AI Staff Engineer| Hybrid: Chicago, IL or NYC, NY

Circana; Chicago (IL); Hybrid; USD 160,000 - 200,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Bonus eligible

Medical/dental/vision insurance

401(k)

Job summary

Circana is seeking a Forward Deployed Engineer to embed with client teams and turn domain knowledge into working software—agents, automations, and MCP server integrations. You will collaborate with a small pod of experts to deliver production-grade solutions on Circana's agent platform and tooling.

The role emphasizes hands-on coding across Python, TypeScript, and SQL, with strong emphasis on cloud workloads, API integration, and client-facing impact.

Qualifications

• Track record of shipping production software, including AI or agentic systems.
• Strong integration engineering: APIs, data pipelines, databases, systems you did not build.
• Deep practical craft with models: context management, prompting, structured outputs, tool design.
• Fluent daily use of agentic coding tools; Claude Code preferred.

Responsibilities

• Embed with domain experts and engineers who own the underlying systems and resolve ambiguity.
• Decide, step by step, whether to build deterministic automation, an agent, or a person.
• Build end-to-end agents: tools, MCP servers, prompts, plan construction, guardrails.
• Build integrations into enterprise systems with API or file-based interfaces.
• Maintain evaluation sets, graders, and regression suites against ground truth.

Skills

Python

TypeScript

SQL

APIs

Cloud platforms

Clear written communication

Tools

Claude Code

Google ADK

LangGraph

Microsoft Agent Framework

Claude Agent SDK

REST API

OpenAPI

OAuth 2.0

CI/CD

Job description

Let’s be unstoppable together!

Circana is a leading provider of technology, AI, and data solutions for consumer packaged goods companies, manufacturers, and retailers. Our predictive analytics and Liquid Data® platform help clients measure market share, uncover consumer behavior, and drive growth—powered by six decades of expertise and an expansive, high-quality data set.

Let’s be unstoppable together!

Circana is a leading provider of technology, AI, and data solutions for consumer packaged goods companies, manufacturers, and retailers. Our predictive analytics and Liquid Data® platform help clients measure market share, uncover consumer behavior, and drive growth—powered by six decades of expertise and an expansive, high-quality data set. At Circana, we are fueled by our passion for continuous learning and growth, we seek and share feedback freely, and we celebrate victories both big and small in an environment that is flexible and accommodating to our work and personal lives. We’re a global company dedicated to fostering inclusivity and belonging. We value and celebrate the unique experiences, cultures, and viewpoints that each individual brings. By embracing a wide range of backgrounds, skills, expertise, and beyond, we create a stronger, more innovative environment for our employees, clients, and communities. With us, you can always bring your full self to work. Join our inclusive, committed team to be a challenger, own outcomes, and stay curious together. Circana is proud to be Certified™ by Great Place To Work®. This prestigious award is based entirely on what current employees say about their experience working at Circana. Learn more at www.circana.com.

Role Overview

Circana is building an agentic ecosystem on the industry's richest view of consumer behavior: intelligent systems that reason, plan, and act across the data the world's largest brands and retailers run on. This is a Forward Deployed Engineer (FDE) role. FDEs embed with the teams who run Circana's business, in operations, client service and product, and turn what those teams know into working software: AI agents where judgment is needed, automations where a rule is enough, and the MCP servers and integrations that let both reach our systems. You will work in a small pod with a principal engineer and domain experts, build on Circana's agent platform and tooling, and own whether the result works in production. FDEs move between engagements: embedded builds with a business team, shared platform components, and client-facing solutions.

Job Responsibilities

• Embed with domain experts and the engineers who own the underlying systems. Learn how the work really happens, including the exceptions, and resolve ambiguity at the source.
• Decide, step by step, whether the work calls for a deterministic automation, an agent, or a person, and build whichever it is.
• Build agents end to end: tools, MCP servers, context and prompt design, plan construction, tool result shaping, and guardrails.
• Build integrations into real enterprise systems, including ones with thin documentation or no API: REST services, databases, file-based feeds, and schedulers.
• Build and maintain the evaluation sets, graders and regression suites that measure whether a solution is right against ground truth; investigate failures down to the step that caused them.
• Debug from traces: reproduce, isolate, fix, and add the test that prevents recurrence.
• Automate the development loop itself: turn repeated manual work into commands, hooks, and subagents.
• Move decisions forward with working prototypes.

Requirements

• A track record of shipping production software that real users depended on, including AI or agentic systems.
• Strong integration engineering: APIs, data pipelines, databases, and systems you did not build.
• Deep practical craft with models: context management, prompting, structured outputs, and tool design.
• Strong Python; productive in an unfamiliar codebase quickly.
• Fluent daily use of agentic coding tools; Claude Code preferred.
• Comfortable working directly with non-technical experts, and persistent in getting to how a process actually works.
• Experience running workloads on a major cloud platform; ours can be learned quickly.
• Clear written communication under time pressure.
• Demonstrated self-direction: work you initiated, built, or fixed without being asked.

Preferred

• Prior forward deployed, solutions, or field engineering experience.
• Agentic systems in production, across multiple model families.
• Hands-on experience with an agent orchestration framework (Google ADK, LangGraph, Microsoft Agent Framework, Claude Agent SDK, or similar) on GCP Vertex AI, Azure AI Foundry, or a comparable AI stack.
• Working TypeScript and solid SQL.
• Front end capability: React, TypeScript, CopilotKit or similar.
• Workflow orchestration (Airflow or similar) and large transactional datasets.
• Evaluation and observability tooling; contributions to agent frameworks or MCP servers.

Tech Stack & Tools

Experience with any of the platforms and frameworks below is relevant; skills transfer readily between them.

• Platforms: GCP Vertex AI, Azure AI Foundry, on-prem
• Orchestration: Google ADK, LangGraph, Microsoft Agent Framework, Claude Agent SDK
• Models: Anthropic, Google, OpenAI, open-weight families
• Protocols: MCP, A2A, OpenAPI, OAuth 2.0
• Engineering: Python, TypeScript, SQL, Claude Code
• Delivery: evaluation harnesses as CI, tracing and observability tooling, CI/CD integration

Circana Behaviors

• Stay Curious: Being hungry to learn and grow, always asking the big questions.
• Seek Clarity: Embracing complexity to create clarity and inspire action.
• Own the Outcome: Being accountable for decisions and taking ownership of our choices.
• Center on the Client: Relentlessly adding value for our customers.
• Be a Challenger: Never complacent, always striving for continuous improvement.
• Champion Inclusivity: Fostering trust in relationships engaging with empathy, respect, and integrity.
• Commit to each other: Contributing to making Circana a great place to work for everyone.

Location:

This position can be located in the following area(s): Chicago, IL (Hybrid) or NYC, NY (Hybrid)

The salary range for this role is $160,000 USD to $200,000 USD.

This job is also eligible for bonus pay.

We offer a comprehensive package of benefits including paid time off, medical/dental/vision insurance and 401(k) to eligible employees.

An offer of employment may be conditional upon successful completion of a background check in accordance with local legislation and our candidate privacy notice. Your current employer will not be contacted without your permission.

This role is subject to AI-assisted screening. Circana uses artificial intelligence (AI) to assess resumes for alignment with job requirements by helping locate details in resumes that relate to the job description.

This position is expected to remain open for approximately 30 days and may close earlier if sufficient qualified candidates are identified.