Lead Software Engineer (P2050)

84.51° Overview:

84.51° is a retail data science, insights and media company. We help The Kroger Co., consumer packaged goods companies, agencies, publishers and affiliates create more personalized and valuable experiences for shoppers across the path to purchase.

Powered by cutting-edge science, we utilize first-party retail data from more than 62 million U.S. households sourced through the Kroger Plus loyalty card program to fuel a more customer-centric journey using 84.51° Insights, 84.51° Loyalty Marketing and our retail media advertising solution, Kroger Precision Marketing.

Join us at 84.51°!

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Lead Software Engineer, P2050

We are seeking a Lead Software Engineer to join our AI Gateway team and help shape the future of AI infrastructure at 84.51° and Kroger. The AI Gateway team develops and maintains an enterprise-scale AI Gateway that provides centralized, secure and scalable access to Large Language Models (LLMs). The AI Gateway is core to 84.51˚ and Kroger’s AI strategy and is a high impact product and team. This is a mission-critical and fast-growing product that handles millions of requests and billions of tokens per week – and is growing exponentially. The team also builds and maintains a Portal that is used to onboard and manage Users/Teams leveraging the AI Gateway. You will play an active role in shaping the strategy of how 84.51˚ and Kroger leverage AI to do our jobs better.

You will collaborate with cross-functional teams of Data Scientists, Research Scientists, Software Engineers, and Product Leads to understand business requirements and ensure we build a scalable, robust and highly available AI Gateway and Portal for users across 84.51˚ and Kroger. This team will also engage with third party vendors to enable speed, scale, and efficiency.

This is truly a full-stack, generalist Software Engineer role spanning Cloud Infrastructure to Front-End App Development. This role will be responsible for helping lead the development and coordination of technical projects. The day to day for this role could vary from writing APIs in Python or JavaScript, building web applications and other front-end work, deploying cloud infrastructure using Terraform, deploying new code or performance optimizations with AKS & Helm, and other related projects.

RESPONSIBILITIES

• Lead development of back-end services, primarily in Python


• Lead development of front-end services, primarily with SvelteKit


• Work regularly with AI model APIs (such as the Azure OpenAI API or Google VertexAI API)


• Work daily with Azure and Google Cloud Platform (GCP)


• Project-level development of infrastructure using Terraform


• Project-level development of CI/CD pipelines using GitHub Actions


• Troubleshooting of issues related to API deployments in Kubernetes (Azure Kubernetes Service)


• Ensure accurate observability of solutions deployed in AKS using Datadog or other related observability tools


• Ensure we hit SLAs and lead incident management procedures


• Document work and solutions appropriately


• Engage with other technology, infrastructure, and product teams as necessary to complete tasks


• Participate routinely in team on-call rotation and customer support during business hours

MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS, SKILLS, AND EXPERIENCE

• 4-year degree in a technology related discipline (Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Information Systems, etc.) or equivalent work experience


• 5+ years of experience with web development technologies, including HTML, CSS, JavaScript and/or Typescript.


• 5+ years of experience developing web applications using frameworks such as Svelte, Angular, or React (we use SvelteKit on this team)


• 5+ years of experience with public cloud technologies (Azure or GCP preferred), including demonstrated application development and hosting focus.


• 5+ years of experience with container technologies (Docker, Kubernetes, Helm)


• 3+ years of experience with cloud infrastructure automation tools (Terraform)


• 5+ years of experience with SDLC and working with Agile development teams


• Ability to manage large size technical projects, solving related problems and working to tight deadlines while under pressure


• Strong interpersonal and communication skills with demonstrated experience leveraging these skills with technical teams and non-technical business units


• Desire to learn new technology and grow across different areas of technology

PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS, SKILLS, AND EXPERIENCE

• Experience with AI-related concepts such as LLMs, Agents, Model Context Protocol (MCP), RAG, fine-tuning.


• Experience developing AI-powered features or applications.


• Demonstrated ability to prioritize own workload with multiple responsibilities and adaptability to changes in those priorities

PLEASE NOTE:

Applicants for employment in the US must have work authorization that does not now or in the future require sponsorship of a visa for employment authorization in the United Stated and with the Kroger Family of Companies (i.e. H1-B visa, F-1 visa (OPT), TN visa or any other non-immigrant status).

#LI-SSS

Pay Transparency and Benefits

• The stated salary range represents the entire span applicable across all geographic markets from lowest to highest. Actual salary offers will be determined by multiple factors including but not limited to geographic location, relevant experience, knowledge, skills, other job-related qualifications, and alignment with market data and cost of labor. In addition to salary, this position is also eligible for variable compensation.


• Below is a list of some of the benefits we offer our associates:




• Health: Medical: with competitive plan designs and support for self-care, wellness and mental health. Dental: with in-network and out-of-network benefit. Vision: with in-network and out-of-network benefit.


• Wealth: 401(k) with Roth option and matching contribution. Health Savings Account with matching contribution (requires participation in qualifying medical plan). AD&D and supplemental insurance options to help ensure additional protection for you.


• Happiness: Paid time off with flexibility to meet your life needs, including 5 weeks of vacation time, 7 health and wellness days, 3 floating holidays, as well as 6 company-paid holidays per year. Paid leave for maternity, paternity and family care instances.

Pay Range

$121,000 - $201,250 USD