AI Embedded Business Automation Engineer

Hines; Houston (TX); On-site; USD 130,000 - 175,000; Full time

Job summary

Hines is seeking an AI Embedded Business Automation Engineer to collaborate with business teams across the organization, identifying manual handoffs and designing AI-enabled workflows that improve speed, accuracy, and capacity.

Working in IT, you will build within enterprise standards for security, governance, and data pipelines, prototyping AI-driven automations with Python, LLM APIs, and enterprise platforms to deliver production-ready solutions that scale.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent practical experience in a technical field.
• 3+ years building software, automation, or cloud solutions.
• Experience delivering AI or Generative AI in business contexts.
• Experience with API integrations and enterprise platforms.
• Strong communication and ability to translate business needs into specs.
• Experience with security, governance, and data protection.

Responsibilities

• Design, prototype, and deliver AI-enabled automation solutions with business teams.
• Prototype and iterate AI-driven automations using Python and LLMs.
• Develop integrations with SharePoint, Teams, ERP, Salesforce, and internal apps.
• Ensure production-grade reliability, security, and governance.
• Document architecture, runbooks, and patterns for scale.

Skills

AI workflow design

Python

LLM integration

Cross-functional collaboration

Security & governance awareness

Documentation

Problem solving

Education

Bachelor’s degree in CS/Engineering/IT/Data Science

Tools

Microsoft Azure

OpenAI

ChatGPT Enterprise

Power Platform

Semantic Kernel

LangChain

Job description

Overview

When you join Hines, you will embark on a career journey fueled by vision and guided by leaders who set the standards of our industry. Our legacy is rooted in innovation and excellence, earning us a spot on Fast Company’s esteemed annual list of the World’s Most Innovative Companies, as well as recognition as one of U.S. News & World Report’s Best Companies to Work For in 2024. Discover endless opportunities to grow and make your mark at Hines.

Responsibilities

We are looking for an AI Embedded Business Automation Engineer to work within functional departments across the organization to uncover opportunities where AI, automation, and better system design can meaningfully improve business operations. This role will work directly with the business teams to understand how work happens today, pinpoint manual handoffs, rework, delays, and exception-heavy processes, and then design, prototype, and deliver technical solutions that make day-to-day work faster, smarter, and more scalable.

As part of IT, this role is expected to build within enterprise standards for infrastructure, data, integration, automation, information security, governance, and production support. The work will range from AI-enabled workflow redesign and secure data pipelines to intelligent agents, system integrations, and automations that are reliable enough to run in production and useful enough to become part of how teams operate. Responsibilities include, but are not limited to:

• Partner directly with business stakeholders and subject matter experts to understand current workflows, identify manual handoffs, rework, delays, exception-heavy processes, and other improvement opportunities, and prioritize AI automation efforts based on value, feasibility, risk, and scalability.
• Co-design AI-enabled process improvements with SMEs, translating operational challenges into practical workflows that improve efficiency, accuracy, user experience, and business capacity.
• Translate business requirements into clear technical specifications, solution designs, implementation plans, and delivery milestones, then build agentic and automation solutions end-to-end in partnership with business teams, teammates, and senior engineers.
• Rapidly prototype, test, and iterate on AI-driven automations, assistants, agents, and workflow solutions using Python, LLM APIs, RAG patterns, agent frameworks, workflow orchestration, and enterprise platforms.
• Develop and maintain integrations with enterprise systems such as SharePoint, Teams, Outlook, ERP platforms, Salesforce, internal applications, APIs, and data sources to enable end-to-end intelligent workflows.
• Design and implement trustworthy AI solution components, including prompt orchestration, RAG pipelines, document ingestion, vector search, backend services, automation logic, data pipelines, models, and secure access patterns.
• Support adoption through SME enablement, practical training, feedback loops, and usage-based refinement so business teams actively shape and sustain the workflows being introduced.
• Embed security, privacy, compliance, and responsible AI controls throughout the solution lifecycle, including data classification, least-privilege access, secrets management, auditability, and safe data handling.
• Remain accountable for production quality by deploying, monitoring, troubleshooting, optimizing, and continuously improving AI and automation solutions with a focus on reliability, performance, security, governance, cost management, and real-world usage.
• Work cross-functionally with engineering, product, security, legal, and business teams to move solutions from concept through pilot, production launch, adoption, support, and ongoing enhancement.
• Document solution architecture, implementation decisions, support procedures, runbooks, and best practices, and create repeatable agent, automation, integration, and data patterns that scale across functions while aligning with IT governance and architecture standards.
• Define success metrics and measure solution impact, including cycle-time reduction, quality improvements, adoption, reliability, and unlocked business capacity.

Qualifications

Minimum Requirements include:

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Information Technology, Data Science, Mathematics, or a related field; equivalent practical experience may also be considered.
• 3+ years of experience in software engineering, automation engineering, cloud engineering, data engineering, integration development, or related technical roles, including experience delivering AI or Generative AI solutions in a business environment.
• Experience building workflow automations, APIs, integrations, copilots, assistants, or AI-enabled business applications using Microsoft, Azure, OpenAI, ChatGPT Enterprise, or comparable enterprise platforms.
• Experience supporting production systems, partnering with cross-functional stakeholders, and translating business needs into secure, scalable technical solutions.
• Strong product judgment, communication skills, and delivery orientation, with the ability to release useful increments quickly, recognize when a more durable solution is needed, and write specs, docs, and updates that are clear without additional explanation.
• Demonstrated ability to deliver reliable code, services, integrations, or automations used in day-to-day business operations.
• Required coding proficiency in Python, with the ability to write clean, tested, maintainable code and contribute effectively to shared production codebases.
• Hands-on experience applying LLMs and Generative AI to real business problems, including prompt engineering, LLM APIs, retrieval-augmented generation, AI-enabled workflows, prototypes, assistants, or agents.
• Experience using AI-assisted development tools and building tool-using workflows or custom agents that leverage MCP or similar agent integration patterns and connect securely to enterprise systems, APIs, data sources, and business applications.
• Demonstrated ability to turn business problems into technical specifications, solution designs, implementation plans, and working software that can be explained clearly to non-technical partners.
• Working knowledge across several core enterprise engineering areas, including cloud infrastructure, data engineering, SQL, pipelines, integration patterns, automation tooling, IAM, APIs, and enterprise application development.
• Familiarity with information security fundamentals, including authentication, authorization, encryption, secrets management, safe data practices, least-privilege access, auditability, and responsible AI guardrails.
• Experience with Microsoft and OpenAI tools such as Azure OpenAI Service, OpenAI APIs, ChatGPT Enterprise, Microsoft Copilot Studio, Azure AI Foundry, Semantic Kernel, OpenAI Agent SDK, Power Platform, or comparable platforms.
• Familiarity with advanced agent, retrieval, and orchestration patterns, including vector search, iPaaS tools, LangGraph, LangChain, LlamaIndex, or similar frameworks, is a plus.
• Familiarity with TypeScript, JavaScript, Go, or Java is a plus.
• Experience design AI-enabled business process automations across functions such as finance, legal, operations, or other enterprise teams.
• Compensation: New York City - $130,000 - $175,900; Houston - To be determined based on experience

The successful candidate will:

• Build trust with functional SMEs by understanding their workflows in depth and turning business challenges into practical AI-enabled solutions.
• Deliver secure, scalable, production-ready AI and automation solutions that improve how work is performed across business functions.
• Move quickly from discovery to prototype to production while balancing speed, quality, governance, reliability, performance, and cost efficiency.
• Drive measurable impact through adoption, cycle-time reduction, quality improvement, reusable delivery patterns, and additional business capacity.

Closing

At Hines, we strive for excellence as a leading global real estate investment manager, driven by our by our belief that real estate is fundamentally about people. Our diverse portfolio spans $93.2 billion¹ of assets across such property types as living, office, retail, mixed-use, logistics and life science projects – all designed to enhance value, connection and inspiration. Our strategic approach integrates local expertise with global knowledge, taking calculated risks aligned with our convictions to exceed expectations and tailor solutions to our clients' needs.

While our projects are renowned for enhancing cities and pioneering sustainable practices, we recognize that the true driving force behind Hines' success is our 5,000 dedicated employees in 30 countries who draw on our 65-year history to build the world forward. This is why we prioritize investing in our people, offering comprehensive training, competitive compensation, robust benefits and generous vacation packages. By centering our focus on the growth and wellbeing of our team, we cultivate an inclusive environment where everyone, including our clients, can thrive.

Hines is proud to be named to Fast Company’s prestigious annual list of the World’s Most Innovative Companies for 2024. ¹Includes both the global Hines organization and RIA AUM as of December 31, 2023.

We are an equal opportunity employer and support workforce diversity.