Lead Software Engineer, AI (P4577)

8451 • Chicago, OH

2d • Onsite

About The Position

We are seeking a Lead Software Engineer to join our AI Software Development Lifecycle (SDLC) team and build the engineering backbone that scales AI-assisted development across 84.51° and Kroger. As AI workforce tooling matures and adoption grows from pilot teams to dozens of delivery teams, this role provides the systems and patterns that keep pace: deployment automation, standardized templates, and a prompt and skill marketplace that makes best practices discoverable and reusable at scale. This team is charged with re-inventing Software Developer for 84.51º and Kroger with AI at the forefront. This role provides an opportunity to shape how thousands of developers adopt AI within a large enterprise. Success means turning repeatable friction into platform infrastructure: authoring workflows, creating templates, and contributing plugins to internal marketplaces to shorten onramps and increase AI-assisted development velocity. This role spans the spectrum from hands-on automation engineering to cross-team enablement and requires someone who can both build systems and communicate their value across technical and non-technical audiences. This is a platform-focused, hands-on engineering role. You will be expected to both provide technical leadership and produce production-quality code, operating across DevOps, Developer Experience, and AI Enablement domains.

Requirements

• 4-year degree in a technology related discipline (Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Information Systems, etc.) or equivalent work experience
• Minimum 5+ years of experience producing high-quality software on Agile development teams (Python preferred)
• 5+ years of experience with public cloud technologies (Azure preferred)
• 3+ years of experience in Platform Engineering, DevEx, or related roles
• Demonstrated experience building or operating CI/CD pipelines and deployment automation (GitHub Actions or equivalent)
• Familiarity with AI-related concepts such as LLMs, Agents, and Model Context Protocol (MCP)
• Strong experience with AI coding tools like Claude Code, Codex, Cursor or equivalent.
• Strong interpersonal and communication skills with demonstrated experience working across technical teams and non-technical business units
• Desire to learn new technology and grow across different areas of technology

Nice To Haves

• Experience building or operating internal developer platforms, marketplaces, or catalog systems
• Experience developing agentic AI applications, prompt libraries, skill registries, or MCP servers
• Experience working with IaC systems, e.g. Terraform/Spacelift, Kubernetes, Helm
• Strong technical writing, documentation, or playbook-authoring skills
• Demonstrated ability to prioritize own workload with multiple responsibilities and adaptability to changes in those priorities

Responsibilities

• Design and build deployment automation for AI workforce tooling — including Agentic Harness configurations, MCP server or similar service-level integrations, and related CI/CD pipelines
• Define and enforce standards for AI tooling configuration, security posture, and observability across teams – often via direct enhancements to the coding harness hook and plugin layers
• Ensure accurate observability of AI tooling adoption and usage patterns using Datadog, Dynatrace, or related tools
• Own and evolve the internal prompt and skill marketplace — enabling teams to publish, discover, version, and reuse prompts, skills, and MCP tools across the enterprise
• Develop workflow playbooks that codify AI-SDLC integration patterns for consistent, repeatable adoption across engineering teams
• Work directly with delivery teams to embed AI tooling into their development workflows, translating friction and capability gaps into scalable platform improvements
• Regularly document and present learnings from platform work and team engagements to the broader AI Enablement organization
• Engage with technology, infrastructure, and product teams as necessary to integrate and extend AI workforce tooling
• Participate routinely in team on-call rotation and customer support during business hours

Benefits

• Medical: with competitive plan designs and support for self-care, wellness and mental health.
• Dental: with in-network and out-of-network benefit.
• Vision: with in-network and out-of-network benefit.
• 401(k) with Roth option and matching contribution.
• Health Savings Account with matching contribution (requires participation in qualifying medical plan).
• AD&D and supplemental insurance options to help ensure additional protection for you.
• Paid time off with flexibility to meet your life needs, including 5 weeks of vacation time, 7 health and wellness days, 3 floating holidays, as well as 6 company-paid holidays per year.
• Paid leave for maternity, paternity and family care instances.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Senior
• Education Level: Associate degree