AI Builder / Forward Deployed Engineer

Sagard Overview

Sagard is a multi-strategy alternative asset management firm active in venture capital, private equity, private credit and real estate. Sagard also engages in private wealth management through Sagard Wealth. Founded in 2016 and guided by the core values of entrepreneurship, innovation, collaboration, rigour and authenticity, Sagard has experienced outstanding growth. Today, the firm has more than US$45 billion under management, 190 portfolio companies and 540 professionals. Sagard is well positioned to continue to grow substantially, organically and inorganically, pursuing its vision of becoming one of the best-performing investment management firms. Headquartered in Canada, Sagard currently has offices in Canada, the United States, Europe and the Middle East. More at https://www.sagard.com

Position Overview

A journey to become an AI‑first organization. The AI Builder / Forward Deployed Engineer works closely with business teams across investment, finance, compliance and operations to identify high‑value opportunities and build practical AI‑enabled solutions. As part of a small and agile AI and Data team, the role combines technical development, experimentation and cross‑functional collaboration to rapidly prototype, deploy and scale solutions that improve how work is done across the firm. It is fundamentally a full‑stack engineering role. The majority of the work involves building the data pipelines, system integrations, and foundational infrastructure that make AI solutions possible – not just the AI layer itself. Strong engineering fundamentals matter as much as AI fluency here. Compensation range: CAD$90,000 to CAD$130,000.

Responsibilities

• Partner with business units across investment, finance, compliance and operations to understand operational problems, scope technical solutions, and rapidly prototype and iterate based on real‑world feedback.
• Design and build data pipelines that move, transform, and prepare data from internal systems for use in AI and analytics workflows.
• Own end‑to‑end integrations between internal platforms and third‑party APIs, including authentication, error handling, and ongoing maintenance.
• Contribute to foundational infrastructure decisions – data storage, service architecture, deployment patterns – as the firm’s data and AI platform matures.
• Build and deploy production‑ready AI applications, including RAG pipelines, agentic workflows, and LLM integrations, with a pragmatic eye toward what actually works at scale.
• Ensure solutions meet production standards for security, access controls, responsible AI usage, and ongoing maintainability.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering or a related field, or equivalent practical experience.
• 2-5 years of experience in software engineering roles, with demonstrated ownership of production systems end‑to‑end.
• Solid full‑stack engineering fundamentals – backend services, relational and document databases, REST and webhook integrations, async patterns, and cloud deployment.
• Hands‑on experience building and maintaining data pipelines and system integrations in production environments, not just application‑layer prototypes.
• Practical experience with LLM‑based systems in production – including RAG pipelines, agentic workflows, and LLM integrations – and sound judgment on when AI adds value over conventional approaches.
• Curious, self‑directed, and biased toward action – able to work directly with non‑technical stakeholders, move fast in ambiguous situations, and drive problems to resolution without heavy oversight.
• Preferred: experience in financial services or alternative asset management, familiarity with structured financial data and compliance constraints.

Equal Opportunity & Recruitment

Sagard is an equal opportunity employer, which values diversity in the workplace. We are therefore happy to accommodate any individual. If you require accommodation in order to participate in the hiring process, please contact the People & Culture team to make your needs known in advance. Sagard may use automated tools, including artificial intelligence, to support certain stages of the recruitment and selection process.

Additional Information

Sagard is a global multi‑strategy alternative asset manager built on partnership, entrepreneurial thinking, and long‑term ambition. As we continue to grow globally, we’re looking for thoughtful and high‑performing individuals to join our team across strategies and functions. Explore our current opportunities to learn more about a career at Sagard. – Sagard est un gestionnaire d’actifs alternatifs multistratégies de portée mondiale, fondé sur le partenariat, l’esprit entrepreneurial et l’ambition à long terme. Alors que nous poursuivons notre croissance à l’échelle mondiale, nous sommes à la recherche de personnes réfléchies et performantes pour se joindre à notre équipe, et ce, à travers nos différentes stratégies et fonctions. Explorez nos postes ouverts pour en apprendre davantage sur une carrière chez Sagard.