Advanced Analytics & Research Specialist

Be Here. Be Great. Working for a leader in the insurance industry means opportunity for you. Great American Insurance Group's member companies are subsidiaries of American Financial Group. We combine a "small company" culture where your ideas will be heard with "big company" expertise to help you succeed. With over 30 specialty and property and casualty operations, there are always opportunities here to learn and grow.

At Great American, we value and recognize the benefits derived when people with different backgrounds and experiences work together to achieve business results. Our goal is to create a workplace where all employees feel included, empowered, and enabled to perform at their best.

As the insurance industry undergoes digital transformation, the AI Innovation Lab serves as Great American's proving ground for emerging AI capabilities. Team members evaluate, prototype, and validate AI technologies against real business needs, determining what's ready for enterprise adoption and what isn't. This is applied research with a purpose: every initiative ties directly to business requests, and successful proofs-of-concept are handed off to IT delivery teams for production implementation.

This isn't a traditional research position, and it isn't a traditional development role. It's something in between:

• Rapid experimentation
  :
  You'll go deep on a technology, build working prototypes, and determine fit-for-purpose—then move to the next challenge. If you thrive on variety and learning, this is your environment.

• Business-driven focus
  :
  Every project originates from a real business ask. You're not exploring technology for its own sake; you're solving problems for underwriters, actuaries, claims professionals, and business analysts across our 37 business units.

• Fail-fast culture
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  Not everything will work, and that's expected. A well-documented "no, and here's why" is as valuable as a successful proof-of-concept.

• Partnership model
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  You'll work closely with Enterprise Architecture and IT delivery teams to ensure successful innovations transition to production. Building something that can't be operationalized isn't success.

• Human-in-the-loop philosophy
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  We believe AI augments human decision-making rather than replacing it. Ethical, transparent, and explainable AI isn't optional in insurance, it's foundational.

Great American’s culture is built on connection, shared learning, and strong relationships. To support this, employees in this role are expected to be on-site a minimum of two days a week, with the potential to work three days remotely. Core in‑office days are Tuesday and Thursday but will be determined by business needs.

• Evaluate emerging AI technologies (agents, workflows, RAG architectures, tool-augmented LLMs) against business requirements and enterprise constraints

• Build rapid prototypes that demonstrate feasibility and business value to stakeholders

• Document findings thoroughly, both successes and failures, to inform enterprise AI strategy

• Partner with Enterprise Architecture to ensure prototypes align with API-first principles and can transition to production systems

• Enable business-side data science capabilities: self-service analytics sandboxes, Python environments, and dashboards that don't require IT intervention

• Implement and evaluate agent frameworks, Model Context Protocol (MCP) integrations, and AI orchestration patterns

• Communicate complex technical concepts to business stakeholders and executives

• Mentor team members and contribute to a culture of continuous learning

• PhD in Computer Science, AI/ML, or related field OR Master's degree with 7+ years of hands‑on AI/ML development experience OR Bachelor's degree with 10+ years and demonstrated expertise

• Strong Python programming skills and familiarity with ML frameworks (PyTorch, Tensor Flow, or equivalent)

• Experience building working prototypes, not just theoretical models

• Demonstrated ability to learn new technologies quickly and evaluate them objectively

• Understanding of API design principles and how AI capabilities integrate with enterprise systems

• Strong written…