AI Strategy and Solutions Engineer

Location: 3700 South Blvd Suite 400 Charlotte, NC 28209

Job Grade: 16

primary functions:

The primary purpose of this role is to identify, prioritize, and deliver high-impact AI solutions across the business. This role partners with business owners to embed AI into processes, runs rapid prototypes, evaluates vendors and solutions, establishes guardrails, and leads internal enablement (classes/mentoring) to accelerate our AI journey. Role is focused on aligning business strategy and identifying opportunities to embed AI solutions across the organization.

responsibilities:

• Partner with business units to understand workflows, pain points, and opportunities where AI can add value.
• Evaluate new projects to identify AI integration opportunities.
• Conduct ongoing market research to identify emerging AI tools and solutions relevant to your industry.
• Build business cases for AI implementations, including ROI analysis.
• Design and implement AI solutions that integrate with existing systems and workflows.
• Build rapid prototypes using LLM APIs and common components (retrieval/RAG, prompt chains, small services) to prove value.
• Work hands-on to configure, test, and deploy AI products and tools.
• Troubleshoot technical issues and optimize AI solution performance.
• Establish AI guardrails for data privacy, prompt safety, human-in-the-loop review, and vendor data handling; coordinate with Security/Legal as needed.
• Evaluate and compare buy vs. build options; run short vendor trials on our data and create a recommendation with a scorecard and cost model.
• Document reuseable patterns (prompt library, templates, connectors) and maintain a small “AI components” repo for faster future delivery.
• Set up and manage basic operational hygiene: secrets management, environment configs, API quotas, logging, and error handling.
• Comply with company policies and applicable regulations for data protection and acceptable use; follow all required procedures and training.
• Translate technical AI capabilities into business value for non-technical stakeholders.
• Work closely with the new Project/Product rollout to align AI initiatives with organizational priorities.
• Gather feedback from users to continuously improve AI implementations.
• Conduct training sessions to build AI literacy across the organization.
• Mentor team members on AI tools and best practices.
• Create documentation and guidelines for AI solution usage.
• Comply with all Federal regulations, Credit Union policies and procedures, including Bank Secrecy and the USA Patriot Act.
• Perform job duties in accordance with the Credit Union's values, mission and vision.
• Performs other duties as assigned.

minimum requirements:

• Bachelor’s degree in computer science, Engineering, Data Science, or related technical field.
• 3 years of hands-on experience in software, data, or solutions engineering (startup or product/project team preferred), with evidence of shipped tools or prototypes used by real users.
• Exposure to AI/ML technologies through coursework, projects, or professional experience.
• Engineering mindset with ability to build, configure, and troubleshoot technical solutions.
• Understanding of APIs, data integration, and system architecture.
• Minimum 1 year of experience AI/ML concepts and common AI tools (ChatGPT, Claude, automation platforms, etc.).
• Experience calling modern LLM APIs (e.g., OpenAI/Azure/Anthropic) and assembling small solutions (prompt design, retrieval/RAG, evaluation).
• Proficiency in at least Python/FastAPI implementation stack and integrating third-party SaaS/REST APIs.
• Familiarity with vector databases/search (pgvector, Pinecone, or similar) and document pipelines (PDFs, HTML, knowledge bases).
• 12+ months implementing PII detection/redaction pipelines before any external LLM/API call, with logs proving zero raw PII leaves the system.
• Strong product sense and communication skills: can translate business problems into measurable AI solutions and explain trade-offs clearly.
• Proven track record operating in ambiguity-taking a fuzzy problem no one asked for, prototyping a simple, lovable solution, and creating pull.
• Led stakeholders from skepticism to adoption showing, not telling; so, colleagues view AI as a teammate that upgrades their role, not a threat.
• Executive-ready communicator who can translate complex AI and engineering into crisp business decisions for VP/SVP/AVP audiences. Comfortable teaching and mentoring; leading short, practical sessions that lift skills and drive adoption.
• Self-starter who can work independently and manage multiple projects.
• Curiosity and enthusiasm for technology and its applications.