Lead Software Engineer - AI Delivery 2
This is a hybrid position requiring 8 days per month on-site in Lakeland, FL. Join Publix Technology - Where Innovation Meets Impact.

Publix Super Markets, Inc., the largest employee-owned company in the U.S., is powered by a dynamic technology team of 2,100+ associates. We deliver modern, cutting-edge solutions to 1,400+ stores and over 200,000 internal team members across 8 states. Whether you're passionate about IT security, platform engineering, architecture, software development, or infrastructure, we offer exciting career paths at every level - from internships to technical leadership. Be part of a Fortune "100 Best Companies to Work For" and help us build more than just great subs - build the future of technology for Publix.

Become a part of the Publix AI Delivery Team as a Lead Software Engineer. Our team is responsible for designing, developing, and deploying AI-powered solutions that serve both our associates and customers. An ideal candidate thrives in a fast-paced environment, can wear many hats, and has a natural curiosity to learn. They possess exceptional development skills, are passionate about producing high-quality code, and enjoy tackling complex challenges that push the limits of what's possible.

Job Responsibilities:

• Develop high quality, maintainable code and contribute to internal frameworks that accelerate AI delivery
• Implement and optimize data pipelines in Databricks and Azure to operationalize data for AI solutions
• Utilize modern development methodologies with a cloud first approach, incorporating CI/CD pipelines through Azure DevOps
• Create and maintain robust automated testing and monitoring systems for AI services
• Champion experimentation, learning, and innovation across the AI Delivery team while mentoring peers and sharing best practices
• Participate in prompt engineering, search optimization, and generative AI model tuning for various use cases

Required Qualifications:

• Bachelor's degree in management information systems, Computer Science, Business, or other analytical disciplines or equivalent experience
• 7+ years of experience in application design, development, and delivery in an enterprise environment
• 5+ years of hands-on experience working with modern programming languages, specifically C#, Python, and TypeScript, demonstrating the ability to produce clean, maintainable, and high-performance code
• 5+ years of hands-on experience with Microsoft Azure, demonstrating deep practical expertise in core services such as Azure Functions, App Service, Storage, SQL Database, Azure OpenAI, and Front Door
• 5+ years of solid experience with SQL, database design, and the use of ORM frameworks (such as Dapper or Entity Framework) to develop efficient and scalable data access layers
• Proven ability to troubleshoot complex issues in distributed systems
• Strong sense of ownership and accountability with a focus on delivering high quality code

Preferred Qualifications:

• Experience leading or mentoring engineering teams on cloud native or AI/ML projects
• Hands-on experience with modern frontend frameworks (React, Next.js, or Blazor) integrated with backend APIs
• Familiarity with large language models (LLMs), prompt engineering, and retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) patterns
• Experience building or integrating with observability and monitoring stacks (Application Insights, Dynatrace, or OpenTelemetry)
• Background with CI/CD automation, Terraform, and infrastructure-as-code practices
• Strong understanding of MLOps, model deployment, and performance optimization workflows in Azure or Databricks