Ottawa (Downtown), ON, CA
Senior AI Engineer
Take a central role
The Bank of Canada has a vision to be a leading central bank—dynamic, engaged and trusted—committed to a better Canada. No other employer in the country offers you the unique opportunity to work at the very center of Canada’s economy, in an organization with significant impact on the economic and financial well-being of all Canadians. You will be challenged, energized and motivated to excel in our environment.
Building on the principles that have always guided us – excellence, integrity and respect – we strive to be forward-looking and innovative, to welcome people with diverse perspectives and talents, and to earn trust by living up to our commitments and by clearly explaining the intent of our policies and actions.
With our defined-benefit pension plan, benefits, and high flexibility for work life balance - find out more about why we are annually ranked as one of Canada's top employers: Working Here - Bank of Canada
Find out more about the next steps in our Recruitment process.
In addition to the position being staffed, this competition may be used to fill similar opportunities (Regular or Term) that become available at the same job grade. If you’re interested in this type of role, we encourage you to apply.
About the role
We are looking for a Senior AI Engineer (Senior Developer) to join our Data and Compute Platforms team, which enables and scales AI/ML workloads on Databricks. Sitting at the intersection of platform engineering and data science, this role works closely with partner teams to design, build, and support robust and reliable AI solutions.
Rather than focusing on a single use case, you will enable multiple data science teams, helping scale how AI is developed, deployed, and operated across the platform. You will contribute hands on while shaping reusable frameworks, platform standards, and best practices that accelerate AI adoption at scale.
This is a highly collaborative role where you influence AI delivery across the organization by translating business problems into scalable architectures, optimizing Databricks workflows, and advancing MLOps practices and platform capabilities that support diverse and evolving use cases.
What you will do
More specifically you will:
- Partner with data science and analytics teams to design and implement AI/ML solutions on Databricks
- Provide hands-on technical guidance for model development, deployment, performance tuning and optimization
- Build and maintain reusable frameworks, accelerators, and best practices for AI workloads
- Support and enhance the Databricks platform (performance, reliability, cost efficiency)
- Diagnose and resolve complex issues spanning data pipelines, ML workflows, and underlying cloud infrastructure
- Drive the adoption of MLOps practices (including CI/CD, model monitoring, governance and lifecycle management)
- Act as a key technical bridge between platform engineering and data science teams
- Stay current on emerging AI/ML technologies and translate relevant innovations into platform capabilities.
What you need to succeed
To successfully strive in this role, we are looking for someone with the following skills and competencies:
Technical skills
- Strong experience with Databricks
- Solid programming skills in Python (and ideally PySpark), reproducible workflows, version control (GitHub)
- Experience building and deploying ML models in production environments
- Deep understanding of distributed data processing (Apache Spark)
- Proven experience in architecting and delivering multiplatform AI/ML solutions at enterprise scale
- Experience with MLOps practices: Model versioning, deployment, monitoring, CI/CD pipelines for ML workflows
- Familiarity with cloud platforms (AWS, Azure, or GCP)
- Experience working with large-scale data pipelines and data engineering concepts
AI/ML Skills
- Practical experience with machine learning frameworks (e.g., TensorFlow, PyTorch, scikit-learn)
- Ability to support end-to-end ML lifecycle (data prep → training → deployment → monitoring)
- Strong understanding of AI model performance, evaluation, and debugging
In addition, we are looking for someone who has:
- Proven experience partnering with data scientists, engineers and other cross-functional teams to deliver end to end solutions
- Ability to translate business and research needs into scalable technical solutions
- Well-developed problem-solving and troubleshooting skills, with the ability to diagnose complex issues and drive solutions collaboratively
- Strong communications skills with the ability to clearly articulate complex technical concepts to various internal stakeholders
Nice-to-have
- Experience with LLMs and generative AI use cases
- Familiarity with tools like LangChain, vector databases, or RAG architectures
- Prompt engineering and evaluation techniques
- Unity Catalog, Delta Lake, MLflow (especially at scale)
- Databricks performance tuning and cost optimization
Education and Experience
This position requires a bachelor’s or master’s degree in computer science, engineering, data science, or a related field, along with six (6) or more years of experience in software engineering, AI/ML engineering, or a related technical role.
Relevant experience includes building and supporting AI or data driven solutions in cloud or distributed environments, working closely with data science teams, and applying software engineering and MLOps best practices to deliver solutions at scale.
An equivalent combination of education and experience may be considered.
Innovative Mindset
We value candidates who demonstrate adaptability, curiosity, and a willingness to learn new technologies, including AI and digital tools. We seek individuals who can think critically about data, question existing processes, and find ways to simplify our work while embracing change and new ways of doing things.
Language requirement
The Bank’s work environment is conducive to the use of both of Canada’s official languages - English and French. Although the position language requirement is English or French essential, we do encourage everyone to improve their second language proficiency for future career growth and to contribute towards fostering a bilingual environment.
What you need to know
- Priority will be given to Canadian citizens and permanent residents
- Security level required: Be eligible to obtain Secret
- Relocation assistance may be provided, if required
- Please save a copy of the job poster. Once the closing date has passed, it will no longer be available.
- The official title for this position is “Senior Developer ”
Hybrid Work Model
The Bank offers work arrangements that provide employees with flexibility, enable high-performing teams, and support an excellent workplace culture. Most employees can telework from home for a portion of each month as part of the Bank’s hybrid work model, and they are expected on site at the Bank location a minimum of 12 days per month to help build connections between colleagues. You must live in Canada, and within reasonable commuting distance of the office.
What you can expect from us
This is a great opportunity to join a leading organization and be part of a high-performing team. We offer a competitive compensation and benefits package designed to meet your needs at every stage of your life and career. For more information on key benefits please visit A great deal to consider.
- Salaries are based on qualifications and experience and typically range from $111,051 to $130,649 (job grade 17)
- The Bank offers an incentive for successfully meeting expectations at 7 to 10% of your base salary. The Bank offers additional performance pay (5%) for those who exceed expectations. Exceptional performers who far exceed expectations may be eligible for higher performance pay.
- Flexible and comprehensive benefits so you can choose the level of health, dental disability and life and/or accident insurance coverage that meets your needs
- Extra vacation days (up to five each year) that you can purchase to add to your vacation entitlement
- Indexed, defined-benefit pension
We wish to thank all applicants for their interest and effort in applying for this position. Only candidates selected for interviews will be contacted.