Senior Principal, Forward Deployed Engineer

Shape the Future of AI in Healthcare

At Cigna, we use technology, data, and human insight to improve how people access and experience care. As a Senior Principal, Forward Deployed Engineer, you will serve as the technical leader for AI innovation within the AQUA organization. You will partner directly with business leaders to identify high-impact opportunities, design scalable AI solutions, and establish the engineering standards that enable teams to deliver measurable outcomes.

This is a highly visible leadership role where strategic thinking, technical excellence, and stakeholder influence come together to transform complex business challenges into practical AI-powered solutions.

Responsibilities

Drive AI Strategy and Technical Excellence

• Define the AI architecture, engineering standards, and reusable solution patterns that accelerate delivery across the AQUA portfolio.
• Lead the design and implementation of complex AI solutions, ensuring they are scalable, secure, reliable, and production-ready.
• Evaluate and apply the most effective technologies, including LLMs, RAG architectures, agentic systems, machine learning, and hybrid approaches.
• Establish best practices for evaluation, observability, governance, risk management, and cost optimization.
• Create reusable frameworks, documentation, and playbooks that improve delivery quality and speed across engagements.

Partner with the Business to Deliver Outcomes

• Collaborate closely with business stakeholders to identify opportunities where AI can create measurable value.
• Guide engagements from discovery and solution design through delivery and operational transition.
• Translate complex business requirements into practical technical solutions with clear success criteria.
• Provide executive-level updates on progress, risks, outcomes, and strategic recommendations.
• Make informed decisions in ambiguous situations while balancing business priorities, technical feasibility, and long-term value.

Influence, Mentor, and Scale

• Serve as the trusted technical advisor for senior leadership and key stakeholders.
• Lead architectural reviews, strategy discussions, and cross-functional alignment efforts.
• Mentor Principal and senior engineers, raising technical standards and fostering a culture of excellence.
• Identify repeatable solutions that can evolve into broader enterprise capabilities and platforms.
• Strengthen collaboration across product, engineering, security, legal, compliance, and data science teams.

Required Qualifications

• 12+ years of software engineering, AI/ML engineering, or related experience, including leadership of complex enterprise initiatives.
• Deep expertise in AI engineering, including large language models, RAG architectures, agentic workflows, model evaluation, and production AI systems.
• Strong proficiency in Python and experience with enterprise technologies such as SQL, Java, TypeScript, or Go.
• Experience building, deploying, and operating AI/ML solutions in AWS, Azure, or GCP environments.
• Proven success defining technical strategy and influencing outcomes across multiple teams and stakeholders.
• Strong understanding of responsible AI principles, including privacy, security, governance, human oversight, and risk mitigation.
• Exceptional communication skills with the ability to engage technical, business, and executive audiences.
• Demonstrated ability to lead initiatives in highly matrixed, complex organizations.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience in healthcare, insurance, pharmacy, clinical, or care management environments.
• Experience in forward-deployed engineering, solutions engineering, technical consulting, or customer-facing technology leadership roles.
• Experience leading discovery workshops, design sprints, or product strategy engagements.
• Familiarity with HIPAA, model risk management frameworks, and AI governance practices.
• Experience with Azure OpenAI, AWS Bedrock, Google Vertex AI, Anthropic, or open-source AI platforms.
• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Data Science, or a related field; advanced degree preferred.
• Experience building reusable AI platforms, developer enablement capabilities, or enterprise AI accelerato