AI Customer Engineering Lead

Leading At Cognizant

This is a leadership role at Cognizant. We believe how you lead is as important as what you deliver. Cognizant leaders at every level: Drive our business strategy and inspire teams around our future. Live the leadership behaviors, leading themselves, others and the business. Uphold our values, role modeling them in every action and decision. Nurture our people and culture, creating a workplace where all can thrive.

At Cognizant, leadership transcends titles and is embodied in actions and behaviors. We empower our leaders at every level to drive business strategy, inspire teams, uphold our values, and foster an inclusive culture.

About The Role

As an AI Customer Engineering Lead, you will set the technology direction for delivering AI-Enabled solutions for enterprise customers. You will be a valued member of the team, working collaboratively with cross-functional stakeholders, and clients to architect and position scalable AI/ML solutions. As a senior technologist with a strong architecture background and a proven record of success in customer-facing or customer engineering roles, you will act as a trusted advisor and thought leader shaping solution strategy, influencing technical decisions, and representing Cognizant's AI expertise in the market.

In this role, you will:

• Build the Technology for offerings
• Partner effectively with offering specialists and industry domain strategists to build the technology stack to deliver business solutions
• Participate in early-stage ideation sessions with clients and account teams to explore the art of the possible with GenAI/AI
• Translate ambiguous client questions into solution hypotheses, conceptual flows, and initial narratives
• Solution Shaping & Architecture
• Define end-to-end solution options, including architecture outlines, data/ML needs, integration patterns, and partner components
• Create multiple solution pathways (good–better–best), documenting trade-offs and feasibility
• Proposal Development & Client Engagement
• Produce client-ready solution artifacts: proposals, SoWs, architecture decks, value frameworks, and demo narratives
• Lead client walkthroughs, deep-dive sessions, and technical Q&A to progress the opportunity
• Pursuit Orchestration & Cross-functional Alignment
• Conduct deal governance checkpoints with delivery to ensure implementation and risk alignment
• Ensure smooth transition to delivery teams with full context, assumptions, and validated architecture
• Team Management
• Lead a team of Sr. Customer Engineers and Customer Engineers
• Set Goals, Mentor, and Build Development plans to create a strong customer engineering capability

Consistently demonstrate the Cognizant Way to Lead, which means operating with Personal Leadership (building trust, collaboration, and inclusion), Organizational Leadership (driving vision and purpose, demonstrating a strategic and enterprise mindset, and creating and communicating a bold direction that inspires purpose), and Business Leadership (exemplifying client focus, managing ambiguity with accountability and results, and operating with financial acumen)

What you need to have to be considered:

• Demonstrated ability to build a team of solution engineers with varying levels of experience across the whole agentic stack.
• Overall experience of 20 years, with 10+ years in AI/ML engineering, solution architecture, pre-sales, or technical consulting.
• Strong expertise in GenAI, LLMs, agent architectures, MLOps, and enterprise integration patterns.
• Strong communication, storytelling, and technical synthesis abilities
• Embodiment of the Cognizant Way to Lead: Leading Self, Leading Others, & Leading the Business
• The embodiment of Cognizant's Values of: Work as One, Dare to Innovate, Raise the Bar, Do The Right Thing, & Own It

These will help you succeed:

• Leadership – Inspiring people, talent identification, and driving high performance.
• Solutioning Excellence – ability to design scalable, feasible, value-led solutions.
• AI/ML Technical Depth – understanding of GenAI, LLMs, ML engineering, data pipelines, and agent architectures.
• Commercial Acumen – knowledgeable in pricing, estimation, and commercial trade-offs.
• Risk & Governance Discipline – strong rigor in documenting assumptions and managing solution risks

Work model:

At Cognizant, we strive to provide flexibility wherever possible, and we are here to support a healthy work-life balance through our various wellbeing programs. Based on this role's business requirements, this is an onsite position requiring 3 days a week in a client or Cognizant office.

The working arrangements for this role are accurate as of the date of posting. This may change based on the project you're engaged in, as well as business and client requirements. Rest assured; we will always be clear about role expectations

We're excited to meet people who share our mission and can make an impact in a variety of ways. Don't hesitate to apply, even if you only meet the minimum requirements listed. Think about your transferable experiences and unique skills that make you stand out as someone who can bring new and exciting things to this role.

Salary and Other Compensation: Applications will be accepted until March 9, 2026.

The annual salary for this position is between $139,050 - $254,000 depending on the experience and other qualifications of the successful candidate.

This position is also eligible for Cognizant's discretionary annual incentive program and stock awards, based on performance and subject to the terms of Cognizant's applicable plans.

Benefits: Cognizant offers the following benefits for this position, subject to applicable eligibility requirements:

• Medical/Dental/Vision/Life Insurance
• Paid holidays plus Paid Time Off
• 401(k) plan and contributions
• Long-term/Short-term Disability
• Paid Parental Leave
• Employee Stock Purchase Plan

Disclaimer: The salary, other compensation, and benefits information is accurate as of the date of this posting. Cognizant reserves the right to modify this information at any time, subject to applicable law.

About us Cognizant is one of the world's leading professional services companies, transforming clients' business, operating, and technology models for the digital era. Our unique industry-based, consultative approach helps clients envision, build, and run more innovative and efficient businesses. Headquartered in the U.S., Cognizant (a member of the NASDAQ-100 and one of Forbes World's Best Employers 2025) is consistently listed among the most admired companies in the world.

Other employment-related information Cognizant is an equal opportunity employer. Your application and candidacy will not be considered based on race, color, sex, religion, creed, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, genetic information, pregnancy, veteran status or any other characteristic protected by federal, provincial or local laws.

If you have a disability that requires reasonable accommodation to search for a job opening or submit an application, please email CareersNA2@cognizant.com with your request and contact information.

Language requirements vary depending on roles, but we ask that all candidates have basic English proficiency for company-wide communications purposes. For roles based in Quebec, professional English proficiency is required, as you'll deliver services to and collaborate with stakeholders outside the province who may not speak French.