Lead Software Engineer – AI/RAG Platform

Purpose: The IT Lead Developer will provide technical leadership for planning, designing, configuring, testing, implementing, documenting, training and maintaining the solutions for the products implemented on the ServiceNow platform to meet business needs and corporate objectives. Minimum Eligibility Requirements: 7–10 years of professional software engineering experience, with increasing scope and ownership. Hands-on experience designing and deploying 2–5 production RAG agents or AI-powered applications. Proficiency in Python for backend services and LLM orchestration (LangChain, Semantic Kernel, or similar frameworks). Working knowledge of Angular or comparable modern front-end frameworks. Demonstrated experience with Azure OpenAI services — including LLM APIs, Azure AI Search (vector/index), and associated Azure infrastructure. Experience with service-based and microservice architectures, RESTful API design, and async service communication. Familiarity with MCP or other tool-calling/function-calling patterns for LLM-to-system integrations. Experience with cloud environments (Azure preferred) including compute, storage, networking, and IAM fundamentals. Practical knowledge of agile/scrum methodologies — sprint ceremonies, story estimation, backlog grooming. Essential Job Functions: Technical Leadership Architect, develop, and continuously improve a production RAG agent built on Azure OpenAI — including chunking strategies, vector indexing, retrieval ranking, and prompt engineering. Lead full-stack development across an Angular front end and a Python-based service and LLMOps layer. Design and maintain MCP (Model Context Protocol) integrations with inventory and merchandising systems to ground AI responses in live operational data. Own the model evaluation pipeline using Ragas to track faithfulness, answer relevance, and context precision metrics across releases. Make architectural decisions for reliability, scalability, and observability of all AI services deployed in Azure. Team & Stakeholder Collaboration Lead, mentor, and conduct code reviews for a team of software engineers, fostering a culture of quality and continuous learning. Work closely with product managers and business stakeholders to understand associate pain points, translate them into technical requirements, and prioritize the backlog. Champion agile practices — participate in sprint planning, retrospectives, and daily stand-ups as a senior voice on the team. Communicate technical trade-offs and architectural decisions clearly to both technical and non-technical audiences. Innovation & Quality Evaluate emerging LLM capabilities, tooling, and Azure OpenAI updates; recommend and prototype improvements to keep the platform current. Establish and maintain engineering best practices including CI/CD pipelines, code quality standards, and security practices for AI workloads. Troubleshoot and resolve complex issues in retrieval quality, LLM hallucination, latency, and integration reliability. Nice to Have Experience with Ragas or other LLM evaluation frameworks (RAGAS, ROUGE, G-Eval, etc.). Familiarity with retail systems — POS, OMS, inventory/merchandising platforms. Exposure to LLMOps tooling such as MLflow, Weights & Biases, or Azure ML. Prior experience in a Center of Excellence or innovation-focused team within a larger enterprise. Our Technology Stack Front End Angular Back End / LLMOps Python, REST APIs, MCP AI / LLM Azure OpenAI (GPT-4), Azure AI Search, RAG Architecture Evaluation Ragas Cloud & DevOps Microsoft Azure, CI/CD pipelines, Agile/Scrum Integrations Inventory & Merchandising Systems via MCP Work Environment This is a hybrid position based at our Atlanta, GA headquarters, with a standard office schedule Monday through Friday during core business hours. You will work in a collaborative, open-plan office environment within the IT department, with dedicated space for focused engineering work. The role involves regular in-person collaboration with product managers, business stakeholders, and your engineering team. Occasional visits to retail store locations may be required to gather associate feedback and observe how the product is used in context. Some extended hours may be needed around major releases or on-call rotations for production incidents. Standard physical requirements of a professional office environment apply — prolonged sitting, use of a computer workstation, and participation in in-person and video meetings. Why Join Our AI Center of Excellence Be the technical lead on a live, production AI product used by thousands of associates across a national retail footprint. Work at the intersection of applied AI and real-world retail operations — your work has immediate, visible impact. Collaborate with a passionate team in a company that is genuinely investing in AI as a strategic priority. Competitive compensation, comprehensive benefits, and a culture that values curiosity and continuous improvement. Opportunities to grow into broader AI architecture and engineering leadership as the Center of Excellence scales. W orking Conditions (travel & environment) Limited travel required including air and car travel. While performing the duties of this job, the employee is occasionally exposed to a warehouse environment and moving vehicles. The noise level in the work environment is typically quiet to moderate. PHYSICAL/SENSORY REQUIREMENTS Sedentary Work – Ability to exert 10 - 20 pounds of force occasionally, and/or negligible amount of force frequently to lift, carry, push, pull or otherwise move objects. Sedentary work involves sitting most of the time, but may involve walking or standing for brief periods of time. Note: Floor & Decor considers all applicants for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, national origin, age, disability, medical condition, pregnancy, marital or familial status, veteran status, or based on any other class protected by applicable federal, state, or local law. Floor & Decor also provides reasonable accommodations to qualified individuals with disabilities in accordance with the Americans with Disabilities Act and applicable state and local law. This job description does not constitute an employment agreement between the employer and the employee and is subject to change by the employer at its sole discretion. Benefits & Rewards Bonus opportunities & career advancement opportunities at every level Programs that help you reach your financial goals: 401k with company match, Employee Stock Purchase Plan, and Referral Bonus Program Medical, Dental, Vision, Life, and other Insurance Plans (subject to eligibility criteria) Work-life balance, including: Paid vacation and sick time for eligible associates Paid holidays plus a personal holiday Paid Volunteer Time Off that starts on Day 1 Equal Employment Opportunity Floor & Decor provides equal employment opportunities to all associates and applicants without regard to age, race, color, religion or creed, national origin or ancestry, sex (including pregnancy), sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, disability, veteran status, genetic information, ethnicity, citizenship, or any other category protected by law. This policy applies to all areas of employment, including recruitment, testing, screening, hiring, selection for training, upgrading, transfer, demotion, layoff, discipline, termination, compensation, benefits and all other privileges, terms and conditions of employment. This policy and the law prohibit employment discrimination against any associate or applicant on the basis of any legally protected status outlined above.