Director of AI Engineering

Company Overview

Panacea Financial Holdings (“Panacea”) is a rapidly growing fintech and banking platform purpose-built to serve the unique financial needs of physicians, dentists, and veterinarians. Panacea is building the next-generation financial ecosystem for healthcare professionals—spanning practice finance, personal banking, patient finance, accounting / tax, advisory and payments.

Position Summary

Panacea Financial Holdings is seeking a Director of AI Engineering & Strategy to lead the development and execution of our AI strategy and drive the integration of artificial intelligence across our products and technology platforms.

This role combines strategic leadership with hands-on software engineering expertise to design, build, and implement innovative AI solutions that enhance product capabilities, improve customer experiences, and support business growth. Working closely with Product, Engineering, and executive leadership, the Director will help shape our AI architecture, identify opportunities for innovation, and deliver secure, scalable AI capabilities.

Initially serving as an individual contributor, this person will take direct ownership of AI initiatives from concept through production. As Panacea's AI capabilities expand, the role offers the opportunity to help build and potentially lead a dedicated AI engineering function.

The ideal candidate is a strategic and technically skilled leader with a strong background in software engineering or data science, demonstrated experience writing and shipping production code, and a genuine passion for AI and its potential to transform business and technology.

Key Responsibilities

AI Strategy & Product Innovation

• Develop and execute an AI strategy and roadmap aligned with Panacea's product vision, technology priorities, and business objectives.
• Identify and prioritize opportunities to integrate AI into existing and future products, platforms, customer experiences, and our internal systems and operations.
• Partner with Product, Engineering, and executive leadership to define AI capabilities, technical requirements, and development priorities.
• Evaluate emerging AI technologies and recommend solutions that enhance product functionality, differentiation, and scalability.

AI Engineering & Development

• Design, write, test, deploy and support AI-powered product features, workflows, and intelligent agents.
• Architect and build solutions leveraging generative AI, large language models, machine learning, and related technologies.
• Develop scalable AI infrastructure, APIs, and integrations that support existing and future technology platforms.
• Own the full AI development lifecycle, including prototyping, testing, deployment, monitoring, and continuous optimization.
• Establish engineering standards to ensure AI solutions are secure, reliable, scalable, and maintainable.
• Evaluate and implement emerging AI development tools, frameworks, and technologies to accelerate innovation and improve engineering efficiency.

Leadership & Organizational Adoption

• Uphold the AI Policy and serve as the company’s primary AI steward.
• Serve as a strategic and technical AI advisor to Product, Engineering, and executive leadership.
• Lead AI development initiatives from concept through production deployment.
• Collaborate with Compliance, Risk, and Information Security to ensure AI solutions meet applicable regulatory, privacy, and security requirements.
• Evaluate AI technologies, development frameworks, vendors, and infrastructure investments.
• Communicate complex AI concepts, technical decisions, and project outcomes clearly to both technical and nontechnical stakeholders.
• Help establish the foundation for Panacea's AI engineering function, with the potential to take on broader organizational and people leadership responsibilities as the function grows.

Qualifications & Experience

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Data Science, or a related field, or equivalent practical experience.
• 8+ years of experience in software engineering, data science, or related technical fields, including substantial hands-on experience writing, testing, and deploying production code.
• Demonstrated experience independently designing, building, shipping, and maintaining software applications or AI solutions in production environments.
• Strong proficiency in Python, APIs, cloud technologies, and modern AI development frameworks.
• Experience with generative AI, large language models, AI agents, and machine learning technologies.
• Strong understanding of software architecture, systems integration, and scalable platform development.
• Demonstrated ability to develop technical strategies and translate product and business objectives into AI solutions.
• Strong technical leadership, problem solving, communication, and cross functional collaboration skills.
• Ability to explain complex technical concepts clearly to business leaders and stakeholders without technical backgrounds.
• Genuine enthusiasm for artificial intelligence, emerging technologies, and their potential to transform products, workflows, and customer experiences.
• Comfortable operating as a hands-on individual contributor while helping build the foundation for a growing technical function.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience in financial services, fintech, banking, or another regulated industry.
• Experience developing AI powered financial products or customer facing technology platforms.
• Familiarity with AI governance, model risk management, data privacy, and information security.
• Experience with cloud infrastructure, AI orchestration frameworks, and production AI monitoring.
• Experience leading AI engineering initiatives, technical teams, or external development partners.
• Interest in growing into broader technical and people leadership responsibilities as the organization scales.