AI Sofware Engineer - NLP/LLM

At Moody's, we unite the brightest minds to turn today’s risks into tomorrow’s opportunities. We do this by striving to create an inclusive environment where everyone feels welcome to be who they are—with the freedom to exchange ideas, think innovatively, and listen to each other and customers in meaningful ways. 

If you are excited about this opportunity but do not meet every single requirement, please apply! You still may be a great fit for this role or other open roles. We are seeking candidates who model our values: invest in every relationship, lead with curiosity, champion diverse perspectives, turn inputs into actions, and uphold trust through integrity. 

Skills and Competencies

• 5+ years of demonstrated experience building production-grade machine learning systems with measurable impacts; expertise in NLP and search and recommendation systems is preferred.

• Hands-on experience with large language model (LLM) applications and AI agents, including retrieval-augmented generation, prompt optimization, fine-tuning, agent design, and evaluation methodologies; familiarity with prompt optimization frameworks like DSPy is preferred.

• Deep expertise in machine learning models and systems design, including classic models (e.g., XGBoost), modern deep learning and graph machine learning architectures (e.g., transformers-based models, graph neural networks (GNN)), and reinforcement learning systems.

• Proven ability to take models and agents from research to production, including optimization for latency and cost, implementation of monitoring and tracing, and development of reusable platforms or frameworks.

• Strong technical leadership and mentorship skills, with a track record of growing engineers, improving team velocity through automation, documentation, and tooling, and influencing architectural decisions without direct authority.

• Excellent communication and strategic thinking abilities, capable of aligning technical decisions with business outcomes, navigating ambiguity, and driving cross-functional collaboration.
  
  Education
  Bachelor’s degree or higher in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field.

Responsibilities

As an Associate Director of Data Science, you will be driving unscoped, high-impact projects that apply cutting-edge AI and machine learning techniques in production. You’ll collaborate closely with cross-functional partners, including product management, software engineers, and business stakeholders, to identify opportunities, scope and deliver solutions, and measure their impact. This role blends technical leadership and hands-on execution: you’ll guide project direction, ensure quality, contribute code, and introduce best practices that scale team effectiveness. Your ability to influence strategy and translate complex ideas into business value will be key to advancing the organization’s data science and AI/ML agenda.

• Design and deploy end to end AI and machine learning solutions including machine learning and graph-based models, natural language processing (NLP) models, and large language model (LLM) based AI agents. Build robust pipelines for data ingestion, feature engineering, model training, validation, and real-time or batch inference.
• Develop and integrate large language model (LLM) applications using techniques such as fine-tuning, retrieval-augmented generation, and reinforcement learning. Build autonomous agents capable of multi-step reasoning and tool use in production environments.
• Lead the full model and agent development lifecycle, from problem definition and data exploration through experimentation, implementation, deployment, and monitoring. Ensure solutions are scalable, reliable, and aligned with business goals.
• Advocate and implement machine learning operations (MLOps) best practices including data monitoring and tracing, error analysis, automated retraining, model and prompt versioning, business metrics monitoring, and incident response.
• Collaborate across disciplines and provide technical leadership, working with product managers, engineers, and researchers to deliver impactful solutions. Mentor team members, lead design reviews, and promote best practices in AI and machine learning systems development.

About the team

Our Compliance & Third-Party Risk team is responsible for delivering data-driven solutions that help organizations manage risk across Know Your Customer (KYC), supply chain, and trade credit domains. Our Data Science team plays a central role in this mission by developing scalable machine learning systems, advanced applied AI capabilities, and building platforms that power Moody’s risk intelligence products. By joining our team, you will be part of exciting work in applied artificial intelligence and machine learning, cross-functional product development, and global risk analytics

For US-based roles only: the anticipated hiring base salary range for this position is $159,300.00 - $230,850.00, depending on factors such as experience, education, level, skills, and location. This range is based on a full-time position. In addition to base salary, this role is eligible for incentive compensation. Moody’s also offers a competitive benefits package, including not but limited to medical, dental, vision, parental leave, paid time off, a 401(k) plan with employee and company contribution opportunities, life, disability, and accident insurance, a discounted employee stock purchase plan, and tuition reimbursement.

Moody’s is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, sex, gender, age, religion or creed, national origin, ancestry, citizenship, marital or familial status, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, genetic information, physical or mental disability, military or veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law. Moody’s also provides reasonable accommodation to qualified individuals with disabilities or based on a sincerely held religious belief in accordance with applicable laws. If you need to inquire about a reasonable accommodation, or need assistance with completing the application process, please email accommodations@moodys.com. This contact information is for accommodation requests only, and cannot be used to inquire about the status of applications

For San Francisco positions, qualified applicants with criminal histories will be considered for employment consistent with the requirements of the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance.

This position may be considered a promotional opportunity, pursuant to the Colorado Equal Pay for Equal Work Act.

Click here to view our full EEO policy statement. Click here for more information on your EEO rights under the law. Click here to view our Pay Transparency Nondiscrimination statement. Click here to view our Notice to New York City Applicants.
Candidates for Moody's Corporation may be asked to disclose securities holdings pursuant to Moody’s Policy for Securities Trading and the requirements of the position. Employment is contingent upon compliance with the Policy, including remediation of positions in those holdings as necessary.