AI Engineer Manager / AI Development Manager

DataJobs; Atlanta (GA); On-site; USD 140,000 - 210,000; Full time

Job summary

Carters seeks an experienced Lead for its enterprise AI Center of Excellence in Atlanta. You will manage a growing AI development team, own sprint planning, and drive delivery for complex LLM-based solutions and agentic workflows across enterprise systems.

You will design patterns, mentor developers, and ensure security-reviewed production-ready deployments while collaborating with business units and governance teams.

Qualifications

• 7+ years in software or data analytics development.
• 2+ years in leading or managing developers.
• Experience shipping LLM applications and AI automations.
• Proven experience with enterprise AI platforms and frameworks.

Responsibilities

• Lead and mentor AI development teams and interns.
• Own sprint planning and delivery for CoE backlog.
• Perform code/design reviews and manage risks.
• Define development standards and patterns library.
• Partner with security and governance to ensure reviews.

Skills

AI development

leadership

sprint planning

delivery leadership

communication

integration fluency

Education

Bachelor’s degree in CS/SE or related field

Tools

Claude/Anthropic API

Azure OpenAI

RAG architectures

Job description

Lead Carters’ enterprise AI Center of Excellence (CoE) as a player-coach, combining hands-on AI delivery with people leadership to ship, support, and scale high-impact AI capabilities.

Responsibilities

• Manage the AI CoE development team (Junior/Mid AI Developers and intern developers), including assignments, priorities, performance, and career growth
• Own sprint planning and drive delivery execution for the CoE build backlog, in partnership with the Solutions Manager’s intake and prioritization
• Run code and design reviews; unblock developers and manage delivery risks and dependencies
• Coordinate with Forward-Deployed Engineers so embedded builds follow CoE standards and hand back cleanly
• Report delivery status, capacity, and velocity to CoE leadership
• Personally design and build the most complex and/or highest-stakes AI solutions, including agentic workflows, LLM applications, skills, and connector-based automations
• Consult with business units and Forward-Deployed Engineers on feasibility, approach, and effort, turning ambiguous asks into buildable designs
• Prototype new patterns (examples provided): natural-language query over governed data, document generation, incident summarization
• Harden successful pilots into production solutions
• Serve as the escalation point for technical issues across CoE-supported solutions
• Define and enforce development standards for AI solutions, including coding practices, testing, documentation, versioning, and release management
• Curate the CoE pattern library of reusable, governed building blocks for business super users and champions
• Partner with the AI Security & Governance Manager to ensure each building pass security review efficiently, including access controls, data flows, and prompt-injection safeguards
• Mentor super developers in business units with office hours and paired builds that move prototypes into supported solutions

Requirements

• 7+ years of software and/or data analytics development experience
• 2+ years leading or managing developers, including 1+ years building Generative AI (GenAI)/large language models (LLMs)-based solutions
• Hands-on AI development experience shipping LLM applications, agentic workflows, or AI-powered automations against enterprise systems and APIs
• Proven experience with enterprise AI platforms and frameworks (examples provided): Claude/Anthropic API, Azure OpenAI, MCP-style tool integrations, RAG architectures
• Experience leading sprint planning, backlog grooming, and prioritization processes with stakeholders to deliver critical features and meet strategic goals
• Communication strengths partnering with non-technical stakeholders, clarifying ambiguous needs, facilitating productive discussions, and providing clear, constructive, and empathetic feedback to developers
• Delivery leadership with an agile track record: backlog management, code review discipline, and predictable releases
• Integration fluency with enterprise data and platform integrations (examples provided): BI tools, cloud data warehouses, collaboration and ticketing systems
• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, and/or a related field (or equivalent practical experience)

Technologies

• Claude/Anthropic API
• Azure OpenAI
• MCP-style tool integrations
• RAG architectures

Preferred Skills and Experience

• Familiarity with MLOps/LLMOps practices: evaluation, monitoring, versioning, and cost management
• Retail or consumer-products industry experience
• Experience building cross-functional teams and supporting team development

Location: Atlanta, GA (onsite)