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About This Role
Posted Date 7/21/2026
Description
#### When you join Verizon
You want more out of a career. A place to share your ideas freely — even if they’re daring or different. Where the true you can learn, grow, and thrive. At Verizon, we power and empower how people live, work and play by connecting them to what brings them joy. We do what we love — driving innovation, creativity, and impact in the world. Our V Team is a community of people who anticipate, lead, and believe that listening is where learning begins. In crisis and in celebration, we come together — lifting our communities and building trust in how we show up, everywhere \& always. Want in? Join the \#VTeamLife.
#### What you’ll be doing...
As the Associate Director of AI/ML Engineering \- Live Operations, you will use your deep technical expertise in data science and real\-time AI systems to lead a high\-performing team focused on the production lifecycle, health, and optimization of our deployed models. You will play a pivotal role in ensuring our commercial AI applications remain highly accurate, safe, and operationally efficient once they interact with real\-world users.
At Verizon, we are on a multi\-year journey to industrialize our data science and AI capabilities. Very simply, this means that AI will fuel decisions and business processes across the company. At over one hundred thirty billion dollars in annual revenue, this is a pioneering opportunity to design, scale, and maintain production AI in the telecommunications industry. With our leadership in bringing 5G network nationwide, the opportunity for AI will only grow exponentially as we transition from enabling billions of automated, real\-time predictions to trillions.
- Leading a talented, diverse team of AI scientists focusing on the continuous operations, health, and evolution of live production models.
- Monitoring and observing real\-world model performance to proactively detect model drift, track latency, and manage computational expenses, including token costs for large language models.
- Designing and implementing continuous evaluation loops to systematically capture user feedback and ground\-truth outcomes to assess model accuracy on a day\-to\-day basis.
- Managing incident response protocols, rapid hotfixing, and automated safety guardrails to block inappropriate inputs or outputs before they reach the customer.
- Establishing fallback architectures, such as routing users to human agents or traditional rule\-based systems, to ensure a seamless experience if a model fails.
- Automating continuous deployment (CI/CD) pipelines to pull new data, retrain models, test them against strict safety benchmarks, and deploy updates without user disruption.
- Operating as a technical thought leader and trusted advisor to partner with broader data science teams, external vendors, and senior leadership.
- Building an inclusive, highly engaged team culture that promotes autonomy, technical excellence, and rapid delivery of business outcomes.
#### Where you'll be working...
This hybrid role will have a defined work location that includes work from home and assigned office days as set by the manager.
#### What we’re looking for...
You can visualize the big picture strategy but can also break it down into the operational components required to keep complex systems running flawlessly. You understand that once an AI model interacts with live users, the real work begins. You have credibility with engineering and business teams alike because you speak the language of deep data science but can translate technical complexity into clear business value. You are also an inspiring leader who thrives in a fast\-paced environment and brings out the best in your team.
#### You’ll need to have:
- Bachelor’s degree or four or more years of work experience.
- Eight or more years of relevant experience required, demonstrated through one or a combination of work and/or military experience, or specialized training.
#### Even better if you have one or more of the following:
- Master’s degree in statistics, mathematics, analytics, engineering, computer science, or another technical discipline.
- Direct experience managing teams of data scientists or research\-oriented talent in a production, operations, or LiveOps capacity.
- In\-depth working experience with deep learning frameworks (such as PyTorch), Generative AI (such as Large Language Models, Multimodal LLMs, and Alignment), and distributed computing systems.
- Experience building and maintaining automated model monitoring, evaluation, and CI/CD pipelines in a cloud or edge production environment.
- High\-level understanding of, and the ability to explain, both the software engineering code and the underlying mathematical algorithms.
- Proficiency in developing real\-time safety filters, system guardrails, and automated fallback systems for conversational or predictive AI.
- Coding proficiency in Python, Java, or R, alongside experience with AWS, Hadoop, or other distributed compute platforms.
If Verizon and this role sound like a fit for you, we encourage you to apply even if you don’t meet every “even better” qualification listed above.
#### Where you’ll be working
In this hybrid role, you'll have a defined work location that includes working from home and a minimum of three days per week in the office, which will be set by your manager. Employees are responsible for maintaining compliance with hybrid work policies.
#### Scheduled Weekly Hours
40
#### Equal Employment Opportunity
Verizon is an equal opportunity employer. We evaluate qualified applicants without regard to veteran status, disability or other legally protected characteristics.
#### Benefits and Compensation
Our benefits are designed to help you move forward in your career, and in areas of your life outside of Verizon. From health and wellness benefit options including: medical, dental, vision, short and long term disability, basic life insurance, supplemental life insurance, AD\&D insurance, identity theft protection, pet insurance and group home \& auto insurance. We also offer a matched 401(k) savings plan, up to 8 company paid holidays per year and up to 6 personal days per year, paid parental leave, adoption assistance and tuition assistance, plus other incentives, we’ve got you covered with our award\-winning total rewards package. Depending on the role, employees have the opportunity to receive compensation in the form of premium pay such as overtime, shift differential, holiday pay, allowances, etc. Newly hired employees receive up to 15 days of vacation per year, which grows with additional service. For part\-timers, your coverage will vary as you may be eligible for some of these benefits depending on your individual circumstances.
The salary will vary depending on your location and confirmed job\-related skills and experience. This is an incentive based position with the potential to earn more. For part\-time roles, your compensation will be adjusted to reflect your hours.The annual salary range for the location(s) listed on this job requisition based on a full\-time schedule is: $126,000\.00 \- $242,000\.00\.
Salary126,000\.00 \- 242,000\.00 Annual
Type
Full\-time
Salary Context
This $126K-$242K range is above the median for AI/ML Engineer roles in our dataset (median: $180K across 1841 roles with salary data).
View full AI/ML Engineer salary data →Role Details
About This Role
AI/ML Engineers build and deploy machine learning models in production. They work across the full ML lifecycle: data pipelines, model training, evaluation, and serving infrastructure. The role has evolved significantly over the past two years. Where ML Engineers once spent most of their time on model architecture, the job now tilts heavily toward inference optimization, cost management, and integrating LLM capabilities into existing systems. Companies want engineers who can ship production systems, and the experimenter-only role is fading fast.
Day-to-day, you're writing training pipelines, debugging data quality issues, setting up evaluation frameworks, and figuring out why your model performs differently in staging than it did on your dev set. The best ML engineers are obsessive about reproducibility and measurement. They instrument everything. They know that a model is only as good as the data feeding it and the infrastructure serving it.
Across the 3,708 AI roles we're tracking, AI/ML Engineer positions make up 70% of the market. At Information Technology Senior Management Forum, this role fits into their broader AI and engineering organization.
Demand for AI/ML Engineers has been strong and consistent. Unlike some AI roles that spike with hype cycles, ML engineering is a foundational need. Every company deploying AI models needs people who can keep them running, and the gap between research prototypes and production systems keeps growing.
What the Work Looks Like
A typical week might include: debugging a data pipeline that's silently dropping 3% of training examples, running A/B tests on a new model version, writing documentation for a feature flag system that lets you roll back model deployments, and reviewing a junior engineer's PR for a new evaluation metric. Meetings tend to be cross-functional since ML touches product, engineering, and data teams.
Demand for AI/ML Engineers has been strong and consistent. Unlike some AI roles that spike with hype cycles, ML engineering is a foundational need. Every company deploying AI models needs people who can keep them running, and the gap between research prototypes and production systems keeps growing.
Skills Required
Python and PyTorch dominate the requirements. Most roles expect experience with cloud platforms (AWS, GCP, or Azure) and familiarity with ML frameworks like TensorFlow or JAX. RAG (Retrieval-Augmented Generation) has become a top-3 skill requirement as companies integrate LLMs into their products. Docker and Kubernetes show up in about a third of postings, reflecting the production focus of the role.
Beyond the core stack, employers increasingly want experience with experiment tracking tools (MLflow, Weights & Biases), feature stores, and vector databases. Fine-tuning experience is valuable but less common than you'd think from reading Twitter. Most production LLM work is RAG and prompt engineering, not fine-tuning. If you have both, you're in a strong position.
Companies that are serious about AI/ML hiring tend to post specific infrastructure details in the job description: the frameworks they use, their model serving stack, their data pipeline tools. Vague postings that just say 'ML experience required' without specifics are often companies that haven't figured out what they need yet.
Compensation Benchmarks
AI/ML Engineer roles pay a median of $218,750 based on 3,817 positions with disclosed compensation. Director-level AI roles across all categories have a median of $272,150. This role's midpoint ($184K) sits 16% below the category median. Disclosed range: $126K to $242K.
Across all AI roles, the market median is $217,500. Top-quartile compensation starts at $272,100. The 90th percentile reaches $325,000. For comparison, the highest-paying categories include AI Safety ($300,000) and Research Engineer ($280,000). By seniority level: Entry: $120,000; Mid: $200,000; Senior: $230,000; Director: $272,150; VP: $250,000.
Information Technology Senior Management Forum AI Hiring
Information Technology Senior Management Forum has 44 open AI roles right now. They're hiring across AI/ML Engineer, Data Scientist, AI Architect, AI Safety. Positions span McLean, VA, US, San Jose, CA, US, New York, NY, US. Compensation range: $126K - $392K.
Location Context
Across all AI roles, 14% (508 positions) offer remote work, while 3,180 require on-site attendance. Top AI hiring metros: New York (1,045 roles, $220,000 median); San Francisco (810 roles, $277,088 median); Los Angeles (397 roles, $215,000 median).
Career Path
Common paths into AI/ML Engineer roles include Data Scientist, Software Engineer, Research Engineer.
From here, career progression typically leads toward ML Architect, AI Engineering Manager, Principal ML Engineer.
The fastest path into ML engineering is through software engineering with a self-directed ML education. A CS degree helps, but production engineering skills matter more than academic credentials. Build something that works, deploy it, and measure it. That portfolio project is worth more than a Coursera certificate. For career growth, the fork comes around the senior level: go deep on technical complexity (staff/principal track) or move into managing ML teams.
What to Expect in Interviews
Expect system design questions around ML pipelines: how you'd build a training pipeline for a specific use case, handle data drift, or design A/B testing infrastructure for model deployments. Coding rounds typically involve Python, with emphasis on data manipulation (pandas, numpy) and algorithm implementation. Take-home assignments often ask you to build an end-to-end ML pipeline from raw data to deployed model.
When evaluating opportunities: Companies that are serious about AI/ML hiring tend to post specific infrastructure details in the job description: the frameworks they use, their model serving stack, their data pipeline tools. Vague postings that just say 'ML experience required' without specifics are often companies that haven't figured out what they need yet.
AI Hiring Overview
The AI job market has 3,708 open positions tracked in our dataset. By seniority: 102 entry-level, 1,705 mid-level, 1,469 senior, and 432 leadership roles (Director, VP, C-Level). Remote roles make up 14% of the market (508 positions). The remaining 3,180 roles require on-site or hybrid attendance.
The market median for AI roles is $217,500. Top-quartile compensation starts at $272,100. The 90th percentile reaches $325,000. Highest-paying categories: AI Safety ($300,000 median, 21 roles); Research Engineer ($280,000 median, 147 roles); AI Architect ($254,798 median, 67 roles).
Demand for AI/ML Engineers has been strong and consistent. Unlike some AI roles that spike with hype cycles, ML engineering is a foundational need. Every company deploying AI models needs people who can keep them running, and the gap between research prototypes and production systems keeps growing.
The AI Job Market Today
The AI job market spans 3,708 open positions across 16 role categories. The largest categories by volume: AI/ML Engineer (2,605), Data Scientist (310), AI Software Engineer (259). These three account for the majority of open positions, though smaller categories often have higher per-role compensation because of specialized skill requirements.
The seniority mix tells a story about where AI teams are in their maturity. Entry-level roles (102) are outnumbered by mid-level (1,705) and senior (1,469) positions, reflecting that most companies are past the 'build a team from scratch' phase and need experienced engineers who can ship production systems. Leadership roles (Director, VP, C-Level) total 432 positions, representing the bottleneck between technical execution and organizational strategy.
Remote work availability sits at 14% of all AI roles (508 positions), with 3,180 requiring on-site or hybrid attendance. The remote share has stabilized after the post-pandemic correction. Senior and specialized roles (Research Scientist, ML Architect) are more likely to be remote-eligible than entry-level positions, partly because experienced hires have more negotiating power and partly because these roles require less hands-on mentorship.
AI compensation is structured in clear tiers. The market median sits at $217,500. Top-quartile roles start at $272,100, and the 90th percentile reaches $325,000. These figures include base salary with disclosed compensation. Total compensation (including equity, bonuses, and sign-on) runs 20-40% higher at companies that offer those components.
Category matters for compensation. AI Safety roles lead at $300,000 median, while Prompt Engineer roles sit at $140,000. The spread between highest and lowest-paying categories reflects the premium on specialized technical skills versus broader analytical roles.
The most in-demand skills across all AI postings: Python (1,890 postings), Aws (1,103 postings), Azure (877 postings), Rag (855 postings), Gcp (631 postings), Prompt Engineering (560 postings), Pytorch (545 postings), Claude (498 postings). Python dominates, appearing in the vast majority of role descriptions regardless of category. Cloud platform experience (AWS, GCP, Azure) is the second most common requirement. The newer entrants to the top skills list (RAG, vector databases, LLM APIs) reflect the shift from traditional ML toward generative AI applications.
Frequently Asked Questions
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