Director, Applied AI and Machine Learning

Helping careers take flight. Reshaping an industry. Enable your career to be Made on Duck Creek.     

WHO WE ARE:    

Duck Creek Technologies is the intelligent solutions provider defining the future of the property and casualty (P&C) and general insurance industry. We are the platform upon which modern insurance systems are built, enabling the industry to capitalize on the power of the cloud to run agile, intelligent, and evergreen operations. Our modern SaaS solutions help insurers set a new standard and revolutionize how consumers interact with insurance companies.     

Authenticity, purpose, and transparency are core to Duck Creek, and we believe insurance should be there for individuals and businesses when, where, and how they need it most. Our market-leading solutions are available on a standalone basis or as a full suite, and all are available via Duck Creek OnDemand. With more than 1,000 successful implementations to date, Duck Creek removes the IT burden for insurers so they can focus on the business of insurance.    

We have a flock of more than 1,700 employees across the globe and are proud to be a Flexible-First employer. We empower our employees with the choice to work from an office, from home, or on a hybrid schedule. Our flexible-first environment fosters productivity, inclusion, collaboration, and ensures a consistent employee experience regardless of location.    

If working in a fast-paced, rapidly evolving company that is transforming one of the world’s oldest and largest industries sounds exciting, let us know. We are excited you are considering Duck Creek as a future employer and hope you decide to join “The Flock”!    

To learn more about us, visit www.duckcreek.com and follow us on our social channels for the latest information – LinkedIn and Twitter.   

Duck Creek is a flexible-first company, and that remains core to how we work. As part of our Flying Together initiative, we’re taking a more intentional approach to how teams come together, while continuing to support flexibility in day-to-day work. We’re focusing hiring in designated locations, including our existing offices and key growth areas such as Boston, MA, Columbia, SC, Bolivar, MO, and the Bay Area, CA, where we are building stronger team presence and connection.

We believe in bringing teams together for meaningful, in-person collaboration moments. Candidates should be within a reasonable distance of one of these locations and open to participating in those moments as guided by their team and leader.  Expectations for in-person time will be shaped by the team and leader and will continue to evolve over time.

TITLE: Director, Applied AI and Machine Learning 

Role Overview

Duck Creek Technologies is seeking an AI and machine learning leader to build the capabilities that help our teams select, develop, evaluate, and operate models in production. You will lead data scientists and ML platform and operations teams, and work across Product, Engineering, and insurance subject matter experts to create a trusted foundation for model selection, model routing, AI evaluations, and responsible deployment. This role combines organizational leadership with practical depth in model training and refinement, fine-tuning, and the systems required to deliver reliable results at scale.

WHAT YOU’LL DO:

• Set the AI and machine learning strategy for Duck Creek Intelligence, connecting model and platform investments to product priorities, customer needs, and business outcomes. 

• Lead the model lifecycle from problem framing and data readiness through model selection, training, refinement, fine-tuning, evaluation, deployment, monitoring, and ongoing improvement. 

• Guide teams in choosing the right approach for each use case, including foundation models, task-specific models, traditional machine learning, and hybrid methods. Establish when to use, adapt, replace, or retire a model. 

• Build a shared foundation for model access and routing, including clear selection criteria, orchestration patterns, fallback behavior, versioning, and operational controls across internal and external models. 

• Establish an AI evaluation practice that combines offline benchmarks, task-specific quality measures, expert review, safety and reliability checks, and production feedback. Make evaluation results useful to Product and Engineering decisions. 

• Build and operate MLOps and model platform capabilities for reproducible training, deployment, observability, performance and cost management, and safe iteration in production. 

• Lead, coach, and grow data scientists and ML operations and engineering teams. Set clear goals, develop technical leaders, and create effective collaboration across disciplines. 

• Partner closely with Product, Engineering, architecture, security, legal, and insurance subject matter experts to turn real workflows and domain knowledge into well-scoped, measurable AI solutions. 

• Represent Duck Creek in strategic model and technology partnerships. Evaluate providers and lead technical and commercial discussions, including partnership and model-development negotiations with major vendors such as Google, in coordination with internal stakeholders. 

• Set practical standards for data quality, model documentation, privacy, security, responsible AI, governance, and human oversight throughout the model lifecycle. 

• Communicate complex technical trade-offs clearly to executives and cross-functional teams, creating alignment on priorities, risks, investment decisions, and success measures. 

WHAT YOU’VE DONE:    

• 10+ years of experience in machine learning, data science, AI engineering, or a related technical discipline, including meaningful hands-on work in developing and improving models. 

• 5+ years leading technical teams, including data scientists and teams responsible for ML platforms, model operations, or production ML systems. 

• Direct experience with model training and refinement, and practical experience selecting models and applying fine-tuning or other adaptation techniques to meet real product requirements. 

• Delivered machine learning or AI capabilities into production, with accountability for model quality, reliability, monitoring, iteration, and business impact. 

• Designed or led model evaluation approaches that measure quality against representative tasks and inform model, prompt, routing, or product decisions. 

• Experience partnering with Product and Engineering teams to define use cases, build technical foundations, and ship capabilities used by customers or internal teams. 

• Experience working with external AI, cloud, or data vendors, including evaluating technical fit and leading partnership or commercial discussions with procurement, legal, and executive partners. 

• Strong communication and stakeholder skills, with the ability to explain technical trade-offs and build alignment across executive, engineering, product, commercial, and domain-expert audiences. 

• Bachelor’s degree in computer science, data science, engineering, mathematics, or a related field, or equivalent practical experience. 

What will help you succeed 

• Graduate degree in a relevant technical field. 

• Experience with large language models, retrieval-augmented generation, agentic workflows, or other generative AI patterns, alongside a sound understanding of when simpler methods are more appropriate. 

• Experience building model gateways, routing and orchestration systems, evaluation platforms, feature or data pipelines, and cloud-native ML infrastructure. 

• Experience in SaaS, enterprise software, insurance, or another domain with complex workflows, sensitive data, and high standards for reliability. 

• Knowledge of responsible AI practices, security and privacy controls, model risk management, and human-in-the-loop review. 

What success looks like 

• Teams have a clear, repeatable way to select and evaluate models based on product needs, quality, reliability, risk, and cost. 

• Model training, adaptation, deployment, routing, and monitoring are supported by reusable capabilities that help teams move from experimentation to dependable production use. 

• Data scientists, ML operations, Product, Engineering, and insurance experts work from shared priorities and measurable outcomes. 

• External partnerships accelerate model and platform development while serving Duck Creek’s technical, commercial, and customer needs. 

Additional information 

This role is based in the Bay Area, California. Duck Creek is a flexible-first employer, with in-person collaboration expectations shaped by the team and its leader. Travel up to 25% may be required. 

WHAT ADDITIONAL INFORMATION YOU MAY WANT TO KNOW:    

Travel:  Up to 25%

Work Authorization: Legally authorized to work in the country of job location. The Company does not sponsor visa petitions for this position. 

Actual compensation for this role is determined based on a variety of factors, including job-related skills, experience, qualifications, internal equity, and geographic location, where permitted by law.

For reference, the expected salary range for this position is generally positioned as follows based on candidate location:

• 233,700 – 333,900: Candidates living in the Boston, New York City–Newark, Los Angeles, San Francisco/Bay Area, Seattle, or Washington, DC metropolitan areas
• 222,700 – 318,200: Candidates living in Chicago, Dallas–Fort Worth, Houston, Minneapolis, or Philadelphia metropolitan areas, or in Colorado, Connecticut, Maryland, Rhode Island, or Vermont
• 211,700 – 302,400: Candidates living in Georgia, Michigan, North Carolina, New Hampshire, Oregon, or Wisconsin
• 187,500 – 267,800: For all other U.S. locations

This position is also eligible for annual bonus compensation, subject to plan terms and individual eligibility.

Final compensation will be determined based on the factors outlined above and in accordance with applicable law.

Duck Creek Technologies believes in the safe, ethical, and responsible use of artificial intelligence. We may use AI-assisted tools to support parts of the recruitment process, such as reviewing applications, identifying relevant skills, and organizing candidate information.

AI tools are used to assist—not replace—human judgment. All AI-assisted outputs are reviewed by a Duck Creek team member, and final hiring decisions are always made by people. Candidates should be comfortable working in environments where AI is used responsibly to enhance business processes.

Duck Creek Technologies offers a comprehensive benefits package, which includes:

• Flexible work environment
• Medical, dental, vision, life, and disability insurance
• 401(k) retirement plan with match (6% employer match up to $12,000 annually)
• Flexible Spending Accounts (FSA) and Health Savings Accounts (HSA)
• Paid holidays, vacation, and volunteer time
• Employee Assistance Program (EAP)

Benefits eligibility and offerings may vary based on role and location.

The application window for this position will remain open until the role is filled or a sufficient number of qualified candidates have been identified.

WHAT WE STAND FOR:    

Our global company celebrates & leverages the differences each employee brings to the table. Our success is a direct result of an inclusive culture where opportunities to learn from one another occur regardless of title, seniority, or background. This collaborative and team-oriented approach is at the core of how we operate and continuously improve our products, services, and systems. As such, Duck Creek is committed to providing equal opportunity to all employees and applicants – to recruit, hire, train, and reward employees for their individual abilities, achievements, and experience without regard to race, color, gender, religion, sexual orientation, age, national origin, disability, marital, military, or any other protected status.    

We strive to be an example to the world of inclusion, diversity, and equity in all things – where employees are free to be their authentic selves in the workplace and in the communities in which we live. We believe in leading by example and are proud of the diversity of our team and our shared commitment to our Core Values: We Prioritize Respect; We Listen; We Care; We Add Value; and We Lead.  

To learn more about our inclusive company culture, values, DE&I initiatives, and people, please visit: https://www.duckcreek.com/life-at-duck-creek/.   

Please let us know if you encounter accessibility barriers with our web content by sending an email to [email protected].   

Privacy Notice: By submitting your application, you acknowledge that Duck Creek Technologies may collect and process your personal data for recruitment purposes in accordance with our Privacy Notice and applicable data protection laws.  

Duck Creek Technologies does not accept, nor will we pay a fee for any hires resulting from unsolicited headhunter or agency resumes.    

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