Associate AI Engineer

Worldpac Canada Inc; Oak Brook (IL); On-site; USD 85,000 - 110,000; Full time

Job summary

Worldpac Canada Inc. is seeking an early-career AI Engineer to join the Data & Analytics team in Oak Brook, IL.

You will design, build, and support AI-powered solutions including chat assistants, workflow automation, and integrations with business systems. You'll grow through mentorship, hands-on projects, and structured onboarding, focusing on Python fundamentals and AI concepts while learning production-grade practices.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree or equivalent in CS/Engineering/Data Science or related.
• Foundational Python programming demonstrated via projects/internships.
• Working understanding of AI/ML concepts and LLMs.
• Hands-on exposure to an area relevant to the role (LLM/API/AI projects).
• Familiar with Git, documentation, and debugging.

Responsibilities

• Translate product requirements into AI/ML solutions with guidance.
• Contribute to building/testing AI chat assistants and automation tools.
• Assist in integrating AI solutions with databases, APIs, and business apps.
• Help build/train/evaluate ML/LLM features while adhering to standards.
• Contribute to RAG workflows using LangChain or similar, growing toward independence.
• Support and maintain AI agents, tools, and automations; troubleshoot with team.
• Write clean, well-documented code and participate in code reviews.
• Support and promote WPChat across the organization.
• Document what you build and stay current with AI/ML developments.

Skills

Python

AI/ML concepts

Git

Teamwork

Education

Bachelor's degree in CS/Engineering/Data Science

Tools

LangChain

Jira

Vertex AI

Bedrock

Job description

Please note: We are unable to sponsor H1-B's or TN's now or in the future.

About the Role

This is an early-career role designed for a new or recent graduate who is excited to build a career in applied AI. You'll join our Data & Analytics team and work alongside experienced engineers and external delivery partners to help design, build, and support AI-powered solutions — including chat assistants, workflow automation, and integrations with our business systems.

You won't be expected to know everything on day one. We'll invest in your growth through mentorship, hands-on projects, code reviews, and structured onboarding. What matters most is a solid foundation in programming and AI concepts, genuine curiosity, and the drive to learn quickly. If you've built things in school, an internship, a bootcamp, or on your own — and you're eager to do it in a production environment with people who will help you level up — we'd like to hear from you.

What You'll Do

You'll start with well-scoped tasks and grow toward more independent work as you develop. Day to day, you will:

• Help translate product requirements and user stories into AI/ML solutions, with guidance from senior engineers and the Product Manager
• Contribute to building and testing AI chat assistants and automation tools for internal teams, in collaboration with senior engineers and external partners
• Assist in integrating AI solutions with existing databases, APIs, and business applications
• Help build, train, and evaluate machine-learning and LLM-based features, learning our production, quality, and security standards as you go
• Contribute to agentic and retrieval-augmented (RAG) workflows using frameworks such as LangChain or similar — beginning with guided tasks and building toward independence
• Support and help maintain existing AI agents, tools, and automations, including troubleshooting with support from the team
• Write clean, well-documented code and take part in code reviews to build strong engineering habits
• Help support and promote our internal AI chat platform (WPChat) across the organization
• Document what you build, and stay current with AI/ML developments — sharing what you learn with the team
• Collaborate across IT, data, and business teams, and partner with external vendors on delivery

How You'll Grow — What You'll Learn Here

These are skills you'll develop on the job with mentorship — not prerequisites. Over roughly your first 6–18 months, you can expect to gain hands-on, production experience with:

• Agent orchestration frameworks (LangChain, LangGraph, or AutoGen) and patterns such as ReAct and plan-and-execute, including memory and human-in-the-loop flows
• Retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) and NLP tooling — e.g., LlamaIndex, Haystack, PyTorch, scikit-learn
• Deploying AI solutions on cloud platforms (AWS, Azure, or GCP) and platform tools such as Vertex AI, Amazon Bedrock, or Azure AI Foundry
• Working with AI gateways (e.g., Portkey, Kong) and MCP servers that connect to enterprise systems (Oracle, Workday, Salesforce, ServiceNow, Jira)
• Building and integrating RPA workflows and connecting them to LLM decision layers
• MLOps practices for deploying and monitoring models, and building conversational AI across channels (web chat, and potentially voice, SMS, and email)

What We're Looking For

The essentials — this is what we actually require:

• A bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Data Science, or a related field — or an equivalent combination of education and practical experience (including bootcamps or a strong self-taught portfolio). Recent and upcoming graduates are welcome.
• Foundational programming ability in Python, demonstrated through coursework, internships, academic or personal projects, bootcamp work, or open-source contributions
• A working understanding of core AI/ML and large language model (LLM) concepts — how they work and where they're used — from classes, projects, or self-study
• Hands-on exposure to at least one area relevant to the role: building something with an LLM or an AI framework (e.g., LangChain), a machine-learning project, an API integration, or a chatbot. A class, capstone, or personal project counts.
• Comfort with engineering fundamentals: version control (Git), reading documentation, and debugging
• Strong problem-solving skills, attention to detail, and a genuine eagerness to learn
• Clear communication and a collaborative, team-oriented mindset

Nice to Have (Bonus, Not Required)

Any of these will strengthen your application, but none are expected of an early-career candidate:

• Any hands-on exposure to LLM agent frameworks (LangChain, AutoGen, LangGraph, CrewAI, Flowise) or RAG tools (LlamaIndex, Haystack)
• Any experience with a cloud platform (AWS, Azure, GCP) or an AI platform tool (Vertex AI, Bedrock, Azure AI Foundry)
• Exposure to LibreChat, MLOps tooling, AI gateways (Portkey, Kong), or MCP servers
• Coursework or projects in NLP, chatbots, or conversational AI (including voice, SMS, email, or web chat)
• Any internship or project experience, including in web, eCommerce, or general software development
• Familiarity with data privacy and security basics
• Interest in or exposure to the wholesale distribution, manufacturing, CPG, or eCommerce industries

Work Arrangement

This is a full-time, on-site position at our Oak Brook, IL office. We've made it on-site on purpose: early in your career, working shoulder-to-shoulder with experienced engineers is one of the fastest ways to learn, get real-time feedback, and grow into a strong AI engineer. You'll be part of a team that's invested in your development.