AI Engineer, Design Innovation

Skechers USA-posted 3 months ago

$150,000 - $220,000/Yr

Manhattan Beach, CA

Leather and Allied Product Manufacturing

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Skechers Technology team is enabling our business with AI through the development and adoption of private, proprietary AI technologies. The AI Engineer - Design Innovation is a key role within the Skechers organization and will be central to developing AI-powered design tools and technologies specifically for Skechers' Design team. The AI Engineer - Design Innovation will spearhead the development of cutting-edge AI tools tailored for footwear and apparel design workflows. This role is at the forefront of integrating graphic designing, image modeling, and generative AI technologies to revolutionize how our designers create and visualize products. While reporting to IT, this position will be 100% dedicated to supporting the Design team, working closely with designers to understand their needs and translating them into innovative AI-powered solutions. The AI Engineer will collaborate with high-velocity software engineering teams and coordinate across various departments to bring design-focused AI capabilities to new heights.

Lead the design, development, and deployment of AI-powered design tools, integrating with cutting-edge image generation models including OpenAI (GPT-Image-1, DALL-E 3), Google Gemini 2.5 Flash, FLUX 1.1 Pro Ultra, Stable Diffusion 3.5, SeedDream v4, and Ideogram 3.0 for footwear and apparel automation.
Integrate and optimize multiple AI APIs with a 'Lego-building' approach - viewing APIs as building blocks to create proprietary solutions that don't exist off-the-shelf, specifically for fashion and footwear design applications.
Develop and maintain multi-API orchestration including Google Gemini, OpenAI, and Fal.ai integrations with advanced prompt engineering techniques to enhance design workflows and maintain brand consistency while generating new designs.
Build scalable image generation pipelines for batch processing handling hundreds of concurrent requests, with intelligent routing between AI providers based on task requirements using cloud services (AWS, Vercel, Replit, or equivalent platforms).
Create and deploy web applications using JavaScript/TypeScript, React/Next.js, and Tailwind CSS components to provide designers with intuitive drag-and-drop interfaces for AI-powered design tools, collaborating on frontend development.
Coordinate with cross-functional teams as the sole software developer among footwear designers, graphic artists, and merchandisers - bringing significant autonomy and creative freedom to integrate AI solutions tailored for creative workflows.
Develop automated systems for CMF variations, component swapping, style transfer, and other design workflows with queue management solutions for handling high-volume AI generation tasks.
Design and implement database solutions using PostgreSQL with Drizzle ORM for storing design assets, API response caching, user data, and design iteration histories with efficient file storage.
Execute against the product backlog efficiently, rapidly prototyping and experimenting with emerging models to multiply creative team output through intelligent automation.
Implement quality validation, automatic retry logic, and brand consistency checks to ensure all design-focused requirements are met while managing API rate limits and costs across multiple providers.
Stay up to date with the latest advancements in generative AI from Google, OpenAI, ByteDance, and emerging ai models / companies, proposing and implementing innovative AI solutions based on real team needs.
Other duties as assigned.

Proficiency with generative AI, including hosted LLMs (Claude, OpenAI, Gemini), LLM API integration, advanced prompt engineering techniques, and most importantly image generation models such as Stable Diffusion and Imagen.
Strong programming skills in Python for AI applications (with frameworks like LangChain), and JavaScript/TypeScript for web development.
Experience with modern JavaScript Frameworks like React/Next.js or Flutter for building designer-facing applications with understanding of UX patterns and mobile-first design principles is preferred.
Strong skills in API development (REST/GraphQL), database design (SQL/NoSQL including MongoDB), and integration with design tools.
Proficiency with general AWS services (Lambda, API Gateway, S3, etc) is required while experience with Docker containerization and orchestration systems (ECS/EKS/Fargate) is a plus.
Experience with CI/CD pipelines and development tools including Git, Jenkins, and Postman.
Experience with file storage, CDN management for large design files, batch processing systems, and queue management for AI tasks.
Proficiency in Figma/Sketch, understanding of design tool ecosystems, design systems, and component libraries.
Understanding of image generation pipelines, design workflow optimization, and creative team collaboration.
Experience with design tools, agile methodologies, and project management tools like JIRA.
Strong analytical and problem-solving skills with high degree of self-motivation and experience with user research.
Understanding of fashion/footwear industry trends and design processes is a huge plus.

Graphic design experience or background working closely with creative teams is highly preferred.
Experience working directly with business facing groups outside of development is ideal.
Experience working within an Agile team environment is ideal.
Ability to communicate complex technical topics to creative professionals with precision and clarity.
Ability to translate creative requirements into technical specifications accurately and effectively.

The pay range for this position is $150,000-$220,000/yr USD.

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