Lead Software Engineer - AI/ML & Platform Modernization

Your opportunity

At Schwab, you’re empowered to make an impact on your career. Here, innovative thought meets creative problem solving, helping us “challenge the status quo” and transform the finance industry together.

Join us at the intersection of cutting-edge AI technology and complex financial domains, where you’ll lead the technical transformation of retirement services. As a Principal Software Engineer, you’ll architect AI-native systems using Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) and Model Context Protocol (MCP) to modernize legacy applications through Domain-Driven Design. You’ll have executive-level support, a substantial budget, and the freedom to pioneer RAG architecture and multi-agent orchestration in a highly regulated, mission-critical environment.

At Schwab, you’ll be part of a collaborative, inclusive team where your expertise will help define industry-leading patterns and make a real difference in people’s retirement security.

What you have

To ensure that we fulfill our promise of “challenging the status quo,” this role has specific qualifications that successful candidates should have.

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, or related technical field, or equivalent practical experience
• 10+ years of professional software engineering experience
• 3+ years in a technical leadership or architect role
• 2+ years of hands-on experience with AI/ML implementation and production deployment
• Experience with legacy application modernization and migration projects
• Hands-on experience with Large Language Models (e.g., GPT-4, Claude, Gemini, PaLM)
• Production implementation of RAG (Retrieval-Augmented Generation) architectures
• Experience with Model Context Protocol (MCP) or AI agent orchestration frameworks
• Experience with vector databases (e.g., Pinecone, Weaviate, Chroma, Vertex AI Vector Search)
• Experience with Vertex AI platform on Google Cloud Platform (GCP)
• Proficiency in Python for AI/ML development and data processing
• Proficiency in .NET for enterprise services and legacy integration
• Proficiency in SQL for query optimization and database design
• Experience with Domain-Driven Design, microservices, and event-driven architecture
• Experience with event streaming platforms (Kafka, Pub/Sub, or similar)
• Proven ability to lead technical teams and mentor engineers
• Proven communication skills with the ability to explain complex technical concepts to non-technical stakeholders

Preferred Qualifications

• Master’s degree in Computer Science, AI/ML, or related field
• 2+ years’ experience implementing RAG architectures using frameworks like LangChain, LlamaIndex, or Haystack
• Experience in financial services or highly regulated industries
• Experience in retirement services, wealth management, or FinTech
• Experience with Vertex AI Workbench, ML Ops, and model lifecycle management
• Experience with LLM fine-tuning and custom model training
• Multi-cloud experience (AWS/Azure in addition to GCP)
• Advanced GKE and service mesh, Cloud Build, and advanced CI/CD pipelines
• Experience with JavaScript/TypeScript for full-stack context
• Experience with event sourcing, CQRS, and distributed transaction patterns
• Experience working in Agile/Scrum environments at scale
• Track record of driving consensus in cross-functional teams
• Public speaking or technical writing experience (blogs, conferences, patents)
• Contributions to open-source AI/ML projects
• Knowledge of retirement services (401k, IRA, RMDs, rollovers)
• Certifications such as Google Cloud Professional Machine Learning Engineer, Google Cloud Professional Cloud Architect, AWS Certified Solutions Architect, or Azure Solutions Architect