Lead AI Engineer

At April Housing, we’re building a team of bold, mission-driven professionals who are motivated by meaningful work and energized by collaboration. Our work supports a clear purpose of expanding access to high-quality housing, and each role plays an important part in advancing that mission.

You’ll collaborate shoulder‑to‑shoulder with some of the most talented experts in the industry, gaining hands-on exposure that helps you grow your skills and broaden your perspective from the day one. Our environment is dynamic, fast paced and evolving, designed to support curious, ambitious people as they take on new challenges and develop capabilities that translate throughout their careers.

April Housing is a leading owner and operator of high‑quality affordable housing across the United States. Founded in 2022 and headquartered in Los Angeles, we are a portfolio company of Blackstone Real Estate, supporting the affordable housing and LIHTC (Low-Income Housing Tax Credit) portfolio. Our mission is clear: preserve critical affordable housing stock while delivering exceptional management and high‑quality homes to the communities we serve. We are committed to being a fair, transparent, and responsible owner.

Backed by Blackstone Real Estate enabling us to invest in the creation and preservation of affordable housing for the long run. We are making a bold commitment to preserving affordable housing across the country. April Housing is dedicated to ensuring our assets aligned with high standards of excellence, including ongoing property improvements and elevated resident services.

We’re looking for individuals who share our commitment to excellence and believe in the impact that thoughtful, well-executed work can have on communities. If you’re driven by purpose, value collaboration, and are excited to grow while contributing to something meaningful, April Housing offers a place to build experience, expand your impact, and do work that matters.

Role Summary

Our Lead AI Engineer, AI Innovation & Enablement is a hands-on specialist who helps turn AI into measurable results across April Housing. Working in close partnership with the Vice President of Technology, business leaders, Data Engineering, Data Insights, IT and selected external partners, this role helps identify high-value opportunities, builds or helps select practical solutions, tests and measures them, and supports scaling those that improve quality, capacity or efficiency. The Lead AI Engineer will apply Copilot/Cowork, Databricks, automation and emerging technologies to everyday workflows, develop hands-on in Azure DevOps with Cursor, contribute to employee adoption and help shape the capabilities, resources and partnerships needed as April Housing’s AI approach evolves.

This role works in close partnership with the Vice President of Technology, who provides strategic direction and prioritization, and is based in our Los Angeles office on a hybrid schedule.

Essential Job Functions

Shape

A clear AI and innovation roadmap, in partnership with the VP of Technology and business stakeholders, tied to business priorities across Asset Management, Operations, Acquisitions & Dispositions, underwriting, Finance and Accounting, reporting, Risk and corporate functions.

Identify

High-value use cases with business stakeholders and help turn them into working pilots, with shared measures of cost, time saved, quality, capacity or financial return.

Build

Build and help scale AI-enabled automation and agents where appropriate, in collaboration with Data Engineering, IT and business owners, including for accounts payable, lease abstraction, reporting, reconciliations and communications, using Microsoft Copilot, Databricks and Azure Data Factory.

Decide

Recommend, with the VP of Technology and business stakeholders, when April Housing should use capabilities already available in our platforms (Microsoft 365 Copilot, Databricks, Yardi, RealPage, Salesforce), buy a specialist product, use an external partner or build something more tailored.

Govern

AI use with practical controls, developed jointly with IT Security, Legal/Compliance, Risk and the VP of Technology, including data access, security, approvals, human review, testing, vendor controls and privacy.

Control

AI costs through usage standards and spend controls, agreed with the VP of Technology and Finance, so experimentation can continue without unmanaged spend or unmanaged data risk.

Partner

With IT Infrastructure, Security and Data Engineering on the direction and governance of our core technology platform, including Microsoft 365, SharePoint, Databricks, Yardi and RealPage, ensuring AI and innovation initiatives are built on secure, well-governed foundations.

Manage

Support AI-related risk management with Risk Management, Legal/Compliance and our insurance program, including data privacy, cyber liability, vendor risk and emerging AI regulation.

Strengthen

Contribute to the data foundation, integrations and reporting environment needed to support reliable automation, working with Data Engineering, Data Insights and Finance.

Mobilize

Support confidence and adoption across the organization through training, clear examples and direct involvement with teams, alongside business champions.

Scout

The external AI and PropTech market, bringing forward tools or approaches for discussion with the VP of Technology that fit April Housing rather than following every new product.

Report

Progress, outcomes and investment needs, in partnership with the Vice President of Technology, to the CFO and other senior leaders.

Priorities in the First 12 Months

·         Help establish the first enterprise AI roadmap, together with the VP of Technology and business stakeholders, using a short list of priority use cases with clear owners, costs and measures of success.

·         Partner with business teams to take several high-value use cases from idea to live pilot and recommend which should be scaled, changed or stopped.

·         Contribute to basic governance, cost controls and data/security standards for AI use across the company, alongside IT, Security, Legal and the VP of Technology.

·         Work with Data Engineering and IT to assess whether April Housing's current data and integrations are ready for the intended AI use cases and propose practical fixes where they are not.

·         Help build a repeatable way for business teams to bring forward problems, test solutions and measure results.

·         Contribute to showing how April Housing can grow without corporate headcount increasing at the same rate by removing repetitive work and improving capacity.

Qualifications and Technical Competencies

·         7+ years in software, data or machine learning engineering, including 3+ years designing, building and deploying AI / ML or generative AI solutions

·         Demonstrable success taking AI use cases from idea to live pilot to scaled adoption, with measured results in cost, time saved, quality, capacity or financial return

·         Hands-on experience building AI-enabled automation, agentic solutions and MCP interaction with enterprise platforms (e.g. Microsoft Copilot M365 / Copilot Studio, Azure AI Foundry, Databricks Genie, Salesforce Agentforce, Claude Enterprise, or equivalent)

·         Experience applying LLM techniques to business workflows, including retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), document intelligence (e.g. invoice processing, lease abstraction), prompt design and testing / evaluation of AI outputs

·         Advanced proficiency in Python and SQL, with modern engineering practices (Git, CI/CD in Azure DevOps) and AI-assisted development tools (e.g. Cursor)

·         Working knowledge of modern data platforms (Databricks, Microsoft Fabric, Snowflake or equivalent) and integration patterns (Azure Data Factory, APIs, middleware)

·         Experience contributing to practical AI governance, including data access, security, privacy, human-in-the-loop review, vendor controls and usage / cost monitoring

·         Demonstrable success partnering with business leaders to frame problems, support adoption through training and clear examples, and communicate outcomes and investment needs to senior leadership

·         Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Science, Mathematics, Information Systems or relevant tertiary education

Preferred Qualifications:

·         Experience in real estate, affordable / multifamily housing, or financial services

·         Knowledge of systems for property management & accounting (Yardi, RealPage, MRI or equivalent), CRM (Salesforce) and budgeting / FP&A (Vena or equivalent)

·         Experience evaluating AI and PropTech vendors and making build, buy or partner recommendations

·         Familiarity with AI risk frameworks and emerging AI and privacy regulation (e.g. NIST AI RMF, state privacy and AI laws)

·         Experience delivering in agile ways of working (Scrum, Kanban) and guiding external partners or offshore resources

·         Proficiency in visualization tools (Power BI, Tableau)

Qualified applicants with arrest or conviction records will be considered for employment in accordance with the Los Angeles County Fair Chance Ordinance for Employers, the California Fair Chance Act and any other applicable city, county, or local ordinances. Good cause exists for a criminal background check because one of the material duties of this position requires access to sensitive financial information and confidential and proprietary information and accordingly requires the candidate to possess a high level of integrity and discretion. The Company faces a significant risk to its business operations or business reputation if a criminal history check is not performed. A criminal history that has a direct, adverse, and negative relationship with these material duties may potentially result in the withdrawal of a conditional offer of employment.

Base Compensation Range:

$140,000.00 To $175,000.00 Annually. This represents the presently-anticipated low and high end of the Company’s base compensation range for this position. Actual base compensation range may vary based on various factors, including but not limited to location and experience.

Total Direct Compensation:  This job is also eligible for discretionary bonus and incentive compensation on an annual basis.

Benefits:  The Company provides a variety of benefits to employees, including health insurance coverage, retirement savings plan, paid holidays and paid time off (PTO).

The additional total direct compensation and benefits described above are subject to the terms and conditions of any governing plans, policies, practices, agreements, or other materials or documents as in effect from time to time, including but not limited to terms and conditions regarding eligibility.

Please review the Job Applicant Privacy Notice.

EEO Statement

April Housing is an equal opportunity employer. In accordance with applicable law, we prohibit discrimination against any applicant, employee, or other covered person based on any legally recognized basis, including, but not limited to: veteran status, uniformed servicemember status, race, color, caste, immigration status, religion, religious creed (including religious dress and grooming practices), sex, gender, gender expression, gender identity, marital status, sexual orientation, pregnancy (including childbirth, lactation or related medical conditions), age, national origin or ancestry, citizenship, physical or mental disability, genetic information (including testing and characteristics), protected leave status, domestic violence victim status, or any other consideration protected by federal, state or local law. We are committed to providing reasonable accommodations, if you need an accommodation to complete the application process, please email [email protected]