IT AI Engineering Manager

This role serves as a key bridge between business stakeholders, Data & Analytics, Digital Manufacturing, Enterprise Architecture, and IT teams to transform business opportunities into production-ready AI products. The position is responsible for establishing AI engineering standards, AI delivery frameworks, ML-OPs practices, governance processes, and reusable enterprise AI capabilities while supporting the organization's AI strategy and roadmap.

Lead the enterprise AI Engineering function by delivering secure, scalable, and high-impact AI solutions that enable smarter operations, accelerate innovation, improve manufacturing performance, and create measurable business value across the organization.

It is essential to embody Valmont’s core values of Passion, Integrity, Continuous Improvement, and Delivering Results while cultivating a workplace where employees feel valued, trusted, understood, and respected.

Essential Functions:

• This position reports directly to the Senior Director, Data & Analytics, and will have direct reports.
• This role requires up to 25% travel (domestic and international), including overnight stays.
• Build, mentor, and lead a high-performing AI Engineering team responsible for developing enterprise AI and Generative AI solutions.
• Partner with business leaders to identify, prioritize, and deliver AI use cases that generate measurable business value.
• Develop and maintain the enterprise AI engineering roadmap aligned with strategic business objectives.
• Lead the design, development, testing, deployment, and support of AI-powered applications and intelligent automation solutions.
• Establish best practices for AI development, ML-OPs, model deployment, monitoring, and lifecycle management.
• Collaborate with Data Engineering teams to ensure AI solutions leverage trusted enterprise data assets from modern cloud data platforms.
• Drive implementation of Generative AI solutions, AI assistants, intelligent agents, and Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) architectures.
• Develop reusable AI services, APIs, frameworks, and accelerators that enable rapid delivery of business solutions.
• Participate in data model and data product discussions to ensure AI requirements are incorporated into enterprise data architecture.
• Ensure AI solutions adhere to corporate security, compliance, privacy, and governance standards.
• Evaluate emerging AI technologies and recommend opportunities to improve business operations and productivity.
• Implement monitoring, observability, and performance management practices for production AI systems.
• Apply Agile and DevOps methodologies to support effective AI product delivery and continuous improvement.
• Develop and maintain documentation, standards, and operational procedures related to AI engineering capabilities.
• Support the advancement of enterprise AI literacy and responsible AI adoption across the organization.

Other Important Details About the Role:

• The incumbent must effectively communicate complex technical concepts and AI capabilities to both technical and non-technical stakeholders.
• This position acts as a liaison between Manufacturing Operations, Supply Chain, Engineering, Quality, Corporate Functions, and IT to ensure AI initiatives are aligned with business priorities.
• The role requires strong leadership and collaboration skills to influence organizational adoption of AI technologies and practices.
• Direction is provided by the immediate supervisor and typically consists of strategic priorities, business objectives, enterprise architecture standards, governance requirements, and resource constraints.
• The incumbent exercises significant independent judgment in evaluating AI technologies, recommending solutions, and managing technical delivery activities.
• Major AI initiatives require broad understanding of business processes, operational challenges, technology capabilities, and organizational impacts.
• The position collaborates closely with enterprise architects, cybersecurity teams, data engineering teams, data governance teams, and business leaders.
• Responsible for identifying risks associated with AI implementations and developing mitigation strategies to ensure reliable and trustworthy outcomes.
• Supports continuous improvement efforts by identifying opportunities to automate processes, enhance decision-making, and improve operational performance using AI technologies.

Required Qualifications of Every Candidate:

• Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science, Data Science, Engineering, Information Systems, Mathematics, or a related field, with 8+ years of relevant experience; or equivalent combination of education and experience.
• 3+ years of experience leading technical teams and managing technical professionals.
• Demonstrated experience developing and deploying AI, machine learning, or advanced analytics solutions in production environments.
• Strong knowledge of Generative AI, Large Language Models (LLMs), Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG), and AI agent architectures.
• Experience with cloud platforms such as Microsoft Azure, AWS, or Google Cloud Platform.
• Strong programming skills in Python and experience with modern AI and machine learning frameworks.
• Experience with ML-OPs practices including model deployment, monitoring, versioning, testing, and lifecycle management.
• Understanding of software engineering best practices, API development, DevOps, and CI/CD methodologies.
• Demonstrated ability to translate business challenges into scalable technology solutions.
• Experience working with enterprise data platforms, data products, and modern data architectures.
• Excellent communication, presentation, and stakeholder management skills.
• Demonstrated ability to lead cross-functional initiatives and influence decision-making across organizations.
• Strong analytical, problem-solving, and organizational skills.
• High degree of initiative, accountability, and self-motivation.
• Ability to work effectively with both technical and business teams.
• Passion and integrity with the drive to deliver measurable business outcomes.

Highly Qualified Candidates Will Also Possess These Qualifications:

• Master's Degree in Artificial Intelligence, Computer Science, Data Science, Engineering, or related discipline.
• Experience in manufacturing, industrial, operations, supply chain, or quality-focused environments.
• Experience with Azure OpenAI, Azure AI Services, Microsoft Copilot Studio, Databricks, MLflow, LangChain, or Semantic Kernel.
• Experience implementing computer vision, predictive maintenance, or industrial AI solutions.
• Knowledge of Industry 4.0, Smart Manufacturing, IoT, or Digital Manufacturing initiatives.
• Azure, AI, cloud, or data-related professional certifications.
• Experience establishing enterprise AI governance frameworks and responsible AI programs.
• Experience building or scaling AI Centers of Excellence (CoE).

Benefits

Valmont offers employees and their families a comprehensive Total Wellbeing benefit package to ensure their individual and family’s overall wellness needs are met. Some offerings are dependent upon the role, work schedule, or location and can include the following:

Healthcare (medical, prescription drugs, dental and vision)

401k retirement plan with company match

Paid time off

Employer paid life insurance

Employer paid short-term and long-term disability including maternity leave

Work Life Support

Tuition Reimbursement up to $5,250 per year

Voluntary programs like tobacco cessation, Type 2 diabetes reversal, one-on-one health coaching, mortgage services and more

Valmont does not discriminate against any employee or applicant in employment opportunities or practices on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, genetic information, veteran status, disability or any other characteristic protected by law. Reasonable accommodation may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

If you have a disability and require any assistance in filling out the application for employment email EEOCompliance@Valmont.com.