Senior AI Engineer

At National Vision we believe everyone deserves to see their best to live their best. We help people by making quality eye care and eyewear more affordable and accessible. National Vision is one of the largest optical retail companies in the United States with over 1,200 stores. We operate four retail brands: America’s Best Contacts & Eyeglasses, Eyeglass World, and Vista Optical inside select Fred Meyer stores and on select military bases. We offer an innovative culture where training is a priority, hard work is praised, and career growth is a reality.

We are hiring for a Sr. Artificial Intelligence Engineer to join our growing team!
 

We are seeking an innovative Senior AI Engineer responsible for designing, developing, and deploying AI/ML solutions that solve business problems, predict outcomes, identify inefficiencies, and enable data‑driven decision‑making. This role leverages advanced modeling, machine learning pipelines, generative AI, and automation to deliver scalable, enterprise‑ready AI capabilities.

What Would You Do? The Specifics.

• Collaborate with cross-functional teams, including data architects, engineers, and business stakeholders, to understand requirements for AI/ML use cases.
• Develop, train, evaluate, and optimize AI/ML models using structured and unstructured data.
• Analyze data and model outputs to identify patterns, trends, and anomalies that inform feature engineering, model improvements, and system optimization.
• Leverage AI/ML platforms to build predictive models and automate business processes.
• Design and implement generative AI applications powered by Large Language Models (LLMs), using techniques such as retrieval‑augmented generation (RAG), embeddings, prompt orchestration, and evaluation frameworks.
• Partner with Data Engineering, Analytics, and IT teams to integrate models into production systems.
• Ensure the robustness, scalability, performance, and security of AI/ML models in production environments.
• Monitor, evaluate, and continuously improve AI/ML and LLM‑based solutions in production, including model performance, output quality, reliability, and cost efficiency.
• Ensure adherence to AI governance, model documentation, and responsible‑AI practices.
• Stay up-to-date with the latest advancements in AI/ML research and industry trends.

Qualifications

Work Experience

• 4-6 years proven experience in data engineering or data science field (Required)
• 4-6 years as an AI/ML engineer, in a similar role, or equivalent practical experience, with a strong portfolio of successful projects (including ML, NLP, generative AI, and operationalization in production) (Required)

Work Experience

• 4-6 years proven experience in data engineering or data science field (Required)
• 4-6 years as an AI/ML engineer, similar role, or equivalent practical experience, with a strong portfolio of successful projects (including ML, NLP, generative AI, and operationalization in production) (Required)

Education

• Four-year college degree or equivalent experience. in Computer Science, Mathematics, Data Science, or relevant discipline (Required)
• Master's Degree in Data Science (Preferred)

Additional Skills

• Proficiency in Python, SQL, and AI/ML frameworks and development platforms (e.g., PyTorch, TensorFlow, Azure OpenAI, Azure Machine learning studio) (Required)
• Strong understanding of data structures, data pipelines, and MLOps practices (Required)
• Working knowledge of generative AI techniques such as retrieval‑augmented generation (RAG), embeddings and vector search, and context orchestration. (Required)
• Proficiency with cloud platforms (e.g. Azure, AWS) (Required)
• Experience developing and consuming APIs to integrate AI/ML models into applications. (Required)

Taking Care of our People!

We understand the importance of financial health and security, and because of that, we provide competitive compensation to all Associates. We also offer a comprehensive benefits package including health and dental insurance, 401k retirement savings with company match, flex spending account, paid personal time off, paid company holidays, parental leave, employee eyewear discount and much, much more. At National Vision, we strive to deliver opportunities for professional growth and long-term career fulfillment. We provide training programs, access to educational courses and pride ourselves on the ever-increasing amount of promotions from within.

We are an equal opportunity employer.  We evaluate qualified applicants without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, genetic information, disability, veteran status, and other legally protected characteristics.