Lead Data GenAI Engineer; Hybrid

Overview

Lead Gen AI Engineer

See What We re All About

As the fastest-growing distributor of restaurant equipment, HVAC and residential appliance parts, we value safety first and core values. We seek individuals with enthusiasm, integrity, and the courage to embrace change. A sense of humor is a plus. We welcome passionate people with fresh ideas from diverse backgrounds.

We are recognized for growth and innovation on the Inc. 5000 list (15 years), Crain s Fast 50 (10 years), and have been voted a Chicago Tribune Top Workplace by our Chicagoland team for the last four years. If you re ready to roll up your sleeves, go above and beyond, and have fun, let s chat — Apply Today!

Perks

• Parts Town Pride — check out our virtual tour and culture
• Quarterly profit-sharing bonus
• Hybrid work schedule
• Team member appreciation events and recognition programs
• Volunteer opportunities
• Monthly IT stipend
• Casual dress code
• On-demand pay options
• Comprehensive benefits: health, dental and vision, 401k with match, EAP, time away

The Lead Gen AI Engineer will design, prototype, and deliver generative AI solutions that leverage Parts Town s enterprise data on GCP (or other AI platforms as needed). The role bridges data engineering and applied AI, building retrieval pipelines, fine-tuning LLMs, and embedding GenAI into business workflows.

Working closely with Data Engineers, Model Development Engineers, and MLOps, this role ensures GenAI solutions are secure, scalable, and aligned to enterprise standards while enabling rapid adoption across product domains.

GenAI Solution Engineering

• Develop and optimize generative AI applications (e.g., copilots, search assistants, summarization tools).
• Implement retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) pipelines using enterprise data sources.
• Fine-tune LLMs (Vertex AI, OpenAI, Anthropic, LLaMA) for Parts Town-specific use cases.

Data & Pipeline Enablement

• Build pipelines to structure unstructured data (manuals, product catalogs, customer tickets).
• Create embeddings and manage vector databases (Big Query Vector, Pinecone, Weaviate, Chroma
  
  DB).
• Partner with Data Engineers to ensure AI-ready data assets are available and governed.

Integration & Deployment

• Work with MLOps to deploy GenAI solutions into production with monitoring, retraining, and drift detection.
• Develop APIs and microservices for embedding AI into ERP, Salesforce, eCommerce, WMS/Ops, and customer service apps.
• Ensure solutions are performant and aligned with enterprise integration frameworks.

Responsible AI & Governance

• Apply guardrails to mitigate hallucinations, bias, and data leakage.
• Ensure compliance with Parts Town s AI governance framework and data privacy regulations (GDPR, CCPA, EU AI Act).
• Partner with the AI Council to align GenAI use cases with enterprise priorities.

Innovation & Enablement

• Evaluate emerging tools (Lang Chain, Llama Index, Vertex AI GenAI stack) and recommend adoption.
• Build reusable components (prompt templates, connectors, orchestration patterns) to accelerate adoption across teams.
• Share best practices and mentor peers on GenAI engineering approaches.

• You have 5+ years in Data Engineering, AI/ML Engineering, or related roles, with direct experience in generative AI.
• You are proficient in Python and SQL (JavaScript/Node.js a plus).
• You have experience with LLMs (training, fine-tuning, embeddings, RAG pipelines).
• You are hands-on with GCP (Vertex AI, Big Query, Cloud Run, GKE) and/or other GenAI platforms (OpenAI, Anthropic, Hugging Face).
• You are familiar with vector databases and semantic search.
• You understand MLOps practices for deploying and monitoring GenAI solutions.
• You hold strong collaboration and communication skills to partner with Product, Engineering, and Business teams.
• You have a bachelor s degree in computer science, data engineering, or a related field. Willing to consider candidates with proven experience outside of a degree.

We are about working hard and playing hard. We value taking care of each other, responsibility, and improving for all. We are gritty, hands-on, and value an inclusive, positive can-do attitude. We…