Lead AI/ML Engineer
Spgi · New York, New York, United States · hybrid
About the Role:
Grade Level (for internal use):
12The Team:
You will join S&P Global Ratings' Data Services Team — an expert-led group at the forefront of AI/ML and Generative AI innovation, bringing deep expertise across critical Ratings data domains, technology platforms, and architectural patterns. We operate with a clear mandate: to deliver the next generation of S&P Ratings' analytics infrastructure through technical rigor, collaborative innovation, and the translation of cutting-edge AI research into reliable, production-grade systems. This is a unique opportunity to help architect and shape the AI capabilities that inform credit decisions relied upon by global markets every day.
Responsibilities and Impact:
- Architect and own the end-to-end delivery of scalable ML and Generative AI solutions — from requirements definition with senior business stakeholders through to production deployment on AWS — directly shaping S&P Ratings' next-generation analytics platform.
- Design and build reusable AI platforms, model evaluation frameworks, and performance optimization tooling used across the Ratings organization, establishing the technical standards that power enterprise-wide innovation.
- Apply state-of-the-art GenAI technologies — including agentic AI frameworks, LLM fine-tuning, and retrieval-augmented generation — to complex credit ratings datasets, producing data-driven insights that directly inform global market decisions.
- Lead technical research and adoption of emerging AI/ML technologies, driving a measurable improvement in the quality, scalability, and performance of existing Ratings analytics solutions.
- Partner with cross-functional teams of data scientists, software engineers, and business analysts to translate complex analytical requirements into high-performance, production-grade solutions delivered within agreed timelines.
- Define and champion AI engineering best practices, reusable capability frameworks, and technical standards that will govern the Data Services team's contribution to S&P Global Ratings for years to come.
What We're Looking For:
Basic Required Qualifications:
- Cloud AI/ML Experience 10+ years of experience designing, building, and deploying production-grade AI, ML, or data-driven solutions in AWS cloud environments (e.g., SageMaker, Bedrock, or Glue), with end-to-end ownership from solution architecture through live operation.
- Python Programming & ML Frameworks 5+ years of Python development with production application of at least one ML framework (TensorFlow, PyTorch, or scikit-learn) within end-to-end model training, evaluation, and deployment pipelines.
- Java Engineering & Cloud Infrastructure 3+ years of Java application development using Spring Boot in microservices architectures, combined with 3+ years deploying and managing containerized workloads using Docker and Kubernetes in cloud-hosted environments, with active use of Git-based CI/CD workflows.
- Production AI Systems — GenAI, NLP & Data Demonstrated delivery of at least 2 production AI systems incorporating deep learning, NLP, or Generative AI techniques, with applied SQL-based management of structured and unstructured datasets at enterprise scale, and hands-on development using agentic AI frameworks or autonomous workflow architectures.
- AI-Assisted Development Tooling Demonstrated use of AI-assisted development tools (GitHub Copilot, Cursor, or Claude Code) across at least 2 shipped production projects, integrated within a structured team-based software development lifecycle.
Additional Preferred Qualifications:
- Delivered at least 1 production or near-production agentic AI system using LangChain, LangGraph, CrewAI, ADK, or Strands.
- 2+ years of hands-on experience implementing graph databases (e.g., Neo4j, Amazon Neptune) or graph-based algorithms within data engineering or ML feature pipelines.
- Working proficiency in at least one front-end technology (React, JavaScript, or HTML) demonstrated through integration of ML model outputs into a user-facing application.
- 2+ years of data engineering experience including pipeline development, feature engineering, and data preparation for ML model training in a cloud environment.
- Hands-on experience designing or operating data lakes or AI-ready data platforms (e.g., AWS Lake Formation, Databricks, or Snowflake) at enterprise scale.
- Experience deploying ML solutions using Apache Spark or Hadoop on datasets exceeding 1TB in a distributed cloud environment.
- 2+ years applying AI-native SDLC practices including automated model evaluation pipelines, experiment tracking (e.g., MLflow or Weights & Biases), and model versioning within a team-based CI/CD workflow.
Work Arrangement: This is a hybrid role requiring a minimum of 2 days per week in our New York, NY office. Specific in-office days are agreed with your hiring manager to support team collaboration and delivery.
Right to Work RequirementsThis role is limited to persons with indefinite right to work in the United States.
Compensation/Benefits Information (US Applicants Only):
S&P Global states that the anticipated base salary range for this position is $149,302 – $209,000. Final base salary for this role will be based on the individual’s geographical location as well as experience and qualifications for the role.
In addition to base compensation, this role is eligible for an annual incentive plan. This role is not eligible for additional compensation such as an annual incentive bonus or sales commission plan.
This role is eligible to receive additional S&P Global benefits. For more information on the benefits we provide to our employees, please click here.
About S&P Global Ratings
At S&P Global Ratings, our analyst-driven credit ratings, research, and sustainable finance opinions provide critical insights that are essential to translating complexity into clarity so market participants can uncover opportunities and make decisions with conviction. By bringing transparency to the market through high-quality independent opinions on creditworthiness, we enable growth across a wide variety of organizations, including businesses, governments, and institutions.
S&P Global Ratings is a division of S&P Global (NYSE: SPGI). S&P Global is the world’s foremost provider of credit ratings, benchmarks, analytics and workflow solutions in the global capital, commodity and automotive markets. With every one of our offerings, we help many of the world’s leading organizations navigate the economic landscape so they can plan for tomorrow, today.
For more information, visit www.spglobal.com/ratings
What’s In It For You?
Our Mission:
Advancing Essential Intelligence.
Our People:
We're more than 35,000 strong worldwide—so we're able to understand nuances while having a broad perspective. Our team is driven by curiosity and a shared belief that Essential Intelligence can help build a more prosperous future for us all.From finding new ways to measure sustainability to analyzing energy transition across the supply chain to building workflow solutions that make it easy to tap into insight and apply it. We are changing the way people see things and empowering them to make an impact on the world we live in. We’re committed to a more equitable future and to helping our customers find new, sustainable ways of doing business. Join us and help create the critical insights that truly make a difference.
Our Values:
Integrity, Discovery, Partnership
Throughout our history, the world's leading organizations have relied on us for the Essential Intelligence they need to make confident decisions about the road ahead. We start with a foundation of integrity in all we do, bring a spirit of discovery to our work, and collaborate in close partnership with each other and our customers to achieve shared goals.
Benefits:
We take care of you, so you can take care of business. We care about our people. That’s why we provide everything you—and your career—nee