Director Of Engineering Jobs in San Francisco Bay Area, CA

Director of Engineering, AI Solutions

What's the opportunity?

We're looking for a Director of Engineering to lead and scale a high-performing engineering team within our research and development organization-setting the hands-on technical vision, standards, and roadmap that translate cutting-edge AI research into production-grade solutions deployed at enterprise scale.

You will build, lead, and scale a high-performing engineering organization with a culture of excellence, accountability, and continuous learning. As the engineering leader, you will champion best practices aligned with RBC's enterprise ecosystem while driving the adoption of state-of-the-art AI engineering practices.

Your responsibilities include:

Engineering Leadership & Strategy

• Define and execute the technical vision and multi-year roadmap for the engineering function

• Establish engineering standards, design patterns, and best practices that comply with RBC's enterprise ecosystem and governance requirements

• Drive the integration of state-of-the-art AI engineering practices, including modern MLOps, infrastructure-as-code, and automated testing frameworks

• Evaluate and adopt emerging technologies that enhance team productivity and solution quality

• Represent engineering in strategic planning discussions with research and business leadership

Team Leadership & Development

• Lead and scale a team of 10-15 ML software engineers organized across deployment and data teams

• Recruit, mentor, and develop engineers into next-generation technical leaders

• Build a culture of high performance, high standards, accountability, and continuous improvement

• Establish clear career progression paths and growth opportunities for engineering staff

• Foster knowledge sharing, technical excellence, and engineering craftsmanship across teams

• Conduct performance management and provide regular coaching and feedback

Technical Delivery & Operations

• Oversee end-to-end delivery of AI solutions from data pipeline development through production deployment

• Ensure reliable, scalable, and maintainable AI systems on RBC's hybrid cloud/on-premise infrastructure

• Drive operational excellence in monitoring, alerting, model retraining, and system reliability

• Establish and track engineering metrics for delivery velocity, system reliability, and technical debt

• Manage technical dependencies and coordinate delivery across deployment and data teams

• Support the annual delivery of 5-6 production AI solutions with consistent quality and reliability

Collaboration & Stakeholder Management

• Partner closely with research leadership to translate research innovations into production-ready systems

• Collaborate with enterprise architecture, platform, and infrastructure teams to ensure alignment with RBC's technology standards

• Engage with business stakeholders across Retail Credit, Commercial Credit, and Fraud to understand requirements and communicate technical capabilities

• Work with risk, compliance, and security teams to ensure solutions meet regulatory and governance requirements

You're our ideal candidate if you have:

• 10+ years of progressive software engineering experience with 5+ years leading and scaling engineering teams

• Deep expertise in ML systems, MLOps practices, data pipeline architecture, and production AI deployment

• Proven experience with hybrid cloud/on-premise infrastructure and enterprise-scale deployment patterns

• Demonstrated track record of building high-performing engineering organizations with strong cultures and high standards

• Bachelor's or Master's degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, or a related technical field

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience in large enterprise environments with complex technology ecosystems and governance requirements

• 5+ years focused on ML/AI engineering

• 5+ years of experience leading and scaling engineering teams of 10 or more engineers

What's in it for you?

• High-Impact Leadership Role - Opportunity to lead engineering for a strategic AI R&D organization within one of Canada's largest financial institutions

• Research-to-Production Innovation - Work at the intersection of cutting-edge AI research and enterprise-scale production systems

• Shape RBC's AI Future - Directly influence the AI capabilities that drive business outcomes across credit and fraud domains

• Collaborative Environment - Partner with research scientists, business leaders, and enterprise technology teams

• Professional Growth - Opportunity to build and scale a world-class engineering organization

About RBC Borealis:

RBC Borealis is the driving force behind Royal Bank of Canada's AI and data innovation. As part of Canada's largest financial institution, we bring together a team of architects, engineers, scientists, and product experts on a mission to revolutionize finance through world-class research, solutions, and a resilient data platform. With locations across Toronto, Waterloo, Montreal, Calgary, and Vancouver, we're at the forefront of AI research and platform development. With a focus on cutting-edge research in areas like time series forecasting, causal machine learning, and responsible AI, we are seamlessly integrating AI research and data engineering, to solve critical challenges in the financial industry. We are building intelligent, and scalable, data-driven solutions that will help communities thrive and drive innovation for our customers across the bank.

Inclusion and Equal Opportunity Employment:

RBC is an equal opportunity employer committed to diversity and inclusion. We are pleased to consider all qualified applicants for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, disability, protected veterans status, Aboriginal/Native American status or any other legally-protected factors. Disability-related accommodations during the application process are available upon request.

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Note: Applications will be accepted until 11:59 PM on the day prior to the application deadline date above

Our Employment Opportunities

At RBC, we are guided by living shared values of Client First, Integrity, Collaboration, Respect and Excellence and winning together as One RBC. We believe an inclusive workplace that has diverse perspectives is core to our continued growth as one of the largest and most successful banks in the world. Maintaining a workplace where our employees feel supported to perform at their best, effectively collaborate, drive innovation, and grow professionally helps to bring our Purpose to life and create value for our clients and communities. RBC strives to deliver this through policies and programs intended to foster a workplace based on respect, belonging and opportunity for all.

RBC is presently inviting candidates to apply for this existing vacancy. Applying to this posting allows you to express your interest in this current career opportunity at RBC. Qualified applicants may be contacted to review their resume in more detail.