Lead AI Engineer
RBC is hiring a Lead AI Engineer in Toronto, Canada. Level rates it ; you can apply on RBC.
Level's read on this job
- On Level's scale, this AI engineer role is Builds AI ●●●●: the job is building AI systems.
- The posting mentions PyTorch, TensorFlow and scikit-learn among its tools and skills.
- Level classes it as a lead role.
- RBC has 795 other open roles on Level.
AI in this role
Job Description
Lead AI Engineer
What is the Opportunity?
We are seeking an accomplished Lead AI Engineer to design, develop, and implement AI-driven solutions within our software development lifecycle. You will lead enterprise-scale AI integration initiatives, establish best practices, and advance the technical maturity of our engineering organization. This role actively contributes to improving our Agile, Engineering, and DevOps practices.
This position demands exceptional problem-solving skills, deep AI expertise, and proficiency in modern development technologies (.NET/C#, Java, Python). You will effectively communicate and collaborate with engineering teams, business stakeholders, and senior management across multiple projects and organizational boundaries.
Role Level and Responsibilities
As a Lead AI Engineer, you are an expert professional with deep technical expertise who contributes to organizational objectives through innovative solutions to complex business challenges. Your primary focus is identifying root causes and implementing solutions to critical business problems while assessing and communicating the technological impact on the business.
Key Activities
- Evaluate enterprise software packages and AI platforms, recommending solutions to senior management
- Lead and mentor colleagues in AI product reviews, pilot projects, and technology adoption
- Conduct in-depth analysis of business requirements for large-scale, mission-critical projects
- Perform feasibility studies and translate complex requirements into robust technical designs
- Drive adoption of AI-driven practices across engineering teams
What You'll Do
AI Engineering & Implementation
- Lead the design and development of MCP (Model Context Protocol) servers and tools for seamless AI integration
- Design and implement AI-driven automation solutions, including LLM-powered automation, prompt engineering, and conversational AI
- Develop ML model integration solutions and AI orchestration workflows with monitoring and evaluation
- Integrate UiPath with enterprise AI platforms and APIs
- Support implementation of agentic automation and advanced AI use cases
AI/ML Expertise & Governance
- Integrate LLM APIs and apply advanced prompt engineering techniques
- Design and maintain AI workflow orchestration systems
- Implement Intelligent Document Processing and NLP solutions
- Develop model evaluation, tuning, and governance frameworks
- Design and manage vector databases and RAG (Retrieval-Augmented Generation) systems
- Support responsible AI practices and governance models
AI-Driven Software Development Lifecycle (SDLC)
- Implement AI spec-driven development practices for your squad
- Contribute to AI/ML solutions that enhance code generation, testing, deployment, and monitoring
- Integrate AI technologies into existing SDLC workflows and development tooling
- Collaborate on governance and responsible AI implementation
Technical Leadership & Collaboration
- Lead technology evaluation and assessment for organizational adoption
- Collaborate with enterprise architecture, security, and compliance teams on AI integration
- Contribute to technical training and knowledge-sharing initiatives across the organization
What You Need to Succeed
Must Have
- 10+ years of experience building and operating production software systems at scale
- 2–4 years of hands-on experience with LLMs and generative AI in production environments
- Expert proficiency in .NET/C#, Java, Python, SQL, Git, and CI/CD pipelines
- Deep knowledge of design patterns (MVC, MVVM), SOA, and architectural concepts; hands-on development experience with Azure Integration Services
- Expert-level expertise in API architecture (REST/SOAP)
- Advanced working knowledge of agentic AI patterns: tool use, agent orchestration, ReAct, multi-step reasoning, memory and context management
- Proven proficiency in LLM API integration, prompt engineering, and RAG systems (vector databases, embeddings, retrieval strategies)
- Demonstrated experience designing and building MCP servers and tools with agent-tool integration frameworks
- Cloud platform expertise (AWS, Azure, or GCP), including containers (Docker/Kubernetes) and CI/CD pipelines
- Strong collaboration and communication skills; comfortable with code reviews, design discussions, and pair programming
- Ability to communicate technical decisions clearly to both technical peers and business stakeholders
- Understanding of security, data governance, and responsible AI practices
Nice-to-Have
- Experience with agentic automation and advanced AI solutions in production
- Open-source contributions to automation or AI/ML projects
- Microsoft Azure certification (Azure Developer Associate or Azure Solutions Architect Expert)
- Experience building and training machine learning models (regression, classification, clustering) using frameworks like Scikit-learn, TensorFlow, or PyTorch
What's In It For You?
We thrive on the challenge to be our best, embrace progressive thinking, and work together to deliver trusted solutions that help our clients and communities prosper. We are committed to supporting each other's growth and creating mutual success.
- Comprehensive Total Rewards Program including competitive compensation, bonuses, flexible benefits, commissions, and stock options where applicable
- Development-focused leadership committed to your growth through coaching and career opportunities
- Opportunity to make a meaningful, lasting impact on enterprise AI adoption
- Dynamic, collaborative, and high-performing team environment
- World-class training programs in financial services and emerging technologies
#LI-POST
#TechPJ
Job Skills
Application Development, Application Integrations, Application Maintenance, Applications Architecture, Detail-Oriented, Enterprise Application Delivery, Group Problem Solving, Programming Languages, Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC), System ApplicationsAdditional Job Details
Address:
180 WELLINGTON ST W:TORONTOCity:
TorontoCountry:
CanadaWork hours/week:
37.5Employment Type:
Full timePlatform:
TECHNOLOGY AND OPERATIONSJob Type:
RegularPay Type:
SalariedPosted Date:
2026-08-26Application Deadline:
2026-11-27Note: 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.
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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.
How we rate this
Lead AI Engineer at RBC rates 92 out of 100 for how much of the daily work is AI. That makes it Builds AI (AI Level 4 of 4). The level is about AI in the job, not seniority.
Builds AI. The job is building AI systems.
- ●●●● Builds AI80 to 100
- ●●●○ Works on AI60 to 79
- ●●○○ Uses AI40 to 59
- ●○○○ Little AI0 to 39
Levels come from how often the tools, models and workflows of the role are named in the posting itself. Read the description and count the AI tools, models and workflows it names.
Prepare for this job
Built from this posting and from similar jobs on Level.
Skills and AI tools this role asks for
Also common in AI engineer jobs at this level
Pay
- Typical AI engineer job
- $184k
This posting doesn't list pay. Use the typical AI engineer figure when pay comes up. See AI engineer jobs
Questions you could be asked
- How do you structure and test a prompt to get consistent output from a language model?
- How would you design a retrieval step so the model answers from real data instead of guessing?
- How do you decide that one model's output is better than another's for a given task?
- What NLP problem have you worked on, and how did you measure whether it actually worked?
- How do you think about the risk of an AI system in this kind of role failing silently?
Adapt your resume
- List these exact terms on your resume: Prompt engineering, RAG, AI Evaluation, NLP, and AI Safety. An applicant tracking system matches the wording, not the idea.
- Attach one line of real, concrete experience to at least one of them. A tool named with nothing behind it rarely survives a human read.
- Lead with what you built, trained or shipped. This role is judged on the AI system itself, not the tools around it.
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