Lead Software Engineer, AI

Lead Software Engineer, AI Cincinnati, OH; Chicago, IL Overview: 84.51° is a retail data science, insights and media company. We help The Kroger Co., consumer packaged goods companies, agencies, publishers and affiliates create more personalized and valuable experiences for shoppers across the path to purchase. Powered by cutting-edge science, we utilize first-party retail data from more than 62 million U.S. households sourced through the Kroger Plus loyalty card program to fuel a more customer-centric journey using 84.51° Insights, 84.51° Loyalty Marketing and our retail media advertising solution, Kroger Precision Marketing. 84.51° follows a 5-day in-office work schedule to support collaboration, alignment, and team connection. Join us at 84.51°! Summary 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. 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 Minimum Qualifications, Skills, and Experience 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 Preferred Qualifications, Skills, and Experience 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 Pay Transparency and Benefits The stated salary range represents the entire span applicable across all geographic markets from lowest to highest. Actual salary offers will be determined by multiple factors including but not limited to geographic location, relevant experience, knowledge, skills, other job-related qualifications, and alignment with market data and cost of labor. In addition to salary, this position is also eligible for variable compensation. Below is a list of some of the benefits we offer our associates: Health: 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. Wealth: 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. Happiness: 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. Pay Range $125,000 - $207,000 USD 84.51°