Application Development Lead - Artificial Intelligence

Application Development Lead - Artificial Intelligence

Take a central role

The Bank of Canada has a vision to be a leading central bank—dynamic, engaged and trusted—committed to a better Canada. No other employer in the country offers you the unique opportunity to work at the very center of Canada’s economy, in an organization with significant impact on the economic and financial well-being of all Canadians. You will be challenged, energized and motivated to excel in our environment.

Building on the principles that have always guided us – excellence, integrity and respect – we strive to be forward-looking and innovative, to welcome people with diverse perspectives and talents, and to earn trust by living up to our commitments and by clearly explaining the intent of our policies and actions.

With our defined-benefit pension plan, benefits, and high flexibility for work life balance - find out more about why we are annually ranked as one of Canada's top employers: Working Here - Bank of Canada

Find out more about the next steps in our Recruitment process.

In addition to the position being staffed, this competition may be used to fill similar opportunities (Regular or Term) that become available at the same job grade. If you’re interested in this type of role, we encourage you to apply.

What you need to know
We are seeking an Application Development Lead who is passionate about building the next generation of AI-powered developer experiences. In this role, you will lead the development, configuration, and implementation of advanced Code Engineering capabilities across GitHub Copilot, AI foundry and Microsoft Fabric technologies, and enable teams to work more efficiently through automation and modern AI platforms.

This is an opportunity to play a key role in shaping how AI augments application development at the Bank, working alongside multidisciplinary teams to build secure, scalable, and enterprise-ready AI solutions that enhance productivity while maintaining the Bank’s strong standards for governance, reliability, and operational excellence.

What you will do
As the AI Application Development Lead, you will provide hands-on technical leadership for the design, build, integration, and operationalization of AI-Enablement model for FMBO Application Development activities. Working closely with the FMBO AI Principal Consultant, you will translate AI strategies, reference architectures, and solution roadmaps into secure, scalable, production-ready capabilities that improve how FMBO designs, delivers, and supports its business applications.

More specifically you will:

• Lead the end-to-end technical delivery of AI-enabled application capabilities, including solution design, development, integration, testing, deployment, and production support.
• Partner with the FMBO AI Principal Consultant to implement AI reference architectures, development patterns, lifecycle controls, and guardrails that align with enterprise technology, security, risk, and responsible AI expectations.
• Guide developers in building, configuring, and maintaining AI agents, copilots, intelligent workflows, and application integrations using AI platforms and modern software engineering practices.
• Define and oversee testing approaches for AI-enabled applications, including automated testing, model and agent evaluation, regression testing, data validation, security testing, and user acceptance testing to ensure solutions are accurate, reliable, secure, and fit for business use.
• Provide technical leadership across Agile delivery teams, helping estimate work, manage technical complexity, remove delivery blockers, and ensure that AI solutions are reliable, secure, maintainable, and measurable.
• Collaborate with product owners, solution architects, cybersecurity, infrastructure, data, and operational support teams to embed AI into FMBO application development and support processes while reducing technical debt and improving operational resilience.

What you need to succeed
You are a strong technical lead with deep application development experience and a practical understanding of how AI can be embedded into enterprise systems. You are comfortable moving between architecture, hands-on development, delivery leadership, and operational support. You communicate clearly, make sound technical decisions, and help teams adopt new AI development practices in a secure and disciplined way.

In addition, you have experience with:

• Leading application development teams through the full software development lifecycle, including solution design, coding standards, peer reviews, testing, deployment, and production readiness.
• Designing and implementing AI-enabled application solutions using modern development languages, cloud services, APIs, data integration patterns, and secure enterprise platforms.
• Working with AI development approaches such as prompt engineering, retrieval augmented generation, agentic workflows, model integration, evaluation, monitoring, and guardrail implementation.
• Establishing testing and quality assurance practices for AI-enabled applications, including evaluation criteria, test automation, regression testing, validation of AI outputs, defect management, and production-readiness assessments.
• Applying Agile, DevOps, test-driven development, continuous integration, release management, and operational support practices to deliver maintainable and production-ready solutions.
• Collaborating across technical and non-technical teams, translating AI and application development concepts into clear delivery plans, risks, dependencies, and decision-ready recommendations.
• Coaching developers and promoting engineering practices that support secure AI adoption, reusable patterns, knowledge sharing, and continuous improvement.

Nice-to-have

• Experience with AI platforms such as GitHub Copilot, AI Foundry, Microsoft Fabric, Azure AI services, or comparable enterprise AI tooling.
• Experience designing or integrating AI agents, copilots, workflow automation, vector search, knowledge grounding, or secure data retrieval patterns.
• Familiarity with responsible AI, model risk management, AI safety guardrails, observability, or controls for regulated environments.

Your education and experience
This position requires a degree or diploma in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Artificial Intelligence, Engineering, or a relevant field with a minimum of 7 years of recent, relevant experience in application development, including experience leading technical delivery teams. An equivalent combination of education and experience may be considered.

Innovative Mindset

We value candidates who demonstrate adaptability, curiosity, and a willingness to learn new technologies, including AI and digital tools. We seek individuals who can think critically about data, question existing processes, and find ways to simplify our work while embracing change and new ways of doing things.

Language requirement
The Bank’s work environment is conducive to the use of both of Canada’s official languages - English and French. Although the position language requirement is English or French essential, we do encourage everyone to improve their second language proficiency for future career growth and to contribute towards fostering a bilingual environment.

What you need to know

• • Priority will be given to Canadian citizens and permanent residents
  • Security level required: Be eligible to obtain Secret
  • Relocation assistance may be provided, if required
  • Please save a copy of the job poster. Once the closing date has passed, it will no longer be available.

Hybrid Work Model

The Bank offers work arrangements that provide employees with flexibility, enable high-performing teams, and support an excellent workplace culture. Most employees can telework from home for a portion of each month as part of the Bank’s hybrid work model, and they are expected on site at the Bank location a minimum of 12 days per month to help build connections between colleagues. You must live in Canada, and within reasonable commuting distance of the office.

What you can expect from us
This is a great opportunity to join a leading organization and be part of a high-performing team. We offer a competitive compensation and benefits package designed to meet your needs at every stage of your life and career. For more information on key benefits please visit A great deal to consider.

• • Salaries are based on qualifications and experience and typically range from $129,300 to $152,118 (job grade 18)
  • The Bank offers an incentive for successfully meeting expectations at 7 to 10% of your base salary. The Bank offers additional performance pay (5%) for those who exceed expectations. Exceptional performers who far exceed expectations may be eligible for higher performance pay.
  • Flexible and comprehensive benefits so you can choose the level of health and dental coverage that meets your needs
  • Extra vacation days (up to five each year) that you can purchase to add to your vacation entitlement
  • Option to join the indexed, defined-benefit pension plan after 24 consecutive months of service

We wish to thank all applicants for their interest and effort in applying for this position. Only candidates selected for interviews will be contacted.