Lead AI Automation Engineer
About The Position
As a Lead AI Automation Engineer, you will drive measurable business impact by designing and implementing AI-powered automation solutions for Corporate Services and HR business partners. You will connect complex business needs with technical execution by understanding current processes, translating inefficiencies into automation opportunities, and using enterprise tools and AI agents to deliver return on investment. The role combines hands-on technical leadership with strategic thinking: you will architect end-to-end solutions, build working prototypes, mentor the team in design thinking and agentic development, and ensure solutions deliver tangible efficiency gains and stakeholder value. The role reports to the Associate Director, BTS Corporate Services, within the Business Technology Solutions department. The department sets the vision for how data, analytics, and AI automation enhance enterprise systems and works with business partners and technical implementors to deliver that vision. This is a hybrid role requiring on-site work Tuesday through Thursday every week in Lake County, Illinois. Travel is 5% of the time.
Requirements
- Bachelor's degree with 7 years of relevant experience, master's degree with 6 years, or PhD with 2 years of relevant experience.
- Expert-level Python proficiency, including production-quality code for automation, AI/ML implementations, and enterprise integrations.
- Familiarity with modern AI orchestration frameworks such as LangChain, LangGraph, or equivalent technologies.
- Proficiency designing and deploying AI integrations using Model Context Protocol (MCP) and Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) concepts.
- Experience with AI/ML frameworks and tools, and understanding of LLM orchestration, agentic workflows, and prompt engineering.
- Proven ability to deliver and maintain production-grade software in enterprise environments, including ongoing support, monitoring, and iterative improvements.
- Strong analytical, problem-solving, and diagnostic skills, including the ability to understand business processes and identify automation opportunities.
- Broad technical proficiency across software development, data integration, cloud platforms, and enterprise systems, with the ability to rapidly learn and apply new technologies.
- Excellent written and oral communication skills, including the ability to explain technical concepts to non-technical stakeholders.
- Ability to operate with high autonomy and minimal supervision, proactively manage stakeholder expectations, and keep leadership informed through clear, concise verbal and written communication.
- Experience working with international development teams across multiple time zones.
- Demonstrated ability to mentor technical staff, lead cross-functional teams, and drive initiatives to completion.
Nice To Haves
- Experience in the pharmaceutical industry or other highly regulated environments.
- Understanding of SDLC methodologies, GxP compliance, and validation requirements.
- Exposure to graph databases and GraphQL.
Responsibilities
- Engage with Corporate Services and HR stakeholders to understand current processes, pain points, constraints, business requirements, and success metrics, and translate them into technical solution designs that deliver measurable efficiency gains.
- Engineer and implement scalable AI automation solutions, producing clean, scalable, production-ready code that integrates with enterprise systems and optimizes business partner workflows.
- Build working MVPs rapidly to validate solutions with stakeholders, then refine them based on feedback to accelerate time-to-value.
- Cultivate cross-team relationships and identify existing capabilities, shared platforms, and collaboration opportunities to maximize internal resources and drive productivity gains.
- Architect end-to-end solutions, build prototypes, and mentor the team in design thinking and agentic development.
- Maintain production-grade software through ongoing support, monitoring, and iterative improvements.
- Lead cross-functional initiatives and mentor technical staff.
Benefits
- Paid time off, including vacation, holidays, and sick time.
- Medical, dental, and vision insurance for eligible employees.
- 401(k) for eligible employees.
- Eligibility to participate in long-term incentive programs.
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What This Job Offers
Job Type
Full-time
Career Level
Senior
