Manager, AI Innovation and Solutions

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Full Time Professional Whittier, CA, US

Salary Range: $70,000.00 To $ Annually

Location: Hybrid (onsite 2-3 days/week in Whittier, CA)

Status: Contract to Hire

Reports To: VP, Unstructured Data Analytics & AI Innovation

PSB Insights is seeking a contract to hire Manager, AI Innovation and Solutions to lead the charge in defining "what's next" for our advanced research and data analytics capabilities. This role sits at the intersection of AI product engineering, advanced unstructured data analytics, and strategic research. You will not only apply cutting‑edge methodologies to solve high-impact client engagements but will actively architect, build, and deploy custom agentic AI systems, automated workflows, and data products and solutions.

The ideal candidate is a builder, a hands‑on developer, and a strategic thinker. You possess deep technical expertise in Python, R, and SQL, and have a proven track record of designing and implementing agentic workflows (e.g., multi-agent systems, tool‑use LLMs, autonomous research loops) within cloud environments – specifically Google Cloud Platform (GCP) and Azure. You know how to design human‑in‑the‑loop workflows.

We are looking for an applied AI developer who can lead complex initiatives, converting highly ambiguous business questions into scalable technical architectures and turn emerging AI capabilities into practical, reliable products and workflows. This role is not focused on training foundation models; it is focused on selecting, integrating, evaluating, and orchestrating existing models to solve real business and research problems.

• Agentic AI Engineering: Architect, prototype, and build custom agentic workflows, tool‑calling systems, and multi-step AI applications to automate, scale, and deeply enrich qualitative and quantitative research processes.
• Product & Solution Building: Lead the end‑to‑end development of proprietary AI‑driven tools, custom APIs, and analytics products that differentiate PSB’s capabilities in the market. Manage structured outputs, function calling, JSON schemas, and API orchestration.
• Cloud Architecture (GCP and Azure): Deploy, manage, and optimize AI models, databases, and data pipelines utilizing Google Cloud Platform and Azure services (e.g., Vertex AI, Microsoft Foundry, etc.).
• Research & Development: Investigate and explore emerging AI frameworks, LLMs, vector databases, and NLP techniques, rapidly translating academic or industry breakthroughs into production‑ready business solutions. Integrate LLMs through APIs, including OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google models, into client‑facing applications and internal workflows.

• Multi-Engine Programming: Write, optimize, and maintain production‑grade code in Python and R for advanced text/image/video processing, statistical modeling, machine learning, and data visualization. Develop AI solutions using modern machine learning frameworks, including the Hugging Face ecosystem.
• Database & Query Design: Architect structured databases and write highly complex SQL queries to extract, clean, and merge diverse datasets (first‑party surveys, social data, digital scraping, and client databases).

• Methodology Standardization: Establish and champion best practices for code reproducibility, analytical rigor, data security, quality assurance, and documentation across the team. Utilize modern software development practices, including Git/Git Hub for version control and Agile methodologies for project delivery.
• Collaboration: Partner closely with data scientists, project managers, and senior leadership, providing technical mentorship where needed.

• Applied AI Engineering: Advanced Python skills, with hands‑on experience building AI-enabled applications, agentic workflows, tool‑calling systems, structured outputs, APIs, and human‑in‑the‑loop processes using models from OpenAI,…