diversity of the communities we serve and operate in. Having a collaborative and diverse team helps us push boundaries to bring the future of fintech into existence—not only for the benefit of our customers, but for those who build their career with us.

Questrade Financial Group of companies Applicant Tracking System utilizes artificial intelligence (AI) for application screening. The AI system operates on predetermined criteria, with final decisions subject to human review.

Candidates selected for an interview will be contacted directly. If you require accommodation during the recruitment/selection process, please let us know and we will work with you to meet your needs.

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