Lead Software Engineer (P4371)

84.51° Overview:

84.51° is a retail data science, insights and media company. We help The Kroger Co., consumer packaged goods companies, agencies, publishers and affiliates create more personalized and valuable experiences for shoppers across the path to purchase.

Powered by cutting-edge science, we utilize first-party retail data from more than 62 million U.S. households sourced through the Kroger Plus loyalty card program to fuel a more customer-centric journey using 84.51° Insights, 84.51° Loyalty Marketing and our retail media advertising solution, Kroger Precision Marketing.

Join us at 84.51°!

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Lead Software Engineer (AI Enablement) P4371 

Cincinnati / Chicago 

SUMMARY 

We are seeking a Lead Software Engineer to join our Science Platform Innovation squad. This team is responsible for managing the Databricks and Unity Catalog platforms, with a strong focus on infrastructure architecture, evaluation and enablement of new features, and support for product releases within the Azure/Databricks ecosystem. 

As part of the AI Enablement organization, we ensure the platform remains scalable, secure, and capable of supporting cutting-edge data science and AI initiatives across the company. 

In this role, you will collaborate with cross-functional teams of data scientists, data engineers, research scientists, and product leads to understand business needs and identify opportunities to introduce and integrate new tools and capabilities that drive value for users and stakeholders. Alongside the Lead Data Scientist, and Product Manager, you will be responsible for evaluating third-party technologies to assess their viability and potential impact, helping unlock new capabilities for the organization. Partnering closely with the team’s Cloud Architect, you will ensure proper implementation, scalability, and AI readiness of all platform additions. You will also play a key role in reviewing and advising on infrastructure and operational model changes, ensuring the platform evolves thoughtfully as new requirements and modifications arise.  

RESPONSIBILITIES 

• Stay informed about upcoming tools and features on the Databricks product roadmap.  
• Partner up with Product Lead, Data Science Lead and Architect to assess new third-party tools for their compatibility with our existing infrastructure, focusing on deployment considerations and integration within the Databricks and Azure science and data platform. 

• Ensure all new and existing tools are evaluated with a strong emphasis on AI-readiness and scalability. 

• Lead efforts to draft and deliver constructive feedback to Databricks, Microsoft, and other strategic third-party partners to influence tool improvements to be aligned with our organizational needs. 

• Lead the creation and publication of training materials tailored for engineers to ensure the operational service team can effectively understand, support, and maintain deployed and updated infrastructure components. 

• Maintain relationship with the operational service team, understanding their ways of working and partnering with them to enhance and maintain the platform support mechanisms as appropriate to organizational goals. 

• Stay attuned to feedback from users and stakeholders, actively surfacing relevant insights to the team to help inform decisions and drive meaningful improvements. 

• Manage and enhance deployment of infrastructure using Terraform and Terraform Cloud  

• Manage and