Cloud AI Engineer, Lead

Zebra Technologies is seeking a Lead Cloud AI Engineer to design, build, and scale cloud-native AI platforms and AI-powered tooling across IT Platform Engineering and Cloud Security. This role partners with stakeholders to translate ideas into actionable solutions and delivers value through rapid proofs of concept.

Responsibilities

• Assess and prioritize innovation opportunities across Platform Engineering and Cloud Infrastructure, aligning business needs with cutting-edge technology solutions.
• Perform thorough business and systems analyses, translating intricate technical findings into clear user stories, system requirements, and actionable concepts.
• Lead PoCs and hands-on delivery efforts to rapidly validate and advance cloud and platform innovation initiatives.
• Study disruptive technologies such as Generative AI, ML, RPA, and virtual agents, providing strategic recommendations for corporate adoption.
• Serve as the primary IT Cloud Innovation liaison, fostering cross-functional collaboration and alignment with Zebra’s innovation and product teams.
• Design and facilitate structured ideation workshops to promote collaborative brainstorming and innovative problem-solving.
• Promote modern engineering practices as an Innovation Evangelist within IT and the broader enterprise, expanding cloud-native capabilities.
• Monitor and report KPIs to give leadership visibility into progress and business outcomes of all innovation initiatives.
• Create and maintain a repeatable operating model for cloud-native AI/ML deployments, ensuring alignment with pipeline architecture, performance metrics, and compliance across GCP and Azure.
• Mentor a high-performing team of cloud and AI platform engineers, guiding professional growth toward predictive log analytics, automation (AIOps), and robust cloud data readiness.
• Translate AI governance, cloud security guardrails, and regulatory requirements into practical technical specifications, partnering with systems engineers to integrate PII masking and RBAC into automated CI/CD pipelines.
• Manage roadmap alignment within assigned technology portfolios.

Requirements

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Electronic Engineering, Computer Engineering, or a related field.
• 5+ years of experience on an operations-style team (NOC, SOC, MOC, etc.) with troubleshooting of networking, service desk, operations center, or cloud-based infrastructure.
• Hands-on expertise with Google Gemini Enterprise, including the ability to build and deploy custom agents using the Agent Development Kit (ADK).
• Proficiency across multi-cloud and GenAI platforms, including Google Cloud Platform (GCP), Azure, OpenAI, and Anthropic.
• Experience operating in global, heterogeneous environments that span cloud and on-premises.
• Practical knowledge of, or strong curiosity about, hands-on AI solutions involving LLMs, Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG), and agentic AI patterns (Model Context Protocol, tool calling, orchestration frameworks).
• Programming or scripting capability (e.g., Python) for automation or testing; software development background is a plus.
• Proven track record deploying containerized AI solutions using Kubernetes (GKE/AKS), Docker, and robust CI/CD pipelines, with metrics such as high availability, latency reduction, and cost optimization.
• Strong understanding of enterprise cloud security, application/API security, and fine-grained identity systems, with experience integrating PII masking and RBAC into automated CI/CD pipelines.
• Active professional cloud certifications are highly preferred, such as Google Cloud Professional Cloud Architect, Google Cloud Professional Machine Learning Engineer, or AI Engineer.
• Strong software development background with advanced scripting in Python or similar languages to drive automation, IaC, and automated testing.

Technologies

• Google Gemini Enterprise, Agent Development Kit (ADK)
• Google Cloud Platform (GCP), Azure
• OpenAI, Anthropic
• Kubernetes (GKE/AKS), Docker
• Python

Benefits

• Hybrid work
• Adaptable hours
• Summer Flex Fridays
• Focus Fridays
• Annual companywide well-being day
• Healthcare
• Wellness programs
• Inclusion networks
• Continued learning and development
• Community service days
• Traditional insurances
• Compensation
• Parental leave
• Employee assistance program
• Paid time off
• Cash incentive programs

Location

This is a hybrid role requiring a minimum of three days per week on-site at either Lincolnshire, IL or Holtsville, NY.

Preferred Qualifications

• Some exposure to AI/ML systems, application security, or API security is a plus.
• Travel up to 10% of the time.