Senior AI Application Engineer

ABOUT FIRST COUNTY BANK

First County Bank is a 175-year-old mutual savings bank with approximately $2.3 billion in assets, serving Fairfield County, Connecticut through 13 branches. As a mutual, we answer to our depositors and our community rather than to shareholders, which lets us take a long-term view. Relationship-focused, Community-dedicated, and High-performing are at the heart of who we are, and they will not change.

What is changing is how we work. The bank has launched a multi-year transformation to grow, modernize its operations and make better decisions with data. We have created a Data & AI Office from the ground up, and this role is central to turning that ambition into working software.

THE OPPORTUNITY

We are looking for a hands-on builder who can take a business problem from a whiteboard conversation to a secure, production-ready application. You will design and ship internal applications, data pipelines and AI-enabled tools on Microsoft Azure, using modern web front ends, relational databases and AI-assisted development with Claude Code.

This is not an architecture-only or vendor-management role. You will write code, own outcomes and work directly with bank leaders in finance, lending, wealth management, operations and compliance. Because the team is small, your work will be visible, your judgment will be trusted, and your impact on a 173-year-old institution will be real.

WHAT YOU WILL BUILD

You will build web applications and AI agents for the kinds of problems common across banks. Typical examples include replacing spreadsheet- and Access-based reporting with governed data and dashboards; building a unified view of the customer across core banking, lending and wealth platforms; deposit retention and pricing analytics; commercial and wealth relationship analytics and referral tracking; credit monitoring and underwriting support; automating BSA/AML and other compliance workflows with human review; streamlining document, payment and reconciliation processing in operations; and secure AI assistants and agentic workflows for staff and executives. Priorities will be set with the CDAO and business owners and will evolve as the roadmap matures.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

Build and Deliver

• Design, build, test and deploy full-stack internal web applications on Azure, from data model to user interface.
• Write well-structured, performant SQL; design relational schemas, views and stored procedures that others can understand and maintain.
• Own the databases behind our web applications and AI agents: design for reliable reads and writes, tune queries and indexes, manage schema changes and migrations, and secure application and agent access to data.
• Integrate large language models (Anthropic Claude) into business workflows, including prompt design, retrieval over internal documents, tool use and structured outputs.
• Use Claude Code. MS CoPilot and other AI-assisted development tools to accelerate delivery while reviewing, testing and owning every line that ships.
• Build Power BI datasets and reports, and interactive HTML dashboards where they are the right fit.
• Deliver working prototypes in weeks, not months, and harden the ones that prove their value into production.

Secure and Govern

• Apply security by design: Microsoft Entra ID single sign-on, role-based access, secrets in Azure Key Vault, encryption in transit and at rest, and least-privilege service accounts.
• Follow the bank’s data classification and AI governance including using only approved data in approved AI tools.
• Produce documentation that eliminates key-person risk: architecture notes, data dictionaries, runbooks, lineage and change logs that an examiner or a new colleague can follow.
• Support model validation, audit and regulatory examinations with clear evidence of how applications and models work.

Partner and Enable

• Work directly with business owners to understand processes, quantify the manual effort involved and define what success looks like before building.
• Translate technical choices into plain language for executives and front-line staff.
• Evaluate vendor tools objectively and recommend build, buy or integrate based on cost, risk and fit.

TECHNICAL SKILLS

We do not expect every candidate to have every skill below. We value depth in a few areas, working knowledge across the stack and a demonstrated ability to learn quickly.

Domain

Required

Preferred

Microsoft Azure

Hands-on delivery with App Service or Container Apps, Azure Functions, Azure SQL, Storage, Key Vault and Entra ID

Azure Data Factory or Fabric, API Management, Azure OpenAI or AI Foundry, Bicep or Terraform, Azure certifications (AZ-204, DP-203 or equivalent)

Front end

Modern JavaScript or TypeScript; React (or comparable framework); responsive HTML and CSS; building clean, usable internal tools

Accessibility (WCAG) standards; component libraries; data visualization (D3, Chart.js, Recharts)

Back end & APIs

Python and/or C#/.NET; building and securing REST APIs; authentication and authorization patterns

FastAPI, Node.js, event-driven integration, background job processing

Databases & data

Advanced SQL (SQL Server / Azure SQL); relational data modeling; query tuning, indexing and stored procedures; designing the data layer for web applications and AI agents; ETL/ELT design; data quality checks

Snowflake; dimensional modeling; dbt; experience migrating Microsoft Access or Excel processes into governed databases

Claude & AI-assisted development

Daily, practical use of Claude Code (or similar agentic coding tools) with disciplined review, testing and version control

Claude Projects and Skills; Model Context Protocol (MCP) servers; writing reusable prompts and team coding standards for AI-assisted work

LLM application engineering

Integrating LLM APIs into applications; prompt engineering; structured outputs; handling errors, cost and latency

Retrieval-augmented generation, tool use and agentic workflows, evaluation harnesses, guardrails and human-in-the-loop design

Analytics & BI

Building Power BI datasets and reports; translating business questions into metrics

DAX and Power Query; semantic models; statistical or machine learning models in Python (scikit-learn)

DevOps & quality

Git, pull-request workflows, automated testing, CI/CD with Azure DevOps or GitHub Actions

Infrastructure as code, monitoring and logging (Application Insights), containerization

Banking & regulation

Respect for confidentiality and controls in a regulated environment

Community or regional bank experience; familiarity with core banking platforms (COCC, Fiserv, Jack Henry), GLBA, FFIEC guidance, BSA/AML and model risk management (SR 11-7)

BEHAVIORAL COMPETENCIES

• Strategic Thinking, Problem Solving, and Innovation: Demonstrates strong analytical and critical thinking skills to evaluate complex challenges, develop innovative solutions, and align recommendations with organizational objectives. Adapts effectively to evolving business needs, priorities, and emerging technologies.
• Collaboration, Communication, and Influence: Establishes and maintains effective working relationships across departments and organizational levels. Communicates complex information clearly to technical and non-technical audiences, promotes collaboration, and influences decisions to achieve shared business objectives.
• Accountability and Results Orientation: Demonstrates initiative, sound judgment, and accountability in fulfilling responsibilities. Effectively manages competing priorities, delivers quality results, and provides guidance to colleagues while promoting knowledge sharing and continuous improvement.
• Integrity, Ethics, and Risk Awareness: Demonstrates professionalism, ethical judgement, and a commitment to confidentiality, information security, and regulatory compliance. Recognizes potential risks and promotes responsible use of AI and emerging technologies.

QUALIFICATIONS

• Experience: 10+ years of professional software or data engineering experience, including at least 3 years building and deploying applications on a major cloud platform (Azure strongly preferred).
• Delivery record: A portfolio of shipped applications or data products used by real people, with examples you can walk us through in detail.
• AI-assisted development: Demonstrated, current use of Claude Code or comparable agentic coding tools in real projects, with a clear point of view on how to use them responsibly.
• Education: Bachelor’s degree in computer science, engineering, information systems or a related field, or equivalent practical experience.
• Industry: Financial services or other regulated-industry experience is a strong plus but not required for an exceptional builder who learns quickly.

WHAT SUCCESS LOOKS LIKE

Timeframe

Outcomes

First 90 days

Understands the bank’s systems, data sources and priority processes; Azure development environment, source control and deployment pipeline established; first application or automation delivered to real users

Six months

Two to three production solutions in use with measurable hours saved or risk reduced; documented, examiner-ready architecture and data lineage for everything shipped; trusted partner to at least two business units

Twelve months

Core components of the data platform and Customer 360 in production; reusable patterns for secure AI-enabled applications adopted across the team; mentoring analysts or interns on AI-assisted development

Note: All exercises use synthetic data only. Candidates will not be given access to bank or customer data at any stage of the process.

WHY JOIN FIRST COUNTY BANK

• Greenfield impact: Help build a data and AI capability from the ground up, with direct visibility to the executive team.
• Modern tools: Work with Azure, Claude Code and current AI tooling in an environment that values builders.
• Purpose: Contribute to a mutual institution that has served its community for more than 175 years.
• Growth: Shape the team, the standards and the technical direction as the function expands.

WAGE RANGE: $170,000 - $205,000 – salary commensurate with experience | BENEFITS: First County Bank offers eligible employees a comprehensive benefits package, including medical, dental and vision coverage; life and disability insurance; 401(k); paid time off (PTO) paid holidays; mass transit program; and other employee benefit and wellness programs. Benefits and eligibility are subject to applicable plan terms and conditions.

Work Location: Stamford, Connecticut | This position is based at First County Bank's Stamford, Connecticut location. Candidates must be able to reliably commute to the designated work location.