AI Solutions Developer

SUMMARY

The AI Solutions Developer designs, builds, and operationalizes AI-enabled software and automation for UniPro and our Members. The role works across IT and business teams to turn useful AI capabilities into working, maintainable solutions, and it serves as a technical resource to Members as they evaluate how AI can support their own operations.

AI changes quickly, but the role is grounded in strong software development practices. UniPro is looking for someone who can build, test, deploy, and support production software while staying current on large language models, agents, and other emerging capabilities. The first year starts inside IT: learn how UniPro operates, improve our own work, establish repeatable technical patterns and the right level of control, and prove what is worth scaling. From there, the scope widens across the business and into Member-facing solutions and consulting.

ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS

AI Development & Delivery

- Learn how UniPro operates and map the process behind each opportunity before building, so the change improves the work and not just the tooling.

- Design and build AI-enabled software, services, agents, integrations, and automation using appropriate technologies for the problem and the environment.

- Build prototypes quickly, then take successful ideas beyond the proof of concept through architecture, testing, security, deployment, monitoring, documentation, and support.

- Integrate large language model and other AI APIs into UniPro applications and workflows using patterns such as structured outputs, tool or function calling, agents, retrieval-augmented generation, semantic search, and human review where appropriate.

- Work with the appropriate IT teams on architecture, code review, shared components, data, integrations, security, deployment, and support so AI capabilities fit the standards and systems already in place.

- Source, shape, and validate the data behind each use case with the teams that own it, and run pilots with the people who will use the result so their feedback is reflected in the next version.

- Build practical evaluation and monitoring into AI solutions so quality, failure modes, latency, cost, and model or provider changes are visible and can be managed over time.

Member Consulting & Applied AI

- Work with Member Technology and other appropriate teams to consult directly with Members on AI opportunities, use cases, tool selection, implementation approaches, controls, and practical adoption.

- Help Members separate useful applications from hype by explaining technical tradeoffs, risks, and realistic implementation options in terms that fit their business and technical environment.

- Support Member pilots and proofs of concept where they can create value, working with the teams that will own or support the result rather than treating the work as a standalone AI effort.

- Bring lessons from Member conversations and pilots back into UniPro standards, reusable patterns, and Member-facing solutions where they can benefit the broader membership.

- Be clear with internal teams and Members about what is ready for production use, what still needs validation, and where additional controls or support are required.

Standards, Governance & Enablement

- Partner with IT leadership and the appropriate IT teams to establish and maintain a standard process for evaluating, approving, building, and releasing AI capabilities across UniPro.

- Apply controls that fit the risk and scope of each use case, including data handling and security review, architecture and code quality, testing and evaluation, documentation, production ownership, monitoring, and long-term maintainability.

- Help define when additional review, approval, or training is required before an AI tool or feature is made broadly available, and make sure users have the guidance they need to use it safely and effectively.

- Contribute to the AI roadmap by bringing forward candidate use cases, technical feasibility and effort input, and sequencing recommendations, then work with the responsible teams to deliver against the roadmap once it is set.

- Track the AI landscape, test new models, frameworks, and providers when there is a practical reason to do so, and advise leadership and IT teams on opportunities, tradeoffs, and risks.

- Document the business case, technical approach, controls, and results for material pilots and production solutions so decisions to scale, rework, or stop rest on evidence.

OTHER FUNCTIONS

- Document technical patterns, experiments, findings, and recommendations so successful work can be reused rather than rebuilt.

- Support cross-team adoption and ongoing improvement of approved AI capabilities.

- Participate in special projects as instructed by IT leadership.

- Other duties as assigned.

SUPERVISION GIVEN AND RECEIVED

- Reports to the Vice President, Member Technology.

- No direct reports; works across IT, business teams, and Member-facing teams.

- Works with general direction and significant independence while delivering through established IT processes and in partnership with the teams that own or support affected systems.

INTERNAL / EXTERNAL CONTACTS

- Internal contact with all IT teams, business units, and leadership.

- External contact with technology vendors, AI platform providers, implementation partners, and other technical resources.

- Regular contact with Members and Member technology or business teams for AI consulting, discovery, pilots, implementation planning, and Member-facing solutions, coordinated through Member Technology and the appropriate UniPro teams.

JOB REQUIREMENTS & QUALIFICATIONS

Education & Experience

- Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Data Science, a related field, or equivalent experience.

- Three to five years of professional software development experience, including hands-on work with applied AI, automation, data-intensive applications, or integration solutions.

- Demonstrated experience taking software beyond a proof of concept into production or sustained internal use, including testing, version control, deployment, monitoring, and support.

- Experience working directly with business stakeholders or customers to turn a stated problem into working software and iterate based on how it performs in practice.

Technical Competencies

- Strong working knowledge of appropriate software development technologies, plus experience with REST APIs, authentication or OAuth, SQL, Git, and modern software development practices.

- Hands-on experience with large language model APIs and applied AI patterns such as prompt and system design, structured outputs, tool or function calling, agents, retrieval-augmented generation, embeddings, or semantic search.

- Comfort working with data by querying it, joining across sources, validating quality, and shaping it for applications. Experience with Snowflake or another cloud data platform is a plus.

- Experience with production concerns such as automated testing, CI/CD, cloud deployment, logging and monitoring, evaluation of AI output, cost and latency tradeoffs, data privacy, application security, and long-term supportability.

- Experience with AWS or Azure is preferred. Familiarity with Laravel/PHP, Vue, Microsoft 365 and Copilot, Power Platform, or D365 F&O is useful but not required; the priority is strong software fundamentals and the ability to learn the surrounding stack.

Professional Competencies

- Strong logical and structured thinking, with the ability to take a messy process apart, find where it actually breaks, and design a change that holds.

- Process improvement instincts and the judgment to know when the answer is a better process rather than a new tool.

- An appetite for learning the business. This role reaches into finance, procurement, rebates, Member operations, Supplier relationships, and the data behind them, and the person in it should want to understand all of it.

- Clear communication and the ability to explain technical concepts, options, and tradeoffs to non-technical audiences and Members.

- Comfort with ambiguity, rapid iteration, and changing technology without chasing every new tool that appears.

- A collaborative approach. The role has no direct reports and depends on working well across Member Technology, Development, Data, Operations, Security, and business teams.

OTHER REQUIREMENTS

- Work outside of normal business hours may be required to support system issues, problems, or projects.

- Ability to lift and move equipment weighing up to 35 pounds.

- Occasional travel required (less than 10% of time).

- Based in Atlanta, GA on a hybrid schedule. A fully remote arrangement will be considered for the right candidate.