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Lead Engineer AI

Medline Industries, LP
Posted 5 days ago, valid for 22 days
Location

Northbrook, IL, US

Salary

$154,000 - $231,000 per year

Contract type

Full Time

Health Insurance
Paid Time Off
Employee Assistance

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Job Summary

The Lead AI Engineer is a hands-on AI, data, analytics, and automation practitioner embedded within a business domain such as Commercial, Operations, Product, or Corporate Functions. The role identifies, designs, prototypes, and delivers practical solutions that drive measurable business value.

- The Lead AI Engineer works directly with business teams to understand workflows, decisions, pain points, and opportunities, then rapidly translates them into working proofs of concept, pilots, demonstrations, automations, agents, copilots, analytics solutions, and decision-support tools.
This is a hands-on builder role. The Senior AI Engineer is expected to use modern AI-assisted development tools and approved enterprise platforms to create solutions directly, not simply define requirements or coordinate delivery. The role owns outcomes, not tickets.
- The Lead AI Engineer selects the simplest effective approach. A solution may use process improvement, traditional workflow automation or RPA, analytics, machine learning, generative AI, or a combination of these approaches. The role determines what can be delivered directly and what should transition to engineering, data science, platform, product, or automation teams for production deployment and scale.
- The role serves as the bridge between business stakeholders and technical teams, combining strong communication, business understanding, product thinking, technical problem solving, and hands-on execution. The Lead AI Engineer remains engaged through testing, transition, adoption, and measurable value realization.

Job Description

Trusted Partnership & Opportunity Identification

路聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 Embed within a business domain and develop a deep understanding of its processes, workflows, systems, decisions, handoffs, and operational challenges.

路聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 Build trusted relationships with business leaders and frontline users; serve as a primary partner for AI-, data-, analytics-, and automation-enabled problem solving.

路聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 Continuously identify opportunities to improve decisions, productivity, customer experience, quality, cycle time, or business performance.

路聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 Shape and manage demand, focusing teams on opportunities with the highest potential value, feasibility, and readiness.

路聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 Challenge existing ways of working and help teams envision materially different workflows, not only incremental improvements.


Solution Design & Rapid Prototyping

路聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 Lead hands-on discovery sessions to define the business problem, user need, current workflow, constraints, baseline performance, and success measures.

路聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 Translate ambiguous business problems into clear solution hypotheses, experiments, and technical requirements.

路聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 Determine whether the best response is process improvement, workflow automation, RPA, analytics, machine learning, generative AI, or a combination of approaches.

路聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 Design AI-enabled workflows, agents, copilots, retrieval-augmented generation solutions, analytics and decision-support tools, workflow automations, and process automations.

路聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 Build working proofs of concept, prototypes, pilots, demonstrations, and minimum viable solutions using real data and approved enterprise platforms.

路聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 Test directly with users, incorporate feedback rapidly, and assess business value, usability, technical feasibility, controls, and scalability.

路聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 Make practical tradeoffs among speed, user value, technical complexity, and enterprise requirements.


Hands-On AI, Analytics & Automation Delivery

路聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 Personally build functional solutions when the scope and technology are appropriate, including AI applications, agents, copilots, RAG solutions, analytics tools, workflow automations, RPA solutions, integrations, and decision-support tools.

路聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 Use Python, SQL, APIs, low-code tools, automation platforms, and AI-assisted coding capabilities to move quickly from an idea to a usable solution.

路聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 Work across enterprise data, APIs, business applications, AI platforms, analytics platforms, and workflow technologies to turn ideas into working outcomes.

路聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 Apply sound engineering practices for solution design, testing, documentation, security, reliability, maintainability, and secure data handling.

路聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 Define evaluation criteria with the business owner and incorporate testing, explainability, monitoring, controls, and human review as appropriate.

路聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 Troubleshoot technical and workflow issues during prototyping, piloting, implementation, and transition.

路聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 Ensure solutions align with enterprise architecture, cybersecurity, data governance, privacy, and Responsible AI requirements.

路聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 Maintain a bias for working solutions and measurable outcomes, not presentations or intermediate artifacts.


Scale, Transition & Business Impact

路聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 Determine which solutions can be owned and supported directly and which require transition to engineering, data science, platform, product, automation, or business technology teams.

路聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 Partner with technical teams to harden, productionize, integrate, deploy, scale, and support successful solutions.

路聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 Provide clear technical requirements, implementation guidance, documentation, and knowledge transfer when transitioning execution or long-term ownership.

路聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 Remain accountable for continuity of the solution and intended business outcome through handoff, deployment, adoption, and scale.

路聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 Drive user adoption, measure realized value against an agreed baseline, and refine solutions using user feedback and operational metrics.

路聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 Build and maintain a prioritized domain opportunity roadmap.

路聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 Create reusable components, prompts, agent patterns, automation templates, connectors, evaluation approaches, accelerators, and implementation patterns that help future teams deliver faster.


MINIMUM JOB REQUIREMENTS

Education

路聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Information Systems, Data Science, Statistics, Analytics, or a related field, or equivalent practical experience.


Certification / Licensure

路聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 No certification or licensure required.


Work Experience

路聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 5+ years of experience in AI/ML engineering, data science, data engineering, analytics engineering, automation engineering, solution engineering, or a related technical discipline.

路聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 Demonstrated experience building and delivering AI, analytics, data, or automation solutions that address real business problems and are used in business workflows.

路聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 Experience personally creating proofs of concept, prototypes, pilots, demonstrations, or minimum viable solutions.

路聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 Experience working directly with business stakeholders and end users to translate ambiguous needs into practical solutions.

路聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 Experience moving solutions from discovery and prototype through pilot, deployment, or transition to a production delivery team.


Knowledge / Skills / Abilities

路聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 Strong hands-on Python and SQL skills.

路聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 Ability to independently build AI applications, workflow automations, RPA solutions, analytics solutions, data workflows, integrations, APIs, and decision-support tools.

路聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 Working knowledge of generative AI, large language models, prompt engineering, retrieval-augmented generation, agents, model evaluation, APIs, data integration, and workflow automation.

路聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 Solid machine learning, statistics, experimentation, forecasting, and optimization fundamentals.

路聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 Working knowledge of version control, testing, CI/CD, monitoring, documentation, and secure data handling.

路聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 Ability to rapidly learn unfamiliar business domains, workflows, systems, data, and technology platforms.

路聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 Strong product mindset with a focus on user needs, adoption, measurable value, and iterative delivery.

路聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 Ability to communicate clearly with technical and non-technical audiences and influence across organizational boundaries.

路聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 Ability to balance rapid experimentation with enterprise architecture, security, data governance, privacy, and Responsible AI requirements.

路聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 Sound judgment on when to build directly, when to use low-code or RPA, and when to transition execution to specialized teams.

路聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 Bias for action, hands-on problem solving, and ownership from idea through outcome.

聽

PREFERRED JOB REQUIREMENTS聽聽聽聽

Education

路聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 Master's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Data Science, Analytics, Business Administration, or a related field.


Certification / Licensure

路聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 Relevant cloud, AI, data, analytics, automation, agile, or product certifications preferred.


Work Experience

路聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 Experience building generative AI applications, agents, copilots, RAG solutions, intelligent workflow automations, RPA solutions, analytics products, forecasting models, optimization tools, or decision-support solutions.

路聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 Experience with Azure AI Foundry, Azure OpenAI, Azure AI Search, Microsoft Fabric, Databricks, Azure Machine Learning, Power Platform, Power Automate, Copilot Studio, or comparable enterprise platforms.

路聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 Experience in forward deployed engineering, solution engineering, technical consulting, analytics engineering, automation engineering, or another business-facing technical role.

路聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 Experience integrating enterprise systems, APIs, data platforms, analytics platforms, automation tools, and business applications.

路聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 Experience in healthcare, medical products, supply chain, manufacturing, distribution, commercial operations, or corporate functions.


Knowledge / Skills / Abilities

路聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 Ability to move fluidly between business discovery, solution design, coding, user testing, demonstration, and implementation planning.

路聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 Strong facilitation and storytelling skills; able to lead working sessions, demonstrate solutions, explain technical concepts simply, and drive decisions.

路聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 Comfort working in environments with imperfect data, evolving processes, and incomplete requirements.

路聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 Demonstrated ability to deliver results in fast-paced, collaborative, and execution-oriented organizations.

路聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 Equally comfortable engaging business stakeholders, building working solutions, and partnering with technical teams to productionize and scale them.


Click here to learn more about a career in IT at Medline!


Medline Industries, LP, and its subsidiaries, offer a competitive total rewards package, continuing education & training, and tremendous potential with a growing worldwide organization.


The anticipated salary range for this position:

$154,000.00 - $231,000.00 Annual

The actual salary will vary based on applicant鈥檚 location, education, experience, skills, and abilities. Medline will not pay less than the applicable minimum wage or salary threshold.

Our benefit package includes health insurance, life and disability, 401(k) contributions, paid time off, etc., for employees working 30 or more hours per week on average. For a more comprehensive list of our benefits please click here. For roles where employees work less than 30 hours per week, benefits include 401(k) contributions as well as access to the Employee Assistance Program, Employee Resource Groups and the Employee Service Corp.

We鈥檙e dedicated to creating a Medline where everyone feels they belong and can grow their career. We strive to do this by seeking diversity in all forms, acting inclusively, and ensuring that people have tools and resources to perform at their best. Explore our Belonging page聽here.

Medline Industries, LP is an equal opportunity employer. Medline evaluates qualified individuals without regard to race, color, religion, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, national origin, age, disability, neurodivergence, protected veteran status, marital or family status, caregiver responsibilities, genetic information, or any other characteristic protected by applicable federal, state, or local laws.




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