Lead AI & Data Engineer

Brown-Forman Corporation; United States; Hybrid; USD 140,000 - 190,000; Full time

Job summary

Brown-Forman Corporation in the United States seeks a Lead AI & Data Engineer to spearhead the data foundation powering analytics and AI capabilities. You will translate business problems into scalable data products, modernize data infrastructure, and drive trusted data for reporting, MDM, and AI initiatives.

You will collaborate with business and technology teams to design resilient data pipelines, waterstone governance, and AI-ready data foundations supporting LLM, RAG, and agentic

Qualifications

• 3+ years of dedicated experience in Data Science, Data Engineering, or AI, or 7+ years combined work and education.
• Experience building and deploying production-ready data and AI solutions.
• Strong understanding of modern data architectures, cloud technologies, and analytical platforms.
• Strong Python and advanced SQL skills to build scalable data pipelines.
• Experience partnering with Enterprise Architecture, Integration, and Data Engineering teams.
• Experience integrating disparate systems through APIs, batch interfaces, and SaaS platforms.
• Familiarity with Master Data Management concepts and governance.

Responsibilities

• Partner with business stakeholders to translate needs into data products and delivery plans.
• Design and modernize cloud data platforms, including scalable lakehouse patterns.
• Build and operate resilient ETL/ELT pipelines using Python, SQL, and cloud services.
• Develop analytical models and AI-enabled solutions for reporting and decision support.
• Prepare governed, high-quality data for LLM, RAG, and AI applications.
• Collaborate on BI/reporting enablement using Tableau and AWS QuickSight.
• Establish engineering standards for quality, observability, and security.

Skills

Python

SQL

Cloud data platforms

ETL/ELT

Data modeling

Databricks

MDM

LLM/AI

Tools

Databricks

Tableau

Git

Airflow

APIs

Job description

Lead AI & Data Engineer

Meaningful Work From Day One Join our team and help shape the data foundation that will power Brown-Forman’s next generation of analytics and AI capabilities.

As the Lead AI & Data Engineer, this role offers the opportunity to accelerate our digital transformation by building a trusted, scalable cloud data foundation essential for analytics, reporting, Master Data Management (MDM), and future AI capabilities.

Bring strong engineering discipline, curiosity, and business partnership to solve meaningful problems, modernize how we work with data, and make a visible impact across the enterprise.

Collaborating closely with business and technology teams, this position will translate high-value business problems into production-grade data solutions, while also helping to shape next-generation AI applications such as RAG, conversational AI, and agentic workflows.

What You Can Expect

Business partnership and problem definition: Partner directly with business stakeholders to understand needs, clarify ambiguity, and translate business problems into clear technical requirements, data products, and delivery plans.

Cloud data-platform modernization: Help drive the modernization of data infrastructure from on-premises platforms to cloud-based solutions. Design and implement scalable data lakehouse patterns that support reliable ingestion, transformation, storage, and consumption of enterprise data.

Data pipelines and SaaS integration: Partner with Data Engineering teams to design, build, and operate resilient, reusable ETL/ELT pipelines using Python, SQL, APIs, and cloud-native services. Collaborate on integrating data from SaaS platforms, enterprise applications, and other source systems into the enterprise data ecosystem while adhering to established data architecture standards, governance, and controls.

Data modeling, quality, and Master Data Management (MDM) enablement: Develop analytical models, AI-enabled solutions, and decision-support capabilities that drive business value. Work closely with Data Engineering, MDM, and business stakeholders to identify, validate, and prepare trusted data needed for reporting, advanced analytics, machine learning, and intelligent automation initiatives.

AI-ready data foundations: Prepare governed, discoverable, and high-quality data that powers LLM, RAG, vector-search, conversational AI, and agentic applications. As the enterprise data foundation evolves, contribute to the design, development, and deployment of AI-enabled business solutions. Partner with business stakeholders and the AI Center of Excellence to deliver secure, scalable solutions that adhere to governance, security, compliance, and responsible AI standards.

Advanced analytics and reporting modernization: Enable trustworthy, performant datasets for Tableau, AWS Quick, and other reporting experiences. Support the modernization and rationalization of reporting layers as the cloud data platform evolves.

Engineering excellence: Develop, test, deploy, monitor, and document production-grade data solutions. Establish high standards for code quality, observability, reliability, security, and maintainability.

Technical leadership: Bring a pragmatic, hands‑on approach to solving complex problems. Share engineering practices, coach peers, and help raise the team’s capability in cloud data engineering and AI-enabled delivery.

What You Bring to the Table

3+ years of dedicated experience in Data Science, Data Engineering, or AI, or 7+ years of combined work and education experience.

Experience building and deploying production-ready data and AI solutions.

Strong understanding of modern data architectures, cloud technologies, and analytical platforms, with the ability to select and apply the appropriate tools for a given business challenge.

Strong Python and advanced SQL skills, with the ability to build scalable, maintainable, and well-tested data pipelines and optimize complex transformations and queries.

Experience partnering with Enterprise Architecture, Integration, and Data Engineering teams to support the design and implementation of modern data lakehouse and cloud data platform architectures that enable advanced analytics, AI, and business solutions.

Proven ability to work directly with business stakeholders, translate non-technical needs into technical requirements, and communicate technical decisions and tradeoffs clearly.

Experience integrating disparate systems through APIs, batch interfaces, and SaaS platforms, with attention to reliability, security, monitoring, and error handling.

Experience with data modeling, data quality controls, reconciliation, lineage, and operational support for enterprise data pipelines.

Familiarity with Master Data Management concepts, including master-data domains, data stewardship, data quality rules, match/merge logic, survivorship, golden records, and governance.

Experience enabling BI and reporting tools such as Tableau and/or AWS Quick.

Exposure to model evaluation, prompt engineering, or model customization techniques.

What Makes You Unique

Experience with AWS cloud services is preferred, including designing and operating scalable data, analytics, and AI solutions.

Experience with Databricks and modern data lakehouse architectures is preferred, including data engineering, analytics enablement, governance, and preparation of trusted datasets that support advanced analytics and AI applications.

Experience building or supporting RAG applications, conversational AI solutions, AI agents, or LLM-powered business applications is preferred.

Familiarity with Hadoop, Cloudera, and/or Impala environments is a plus.

Working Arrangement

In‑office at the Brown‑Forman Louisville, Kentucky Corporate Headquarters Monday to Thursday, with flexibility to work remotely on Fridays.

Who We Are

We believe great people build great brands. And we know there is Nothing Better in the Market than a career at Brown-Forman.

Being a part of Brown-Forman means you will grow both personally and professionally. You will have the opportunity to solve problems, seize opportunities, and generate bold ideas. You will belong to a place where teamwork matters and where you are encouraged to bring your best self to work.

What We Offer

Total Rewards at Brown-Forman is designed to engage our people to ensure sustainable and profitable growth for generations to come. As a premium spirits company, we offer equitable pay structures for individual and company performance alongside a premium employee experience.

We offer a range of premium benefits that reflect our company values and meet the needs of our diverse workforce.

Brown‑Forman Corporation has been building exceptional spirits brands for more than 150 years, responsibly upholding our founding promise of "Nothing Better in the Market." Our portfolio of premium brands includes the Jack Daniel’s Family of Brands, Woodford Reserve, Herradura, el Jimador, Korbel, New Mix, Old Forester, The Glendronach, Glenglassaugh, Benriach, Diplomático Rum, Chambord, Gin Mare, Fords Gin, Slane, and Coopers’ Craft.

With a team of approximately 5,400 employees worldwide, we proudly share our passion for premium beverages in more than 170 countries. Discover more about us at brown-forman.com and stay connected through LinkedIn, Instagram, and X.

Brown-Forman Corporation is committed to equality of opportunity in all aspects of employment. It is the policy of Brown-Forman Corporation to provide full and equal employment opportunities to all employees and potential employees without regard to race, color, religion, national or ethnic origin, veteran status, age, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, genetic information, physical or mental disability or any other legally protected status.

Accommodations available upon request including an Interpreter.