AI Operations Lead

AI Operations Lead Location: Cedar Rapids, Iowa Job Family IT - General About Us At Transamerica, hard work, innovative thinking, and personal accountability are qualities we honor and reward. We understand the potential of leveraging the talents of a diverse workforce. We embrace an environment where employees enjoy a balance between their careers, families, communities, and personal interests. Ultimately, we appreciate the uniqueness of a company where talented professionals work collaboratively in a positive environment — one focused on helping people look forward and plan for the best life possible while providing tools and solutions that make it easier to get there. Who We Are We believe everyone deserves to live their best life. More than a century ago, we were among the first financial services companies in America to serve everyday people from all walks of life. Today, we’re part of an international holding company, with millions of customers and thousands of employees worldwide. Our insurance, retirement, and investment solutions help people make the most of what’s important to them. We’re empowered by a vast agent network covering North America, with diversity to match. Together with our nonprofit research institute and foundation, we tune in, step up, and are a force for good — for our customers and the communities where we live, work, and play. United in our purpose, we help people create the financial freedom to live life on their terms. What We Do Transamerica is organized into three distinct businesses. These include 1) World Financial Group, including Transamerica Financial Advisors, 2) Protection Solutions and Savings & Investments, comprised of life insurance, annuities, employee benefits, retirement plans, and Transamerica Investment Solutions, and 3) Financial Assets, which includes legacy blocks of long term care, universal life, and variable and fixed annuities. These are supported by Transamerica Corporate, which includes Finance, People and Places, General Counsel, Risk, Internal Audit, Strategy and Development, and Corporate Affairs, which covers Communications, Brand, and Government and Policy Affairs. Transamerica employs nearly 7,000 people. It’s part of Aegon, an integrated, diversified, international financial services group servingapproximately 23.9 million customersworldwide.* For more information, visit transamerica.com. Job Description Summary Enterprise Technology (formerly Global Technology Services) is a global organization within Transamerica. We provide dedicated support to Transamerica and we bring all Aegon's business units together through the use of technology. We provide the backbone - the infrastructure - for how everything works. We’re creating the company’s AI environment, building a flexible ‘cloud experience’ for internal hosting services, designing frameworks for data governance and management, and ensuring the security and stability of the company’s technology. In short, we enable the business units to move more quickly and deliver to our clients in the best possible way. Whether customers are interested in insurance products or annuities or financial services, we're here to ensure they don't have to worry whether their information is safe. The people we employ are incredibly diverse, both in terms of backgrounds and skill sets.  There are over 1,000 of us representing a dozen or so nationalities and located in the UK, the US, the Netherlands, and Hungary, Spain, and Hong Kong.  Our global teams are comprised of experts in the areas such as application development, information security, infrastructure services, data & analytics, risk & controls, procurement, program management, and architecture.  With the breadth of functions within Enterprise Technology, individuals can pursue a wide variety of careers, and we have a focus on supporting employees’ development.  Our Talent Marketplace enables colleagues to take on gigs to broaden their experience and try out different responsibilities, which can be extremely rewarding. The most important quality in the people who join us is curiosity.  A lot of what we do is problem solving, requiring colleagues to take what they know and apply it to new situations. We have many mature processes, but we’re always looking for opportunities to improve, so we want people who are naturally inquisitive and confident enough to challenge ourselves the way we do things.  Technology is constantly, rapidly changing – we need you to help us continue to change with it. Job Description Aegon’s Core AI Team is scaling rapidly to meet growing demand for AI-driven transformation across our global business. Building on recent successes – including the launch of a vendor-agnostic enterprise LLM gateway (AWS Launchpad), we are now investing in next-generation Gen AI and Agentic AI capabilities. We are seeking an experienced AI Operations (Platform) Lead to evolve the organizations AI platform and operational services, develop and mature AI operations and customer support processes, drive and support AI Platform adoption, and provide AI expertise to accelerate developer onboarding and enablement. What You Will Do: Own the operational health, monitoring, and performance of Aegon’s Enterprise Launchpad AI Platform, AI chatbot and other related services. Own and continuously improve the Launchpad DevOps CI/CD pipeline and supporting tooling. Lead and develop a distributed team of three engineers (across US and EU time zones), providing platform onboarding, training, enablement, and Level 2 support. Coordinate delivery across a broader virtual team, including Launchpad developers, cloud, security, AI specialists, and Business Unit engineering teams. Act as a hands‑on technical escalation point for complex platform, integration, or operational issues. Mature and run incident, problem, and service management practices, including root cause analysis and continuous improvement. Evolve and automate the platform onboarding journey, improving the developer experience through better tooling, documentation, and guidance. Own and maintain developer standards, self‑service documentation, user guides, developer best practice, and intranet content for the Launchpad platform. Partner closely with security, risk, and architecture teams to ensure safe, compliant, and responsible AI operations. Track and report on platform adoption, reliability, and operational KPIs, using insights to drive improvements and new capabilities. Provide mentoring and coaching to members of the Launchpad Team development and support team, bring your wealth of experience and knowledge to others. If you’re passionate about operating AI platforms at scale, enabling developers, and building reliable, responsible AI services, we’d love to hear from you. What You Will Need: Qualifications A bachelor’s degree in computer science, Artificial Intelligence, Data Science, or a related discipline. Professional certifications in AI and/or cloud technologies (preferred). 10+ years’ experience in technology operations, platform delivery, or engineering enablement roles. Experience of supporting Generative AI or LLM gateway‑based platforms in production. Proven experience leading small engineering teams, including people management and cross‑team coordination. Strong Python proficiency, with experience delivering production‑ready solutions. Solid understanding of the GenAI ecosystem and agentic frameworks and protocols, such as Strands SDK, LangChain, A2A, and MCP. Appreciation of DevOps practices and automated CI/CD pipelines, and common security, scanning and testing tools. Deep appreciation for developer experience, including onboarding, enablement, and high‑quality documentation. Working knowledge of AWS Cloud, AWS AI infrastructure and related services. Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to translate complex technical topics for diverse audiences. A pragmatic, service‑oriented mindset, with a strong focus on operational excellence and continuous improvement. Demonstrated ability to collaborate with diverse stakeholders to deliver scalable, enterprise AI solutions. Preferred (but not essential) Experience working in the insurance industry or other regulated sectors. Master’s degree in computer science, Artificial Intelligence, Data Science, or a related field. Experience of building AI solutions using AWS AgentCore. Working Conditions Moderate travel to other offices. Some work outside of normal business hours may be required due to global nature of business. Compensation: The Salary for this position generally ranges between $131,200 - $164,000 annually. Please note that the salary range is a good faith estimate for this position and actual starting pay is determined by several factors including qualifications, experience, geography, work location designation (in-office, hybrid, remote) and operational needs. Salary may vary above and below the stated amounts, as permitted by applicable law. Additionally, this position is typically eligible for an Annual Bonus based on the Company Bonus Plan/Individual Performance and is at the Company’s discretion. Applicants must be authorized to work for any employer in the U.S. We are unable to sponsor or take over sponsorship of an employment Visa at this time. This is a hybrid position requiring three days in office per week in one of our hub locations (Cedar Rapids, Denver, Philadelphia). Relocation assistance will not be provided for this position. What We Offer For eligible employees, we offer a comprehensive benefits package designed to support both the personal and financial well-being of our employees. Compensation Benefits Competitive Pay Bonus for Eligible Employees Benefits Package Pension Plan 401k Match Employee Stock Purchase Plan Tuition Reimbursement Disability Insurance Medical Insurance Dental Insurance Vision Insurance Employee Discounts Career Training & Development Opportunities Health and Work/Life Balance Benefits Paid Time Off starting at 160 hours annually for employees in their first year of service. Ten (10) paid holidays per year (typically mirroring the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) holidays). Be Well Company holistic wellness program, which includes Wellness Coaching and Reward Dollars Parental Leave – fifteen (15) days of paid parental leave per calendar year to eligible employees with at least one year of service at the time of birth, placement of an adopted child, or placement of a foster care child. Adoption Assistance Employee Assistance Program Back-Up Care Program PTO for Volunteer Hours Employee Matching Gifts Program Employee Resource Groups Inclusion and Diversity Programs Employee Recognition Program Referral Bonus Programs Inclusion & Diversity We believe our commitment to diversity and inclusion creates a work environment filled with exceptional individuals. We’re thrilled to have been recognized for our efforts through the Human Rights Campaign Corporate Equality Index, Dave Thomas Adoption Friendly Advocate, and several Seramount lists, including the Inclusion Index, 100 Best Companies for Working Parents, Best Companies for Dads, and Top 75 Companies for Executive Women. To foster a culture of inclusivity throughout our workforce, workplace, and marketplace, Transamerica offers a wide range of diversity and inclusion programs. This includes our company-sponsored, employee-driven Employee Resource Groups (ERGs), which are formed around a shared interest or a common characteristic of diversity. ERGs are open to all employees. They provide a supportive environment to help us better appreciate our similarities and differences and understand how they benefit us all. Giving Back We believe our responsibilities extend beyond our corporate walls. That's why we created the Aegon Transamerica Foundation in 1994. Through a mix of financial grants and the volunteer efforts of our employees, the foundation supports nonprofit organizations focused on the things that matter most to our people in the communities where we live and work. Transamerica’s Parent Company Aegon acquired the Transamerica business in 1999. Since its start in 1844, Aegon has  grown into an international company serving more than 23.9 million people across the globe.* It offers investment, protection, and retirement solutions, always with a clear purpose: Helping people live their best lives. As a leading global investor and employer, the company seeks to have a positive impact by addressing critical environmental and societal issues, with a focus on climate change and inclusion and diversity. * As of December 31, 2023 Additional Locations: Denver, Colorado, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania