[Hiring] Applied AI Engineer @J.D. Power

Role Description

You build the things people actually use. As an Applied AI Engineer on the Launch Lab team, you deliver full-stack AI-powered applications (internal tools, lightweight client-facing prototypes, and integration accelerators) on 2-to-4-week sprint cycles. You take PoC blueprints from the Innovation Crew and own them all the way through:

• Building production-quality interfaces and services
• Getting them deployed and operational
• Confirming they are live and available for use
• Handing them off cleanly to the team within Product Engineering, OEM Solutions, Infrastructure, Internal Platforms, or other appropriate fit in Engineering

You bring strong full-stack instincts, product intuition, and deep AI-native habits to a team that moves faster than any group this size has any right to move. In your first 30 days, you will receive your first Blueprint Handoff and have a sprint plan drafted. By day 60, you will have a working application in use with real users. By day 90, you will have executed at least one clean handoff to a maintaining team.

The applications you ship will reduce manual hours across product, engineering, and analytics teams, unblock product work that core teams cannot prioritize, and demonstrate that AI-powered delivery at startup velocity is possible inside our company. Your work directly enables the four capability pillars JD Power is building toward:

• AI Assistants and Copilots that put contextual intelligence at the point of every decision
• Agentic Workflows that automate complex multi-step tasks
• Engineering AI that augments how developers design, build, and ship
• The shared foundations that every pillar depends on

When you ship something, it matters immediately and it measurably moves the business.

What You’ll Be Doing in This Role:

• Lead application architecture and implementation across active Launch Lab delivery tracks
• Receive, interpret, and execute PoC Blueprint Handoffs from the Innovation Crew
• Build on the Innovation Arena's layered architecture
• Integrate Launch Lab outputs into JD Power's core data infrastructure
• Participate in Gate 2 technical scoping
• Own each Launch Lab output through to live
• Contribute application-layer technology evaluations to the Emerging Technology Radar

Qualifications

• A portfolio of shipped, production AI applications
• Full-stack engineering depth
• Hands-on experience with agentic frameworks or LLM APIs
• Eval harness design and LLM observability
• Multi-model routing and cost optimization
• Data platform experience and security basics for AI applications
• Strong product intuition
• JD Power internal platform, data infrastructure, or product ecosystem familiarity

Requirements

• Experience building and deploying real applications
• Proficiency in frontend technologies (React preferred)
• Backend depth across REST and/or GraphQL
• Experience with AI behavior and user experience
• Ability to manage inference cost as a first-class engineering constraint
• Knowledge of PII handling, secrets management, and API audit logging

Benefits

• Flexible work arrangements
• Opportunities for learning and development
• A culture centered on core values