[Remote] Mgr, Engineering

Note: The job is a remote job and is open to candidates in USA. Thrivent is seeking an experienced AI Engineering Manager to lead the team responsible for building their enterprise AI/ML platform. This role involves guiding the development of scalable and efficient AI solutions while fostering a strong engineering culture and ensuring alignment with business goals.ResponsibilitiesReview AI/ML and platform solution designs — classical ML, LLM/RAG, and agentic systems — and provide guidance on scalability, security, cost, and compliance across Databricks and AWSShape reference architectures and reusable, paved-road patterns (training pipelines, deployment templates, retrieval services, repository bootstrapping) that make the right way the easy way for delivery teamsMaintain strong technical fluency in AI/ML systems; able to read code and guide best practices across model integration, APIs, and platform servicesApply strong problem-solving and analytical skills to guide teams through complex AI/ML and platform challengesPartner closely with Product Management to define strategies, operating plans, roadmaps, targets, and measures for the platform capabilities the team ownsTreat the platform as a product: understand the needs of Thrivent’s delivery teams, drive adoption through enablement, documentation, and support, and measure success by customer outcomesHelp set the product and platform technology vision in partnership with AI engineering leadership; represent the business value of platform investments and influence prioritization in the roadmapSupport the team’s agile practices; engage in sprint demos and understand both the outcomes sought and the technology deliveredBuild strong working relationships with peers across teams; proactively identify cross-team challenges and empower teams to solve them collaborativelyChampion engineering excellence across AI/ML and platform development, including code review, testing, CI/CD, MLOps, observability, and reliability practicesBuild evaluation and observability into the platform as first-class capabilities for LLM and agentic systems, including automated evaluation, drift monitoring, and tracingPartner with model risk, security, and compliance functions to automate governance: risk-tier classification, policy-gated promotion, and audit-ready evidenceOwn the operational health of the team’s services: monitoring and alerting, serving as an escalation point for production incidents, and prioritizing work to maintain and continuously improve product healthStay ahead of trends in AI/ML, platform engineering, and cloud (AWS), assess their impact on business capabilities and strategy, and create space for teams to experiment with and adopt emerging techniquesGuide build-versus-buy decisions and tool selection for the team’s capability areas; define selection criteria with the team and manage associated technology vendor and consulting relationshipsHold regular 1:1s and team meetings; provide constructive feedback, guidance, and coaching to help engineers grow their skills and experienceProvide career planning advice and create development plans that leverage engineers’ skills and capabilities and provide learning opportunitiesRecruit, develop, and sustain a high-performing team while promoting a culture of shared accountability, operational excellence, and partnership across the organization; plan ahead for future people needs, including selecting and engaging consulting partnersCreate a positive team environment where individuals have psychological safety and work collaboratively while understanding, respecting, challenging, and appreciating each other’s ideasModel Thrivent’s leadership competencies of courage, collaboration, and commitment, while supporting a culture that represents the Thrivent purpose, promise, and values, ensuring Thrivent’s trust and reputation remain strong with its clientsManage a team of direct and indirect staffSkillsBachelor's degree in Computer Science or other technical field or equivalent work experience8+ years of progressively responsible positions in Information Technology including 5+ years' experience in IT discipline, e.g., customer relationship management, portfolio strategy and roadmap development3+ years of leadership experience in all aspects of a specific IT discipline, e.g. IT/LOB customer relationship management, portfolio strategy and/or demand management3+ years' management/supervisory experience in specific IT functional area discipline, e.g. applications development or equivalent skills leading major technical projects with accountability for enforcing talent management needs and performance standardsDemonstrated leadership and experience managing multidiscipline, high-performance work teamsStrong competency in project management and execution of multiple or large projectsExperience working with customers to develop solutions to complex business problemsProven ability to communicate effectively with internal/external stakeholders to support business initiativesProven ability to function in an environment which requires flexibility, good judgment, and intelligent decision making, often based on limited information and/or extreme conditionsAbility to formulate, implement and evaluate plans, programs and procedures applicable to customer relationships and demand managementHands-on experience building or operating production ML or LLM systems, with working fluency in modern AI patterns — RAG, agentic systems, and model lifecycle/MLOps — sufficient to credibly review designs and codeExperience with the platform's core stack: Databricks (including MLflow and Unity Catalog) and AWS (including Amazon Bedrock and SageMaker), along with modern CI/CD and infrastructure-as-code toolingExperience leading internal platform, ML platform, or developer-experience teams, including platform-as-a-product practices and adoption/outcome metricsFamiliarity with evaluation and observability for LLM and agentic systems (automated evaluation, hallucination detection, drift monitoring, tracing)Familiarity with agentic AI patterns such as Model Context Protocol (MCP), multi-agent orchestration, and human-in-the-loop designExperience with AI governance, model risk management, or responsible AI practices in financial services or another regulated industryFinancial Services industry experienceBenefitsVarious bonuses (including, for example, annual or long-term incentives)Medical, dental, and vision insuranceHealth savings accountFlexible spending account401kPensionLife and accidental death and dismemberment insuranceDisability insuranceSupplemental protection insurance20 days of Paid Time Off each yearSick and Safe Time10 paid company holidaysVolunteer Time OffPaid parental leaveEAPWell-being benefitsOther employee benefitsCompany OverviewThrivent is a financial services organization that helps Christians be wise with money and live generously. It was founded in 1902, and is headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA, with a workforce of 5001-10000 employees. Its website is https://www.thrivent.com.Company H1B SponsorshipThrivent has a track record of offering H1B sponsorships, with 1 in 2026, 10 in 2025, 9 in 2024, 15 in 2023, 6 in 2022, 2 in 2021, 2 in 2020. Please note that this does not guarantee sponsorship for this specific role.