AI Engineering Lead

Job Title: AI Engineering Lead
Location: Weston, FL
WFH Status: Preferred Weston // Fully remote is also fine
Duration: 6 months
Pay Rate: $80/hr - $85/hr (DOE)

Job Description:
The Planet Group is seeking an AI Engineering Lead, who will be the senior technical anchor for the AI transformation of finance and accounting technology organization. This person owns the AI engineering roadmap end to end, makes foundational architecture decisions, and represents the team in AI Center of Excellence. Critically, they inherit a team of three early-career engineers: developing that talent into independent AI solution owners is as central to this role as delivery itself. They are equally comfortable designing a multi-agent Azure AI workflow and pairing with a junior engineer on their first Copilot Studio deployment.

Responsibilities:

• Own and drive execution of the AI engineering roadmap across three maturity levels -- AI-assisted engineering (every engineer building with AI), embedded AI solutions (business solutions with AI capabilities built in), and agentic systems (multi-step, multi-tool AI processes as the solution itself)
• Establish AI solution architecture standards for Microsoft Copilot Studio, Power Platform, Azure AI Foundry, and Azure OpenAI Service
• Mentor and develop junior AI engineers through structured pairing, design review, and progressively larger solution ownership
• Serve as the primary technical representative in AI Center of Excellence and cross-functional AI governance conversations
• Partner with product management on organization-wide AI adoption -- enablement content, AI-assisted work practices, and tooling
• Lead technical design reviews, architecture decision records, and proof-of-concept prototypes for new AI capabilities
• Evaluate emerging AI tools and Microsoft AI platform releases; deliver assessed recommendations to leadership
• Own AI development best practices as part of the team's engineering standards mandate
• Provide technical direction to vendor AI delivery teams -- architecture, standards, and human-in-the-loop review patterns
• Partner with principal engineering on AI-assisted engineering practices, and with the security and compliance function on AI-assisted controls automation

Qualifications:

• 8+ years of software engineering experience with 3+ years focused on AI/ML engineering or enterprise AI solution delivery
• Hands-on expertise with Microsoft Copilot Studio and Power Platform (Power Automate, Power Apps)
• Demonstrated experience designing and deploying solutions on Azure AI Foundry or Azure OpenAI Service
• Strong understanding of agentic AI patterns -- multi-agent orchestration, tool use, memory, and planning
• Demonstrated track record of mentoring and growing early-career engineers
• Experience integrating AI solutions with ERP or enterprise data systems via REST APIs and OData
• Proficiency in Python for AI/ML development and automation
• Strong communication skills -- able to translate complex AI concepts to business stakeholders and executive audiences

Preferred Qualifications:

• Experience with Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance & Operations or similar enterprise ERP platforms
• Familiarity with Semantic Kernel, Microsoft Agent Framework (MAF), or LangChain
• Microsoft certifications: Azure AI Engineer Associate (AI-102) or Azure Solutions Architect Expert
• Experience operating in or contributing to a Center of Excellence or similar cross-organizational governance body
• Background in enterprise finance, accounting, or supply chain technology domains
• Experience directing vendor or offshore delivery capacity