AI Platform Lead

Company Overview

KKR is a leading global investment firm that offers alternative asset management as well as capital markets and insurance solutions. KKR aims to generate attractive investment returns by following a patient and disciplined investment approach, employing world-class people, and supporting growth in its portfolio companies and communities. KKR sponsors investment funds that invest in private equity, credit and real assets and has strategic partners that manage hedge funds. KKR’s insurance subsidiaries offer retirement, life and reinsurance products under the management of Global Atlantic Financial Group. References to KKR’s investments may include the activities of its sponsored funds and insurance subsidiaries.

Team Overview

KKR’s Technology team is pivotal in building and supporting the firm’s technological foundation. Recognized as a key business enabler, technology at KKR accelerates global scale and business transformation. The team drives excellence by evolving technology into platform-based capabilities, enhancing agility and business impact.

Position Summary

KKR is seeking an entrepreneurial and technically profound Director of AI Platforms to architect and lead the firm's AI-first transformation. This executive will possess deep expertise in Generative AI and Machine Learning, with a proven track record of building and scaling AI-powered business platforms. You will be at the forefront of leveraging cutting-edge technologies to create firm-wide, mission-critical services that drive competitive advantage in the financial sector.

You will have an energetic and visionary leadership style, responsible for a global team focused on designing, developing, and deploying enterprise-scale AI capabilities. This is a unique opportunity to shape the future of technology at KKR, leading the charge on a new generation of Agentic architectures, knowledge graphs, and semantic search to unlock unprecedented insights from vast data sets.

Key Responsibilities

• AI Platform Strategy & Execution: Define, build, and scale a centralized AI platform to enable a new generation of intelligent, business-facing applications. Drive the adoption of Generative AI, NLP, and ML across the firm.
• Agentic Architecture: Spearhead the development and scaling of multi-agent interactions leveraging protocols like MCP and A2A to create sophisticated, autonomous systems.
• Knowledge & Data Innovation: Architect and deploy knowledge graph and semantic search capabilities that leverage state-of-the-art managed services from leading AI providers. Enable sophisticated text and image-based extractions from financial and unstructured data.
• Leadership & Mentorship: Lead, mentor, and inspire a high-performing team of AI engineers. Foster a culture of technical excellence, rapid prototyping, and continuous delivery of business value.
• Global Service Deployment: Oversee the end-to-end lifecycle of globally deployed, mission-critical AI services, ensuring they are scalable, secure, and reliable across multiple cloud environments (AWS, GCP).
• Stakeholder Partnership: Serve as a trusted advisor to business and technology leaders, translating complex AI concepts into strategic business opportunities and driving firm-wide adoption.
  
  

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s or master’s degree in computer science, Engineering, or a related field.
• 10 years of experience in software or AI engineering, with at least 5 years in a leadership role building and scaling AI platforms or related capabilities.
• Deep technical expertise in Generative AI, Machine Learning, and Natural Language Processing.
• Proven experience with Agentic architectures and the development of multi-agent systems.
• Hands-on experience with knowledge graphs, semantic search, and large-scale data processing for text and image-based information extraction.
• Experience with and a strategic understanding of managed AI services across leading cloud providers (AWS, GCP, etc.).
• Demonstrated ability to lead a team and build firm-wide deployed global services in a fast-paced, enterprise environment.
• Excellent leadership, communication, and interpersonal skills, with a track record of influencing and aligning stakeholders.
  
  

This is the expected annual base salary range for this New York-based position. Actual salaries may vary based on factors, such as skill, experience, and qualification for the role. Employees may be eligible for a discretionary bonus, based on factors such as individual and team performance.

Base Salary Range

$235,000—$275,000 USD

KKR is an equal opportunity employer. Individuals seeking employment are considered without regard to race, color, religion, national origin, age, sex, marital status, ancestry, physical or mental disability, veteran status, sexual orientation, or any other category protected by applicable law.