Lead AI Developer

Vistra Corp•Irving, TX

About The Position

The Lead AI Developer builds production AI agents, shapes team-level governance, and raises AI engineering maturity across web, mobile, CMS, and MarTech platforms serving millions of retail energy customers. The role drives system maintenance, technical design, development and deployment of front-end and back-end systems, enterprise application integrations, and appropriate access controls and data security measures. The position leads operational activities and process quality and compliance, advances automation and continuous improvement within ITIL-aligned processes, and manages solutions that improve Vistra’s data architecture. It engages business users and technical teams to define data needs, establish policies and procedures, and ensure data availability, responsiveness, quality, and alignment with business objectives. The role also reviews code for quality and security, supports cross-team platform initiatives, participates in agile ceremonies, and provides domain guidance to less experienced team members. The position requires deep knowledge of LLMs and agent engineering, including context windows, prompt engineering, RAG, embeddings, vector search, agent architectures, MCP, function calling, and tool-use patterns. Production engineering technologies include TypeScript, Next.js, Node.js, and Python. The role also works with GitHub Copilot, enterprise CMS, CDP, MarTech, Snowflake, and Azure DevOps, while applying AI governance practices such as PII handling, output validation, and prompt-injection mitigation.

Requirements

10–12 years of professional experience in a technology or business field.
Proven experience analyzing code for non-standard practices, errors, and security vulnerabilities and presenting detailed remediation plans.
Experience managing and delivering departmental initiatives related to supported platforms.
Experience driving system maintenance, technical design, and development and deployment of front-end and/or back-end systems.
Deep understanding of LLMs, context windows, prompt engineering, RAG, embeddings, and vector search.
Hands-on experience with agent architectures, MCP, function calling, and tool-use patterns.
Strong TypeScript, Next.js, Node.js, and Python skills for production engineering.
Experience with GitHub Copilot, Agent Mode, custom instructions, and prompt files.
Working knowledge of enterprise CMS, CDP, MarTech, Snowflake, and Azure DevOps.
Understanding of AI governance, PII handling, output validation, and prompt-injection mitigation.
Ability to be trustworthy and dependable.
Ability to learn quickly, take initiative to improve knowledge, and tackle new challenges.
Superior organizational and communication skills and attention to detail.
Skill in creating executive-level communications and presenting to and interacting with leaders.
Energetic, hands-on, enthusiastic, results-oriented approach as a team player.
Comfort sharing ideas and finding innovative ways to resolve challenges.
Ability to build support among peers and create relationships with peers and stakeholders.
Experience gained through a college degree program and/or business certifications may apply to the listed skills.

Nice To Haves

Professional certifications, such as ITIL, CSM, or AWS.

Responsibilities

Drive system maintenance, technical design, and development and deployment of front-end and/or back-end systems, data warehouse integrations, and appropriate user access controls and data security measures.
Lead daily operational activities and measure process quality and compliance.
Identify, evaluate, and implement automation and continuous-improvement ideas supporting ITIL-aligned processes and addressing technical debt.
Manage solutions and enhancements to improve Vistra’s data architecture, research data-management processes, and recommend innovations.
Engage business users, process owners, architecture, and application teams to define data needs supporting key performance indicators and service-level agreements.
Drive the creation of policies, standards, guidelines, and procedures to mitigate risk, optimize performance, and support business outcomes.
Use a test-driven development approach and well-structured unit tests.
Analyze code for non-standard practices, errors, and security vulnerabilities, and present plans to improve and transform code for performance and ease of use.
Manage cross-team initiatives related to supported platforms.
Apply Vistra’s value drivers to deliver innovative value-creation ideas.
Identify opportunities to increase adoption and communication of TS processes through training and engagement.
Participate in agile ceremonies.
Provide domain guidance to less experienced team members.
Apply understanding of financial principles affecting supported applications and contribute to business-case development for new ideas.