Director, AI Engineering

📋 Description

• • As the Director of AI Engineering at Lantern, you will be at the forefront of transforming healthcare delivery through cutting-edge artificial intelligence and machine learning. This pivotal leadership role is responsible for architecting and executing Lantern’s AI strategy, driving the development and deployment of intelligent systems that enhance patient outcomes, optimize operational efficiency, and fuel scalable growth. You will build and lead a world-class AI engineering team, setting the technical vision for our ML and LLM initiatives, and ensuring seamless integration with our product roadmap and core business objectives.
• • Reporting directly to the VP of Engineering, you will collaborate closely with executive leadership across product, clinical operations, marketing, and data science to identify and prioritize high-impact AI opportunities. Your mission will be to translate these opportunities into tangible, production-ready solutions that deliver measurable value to our members and the organization.
• • You will own the entire AI engineering lifecycle, from initial research and rapid prototyping to robust production deployment and ongoing performance monitoring. This includes establishing and championing best-in-class MLOps practices, ensuring reproducibility, scalability, and reliability of our AI systems. Your expertise will be crucial in setting up CI/CD pipelines for models, implementing automated testing, drift detection, and observability frameworks, all within a cloud-native environment, specifically leveraging Azure.
• • A key aspect of this role involves driving rapid proof-of-concept (POC) development. You will foster an environment where innovative ideas can be quickly tested and validated, moving promising POCs into production-grade systems with agility and precision. This requires a deep understanding of modern ML frameworks like PyTorch and TensorFlow, as well as expertise in LLM technologies, including prompt engineering, Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG), embeddings, fine-tuning, and the development of intelligent agents.
• • You will be instrumental in shaping the technical architecture of our ML/LLM systems, ensuring they are scalable, reliable, secure, and compliant with stringent healthcare regulations. This includes making critical decisions about infrastructure, tooling, and development methodologies.
• • Building and nurturing a high-performing AI engineering team is central to this role. You will be responsible for attracting top talent, mentoring engineers, managing performance, and cultivating a culture of technical excellence, continuous learning, and collaborative innovation. Your leadership will inspire the team to tackle complex challenges and achieve ambitious goals.
• • Strategic thinking is paramount. You will define the AI engineering strategy and technical roadmap, ensuring it is tightly aligned with Lantern’s overarching product strategy, clinical workflows, and business objectives. This involves balancing a long-term vision with the need for rapid execution and demonstrable business impact.
• • You will establish clear Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and success metrics for the AI engineering function, tracking model performance, delivery velocity, team health, and the overall business value generated by AI initiatives.
• • Championing responsible AI practices is a non-negotiable. You will ensure that fairness, transparency, explainability, and ethical considerations are embedded in all our AI development processes, particularly given the sensitive nature of healthcare data and patient care.
• • Your role will extend to representing Lantern’s AI capabilities externally, contributing to thought leadership, engaging with the AI community, and building a strong talent brand to attract the best minds in the field.
• • This is an opportunity to make a profound impact on the future of healthcare. By leveraging AI, you will help Lantern deliver more personalized, efficient, and effective care, ultimately improving the lives of millions of members across the country. You will be a key driver in shaping how intelligent systems revolutionize the healthcare landscape, making quality care more accessible and affordable.