Senior Forward Deployed AI Engineering Manager

Staples is building the future of Marketplace through practical, AI-enabled solutions that help teams work smarter, move faster, and create measurable business impact. The Marketplace organization sits at the intersection of product, commercial strategy, operations, and technology-solving complex challenges that directly support growth, efficiency, and customer experience.

As the Senior Forward Deployed AI Engineering Manager, you will be a business-embedded technical leader responsible for identifying, shaping, and rapidly delivering AI-enabled solutions to high-value operational and commercial challenges. This is a hands-on builder role-not a traditional roadmap-bound engineering role and not a sales or demo function. You will work directly with Marketplace leaders, product managers, commercial teams, Technology, and Data/AI partners to uncover real-world inefficiencies, translate ambiguous problems into structured technical approaches, and develop working solution pathways that can be validated, scaled, and operationalized.

This role will require the incumbent to work on a 4-day/week on-site schedule from our Framingham corporate offices.  We are open to candidates that are willing to relocate and have the ability to provide assistance.

** What you'll be doing:*
* + Embed within Marketplace operations, product, and commercial teams to understand end-to-end workflows, undocumented processes, edge cases, and operational nuances.

+ Identify, define, and prioritize AI and automation opportunities based on business impact, scalability, and feasibility.

+ Translate ambiguous business problems into structured technical approaches, solution hypotheses, and build plans.

+ Develop and deploy rapid prototypes or proof of concepts using internal platforms, enterprise data, and modern AI/ML and large language model tooling.

+ Validate solutions using real-world data and workflows to demonstrate measurable business value.

+ Partner with Technology and Data/AI teams to transition validated prototypes into scalable, production-ready solutions.

+ Serve as a critical bridge between business stakeholders and technical teams, ensuring clarity of requirements and continuity of context.

+ Drive adoption of deployed solutions by staying engaged through rollout, iteration, and performance measurement.

+ Establish and track success metrics tied to business outcomes such as efficiency gains, cost reduction, revenue impact, and user adoption.

+ Contribute reusable learnings, frameworks, and enhancements to enterprise platforms based on field insights.

+ Lead or coordinate multiple concurrent, high-impact initiatives with cross-functional stakeholders.

+ Mentor less experienced team members and contribute to capability building within the forward-deployed function.

** What you bring to the table:*
* + Strong problem-framing and critical-thinking skills, especially in ambiguous environments where the path forward is not predefined.

+ A builder mindset with the curiosity and ownership to move from problem discovery to working solution quickly.

+ Ability to connect technical solutions to clear business outcomes and communicate impact in practical terms.

+ Effective stakeholder engagement across technical and non-technical audiences.

+ Adaptability and comfort operating in rapidly evolving technology and business environments.

+ Collaborative approach with the ability to influence without direct authority.

+ Clear, concise communication skills across all organizational levels, including senior leadership.

+ Business acumen and judgment to balance value, feasibility, scalability, and adoption.

** What's needed

- Basic Qualifications:

*
* + Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Data Science, a related technical field, or equivalent work experience.

+ 10+ years of overall experience in software engineering or technical solution development.

+ Experience building and deploying AI, machine learning, automation, or data-driven solutions in a business or enterprise environment.

+ Experience writing code and delivering working prototypes using modern programming languages such as Python, Java, or similar.

+ Experience translating business requirements into technical solutions in partnership with business stakeholders.

+ Experience delivering solutions from concept through prototype validation.

+ Experience integrating or working with structured and unstructured data sources.

+ Experience managing multiple complex projects or initiatives simultaneously.

** What's needed

- Preferred Qualifications:

*
* + Master's degree or advanced technical training.

+ Experience in eCommerce, marketplaces, retail, or adjacent industries.

+ Experience implementing AI or automation solutions within large, matrixed enterprise environments.

+ Familiarity with enterprise data platforms, cloud environments, and modern AI/LLM tooling ecosystems.

+ Experience working at the intersection of business units and centralized technology or data organizations.

+ Experience contributing to or enhancing…