AI Analyst

At Community Financial System, Inc. (CFSI), we are dedicated to providing our customers with friendly, personalized, high-quality financial services and products. Our retail division, Community Bank, N.A., operates more than 200 customer facilities across Upstate New York, Northeastern Pennsylvania, Vermont and Western Massachusetts. Beyond retail banking, we also offer commercial banking, wealth management, investment management, insurance and risk management, and benefit plan administration.

Just as our employees are committed to helping our customers manage their finances, we're committed to our employees. After all, they make it happen for our customers every day.

To ensure our people can enjoy long and successful careers here at CFSI, we offer competitive compensation, great benefits, and professional development and advancement opportunities. As an equal-opportunity workplace and affirmative-action employer, we celebrate and support a diverse workplace for the benefit of all: our employees, customers and communities.

We're seeking a motivated and curious AI Analyst to help identify and apply artificial intelligence (AI) solutions across our organization. In this role, you will be exploring new technologies, evaluating emerging tools, and helping shape how AI creates real-world value in a highly regulated environment.

You will bridge the gap between business operations and technical teams, using your analytical skills to drive insights, optimize decisions, and contribute to AI model development and refinement. If you're excited about solving complex problems, energized by experimentation, and want to help shape the future of AI in financial services, this role is for you.

Key Responsibilities:

• Proactively identify AI use cases by exploring business pain points and process inefficiencies.
• Support model development by assisting with data preparation, feature analysis, testing, and output interpretation.
• Analyze and interpret model behavior to inform decision-makers and optimize performance.
• Continuously research and test emerging Azure AI tools, LLM frameworks, and automation technologies.
• Translate complex AI concepts into understandable, actionable insights for business leaders and non-technical audiences.
• Promote responsible AI practices through transparency, fairness, and responsible model design considerations.
• Create and maintain dashboards, visuals, and reports to communicate the progress and impact of AI initiatives.
• Serve as an internal advocate for innovation, helping foster a culture of experimentation and continuous learning.
• Maintain proficient knowledge of, and demonstrate ongoing compliance with all laws and regulations applicable to this position, ensure ongoing adherence to policies, procedures, and internal controls, and meet all training requirements in a timely manner

• Bachelor's degree in Data Analytics, Computer Science, Information Systems, Statistics, or related field.
• 2+ years of experience in analytics, data science, or AI/ML-related work.
• Passion for AI and technology, with a proven track record of self-learning, tinkering, and staying up to date with emerging tools and trends.
• Working knowledge of machine learning concepts and lifecycle (e.g., training, testing, deployment, monitoring).
• Ability to work independently, take initiative, and drive projects forward with minimal oversight.
• Proficiency in Python and SQL for data analysis and basic model support.
• Strong communication skills and ability to explain technical findings to non-technical audiences.
• All applicants must be 18 years of age or older.
• Maintain proficient knowledge of, and demonstrate ongoing compliance with all laws and regulations applicable to this position, ensure ongoing adherence to policies, procedures, and internal controls, and meet all training requirements in a timely manner

Preferred Skills:

• Experience with Azure AI services, including:
• Azure Machine Learning
• Azure AI Foundry
• Azure OpenAI Service
• Azure Cognitive Services (Vision, Language, Speech)
• Azure Data Factory, Synapse, or Databricks
• Familiarity with model explainability techniques (e.g., SHAP, LIME) and monitoring frameworks.
• Exposure to LLMs, generative AI tools, prompt engineering, or custom copilots.
• Experience with Power BI, Jupyter Notebooks, or other visualization and experimentation tools.
• Interest in AI governance, model risk management, or ethical AI practices.
• Microsoft Certified: Azure AI Fundamentals (AI-900) or willingness to obtain within 6 months of hire.

Compensation: Commensurate with experience plus potential for annual merit increase. In addition to your competitive salary, you will be rewarded benefits including: 11 paid holidays, paid vacation, Medical, Vision & Dental insurance, 401K with generous match, Pension, Tuition Reimbursement, Banking discounts and the list goes on!

Physical Requirements:

The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions. While performing the duties of this job, the employee may be required to stand, walk or sit. Use hands and fingers, handle or feel, reach with hands or arms, and speak and hear. The employee may occasionally be required to lift and or move up to 25 pounds. Specific vision abilities required by this job include close vision, and the ability to focus.

The Company is an Affirmative Action, Equal Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy, sexual orientation and gender identity), national origin, citizenship status, age, disability, genetic information, veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by applicable federal, state or local law.

The Company will make reasonable accommodations for qualified individuals with a disability. If you have a physical or mental impairment and would like to request an accommodation with respect to the application process, please contact the Human Resources Department.