Manager - Forward-Deployed AI Engineering
SB Energy•San Diego, CA
•$140,000 - $165,000•Hybrid
About The Position
SB Energy is seeking a hands-on Manager - Forward-Deployed AI Engineering who is entrepreneurial, hard-working, and collegial. This role involves building useful AI systems that people rely on in their daily work, requiring a candidate who enjoys writing code, learns unfamiliar problems quickly, and stays with a solution through deployment, debugging, and adoption. The individual will partner with SB Energy teams, learn workflows with domain experts, identify bottlenecks, and build practical solutions using Codex and Azure engineering to ship reliable software, integrations, and personalized skills. The goal is to improve workflow quality, reduce manual effort, and achieve measurable results sustained after launch, while preserving team context and controls.
Requirements
- Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Information Systems, Data Engineering, or a related technical field required.
- 5-8+ years of experience in data center engineering, energy infrastructure, forward-deployed engineering, data engineering, software engineering, technical product development, project systems, digital project delivery, enterprise AI, or decision-support systems.
- Demonstrated ability to build, deploy, debug, and maintain useful software. Show shipped work, explain technical choices, and describe failures resolved and user outcomes.
- Strong coding ability in Python, TypeScript, or a comparable language, with practical command of APIs, data handling, Git, testing, and integration.
- Expert practical fluency with Codex: structuring tasks and repository context, authoring skills, using tools and execution environments, reviewing diffs, and testing results. Explain and correct the code it produces.
- Deep hands-on Azure experience delivering applications or integrations, including authentication, permissions, secrets, deployment, observability, and troubleshooting across service boundaries.
- Experience with MCP, tool calling, retrieval, or comparable AI integration patterns. Constrain tool authority, handle untrusted inputs, and evaluate behavior before release.
- Curiosity and persistence in unfamiliar domains. Ask precise questions, learn from specialists, work through incomplete documentation, and pursue difficult problems to usable solutions.
- Work effectively with technical and non-technical colleagues, explain tradeoffs plainly, and earn trust through delivery. Respect domain expertise, confidentiality, and business controls.
Nice To Haves
- Master's or a PhD degree in Computer Science, AI/ML, Data Systems, Information Systems, or a related field preferred.
Responsibilities
- Use Codex to create reusable, personalized skills, plugins, and agents that combine instructions, context, tools, and examples for teams and users. Version them, document limits, and improve them as needs change.
- Connect approved systems, documents, and data through APIs and Model Context Protocol (MCP) tools, with clear contracts, permission-aware retrieval, robust error handling, and authorized actions.
- Deploy Azure solutions with sound identity, access, secrets, and networking practices. Build in monitoring and recovery, balancing reliability, delivery speed, and operating cost.
- Test representative tasks and failure scenarios. Trace issues across code, data, model behavior, sites, plugins, agents, spaces, dots, and integrations; fix root causes and prevent recurring failures.
- Use Codex to explore repositories, implement features, diagnose failures, and review code. Inspect generated changes, run meaningful tests, and remain accountable for correctness.
- Write, ship, and maintain applications, services, data workflows, and agent integrations. Choose the simplest effective approach and carry prototypes through testing, deployment, and support.
- Launch with users and make adoption part of delivery. Provide usable guides, training, and support; observe real work and resolve friction exposed by feedback.
- Learn workflows, constraints, and sources of truth alongside domain experts. Turn ambiguous requests into practical scope and acceptance criteria agreed with the business owner.
- Agree on baselines and measure quality, cycle time, manual effort, adoption, and reliability. Report verified outcomes and shared reusable improvements with the engineering team.
Benefits
- 100% Company-Paid Medical, Dental & Vision (for employees and dependents)
- 401(k) with Company Match
- Generous Paid Time Off + 11 Paid Holidays
- 12 Weeks Paid Parental Leave
- Life, AD&D & Long-Term Disability Coverage
- Flexible Spending Accounts (FSA) for Medical, Dependent Care, Transit & Parking (with company contributions)
- Mental, Physical & Social Wellness Support (with company contributions)
- Flexible Work Arrangements & Hybrid Office Setup Benefits
- Monthly Reimbursement for Phone, Internet & Data
- Optional Legal & Pet Insurance Plans
- Device Purchase Support
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What This Job Offers
Job Type
Full-time
Career Level
Manager
