About the job

AI/ML Distinguished Engineer - Retail

3-month contract to hire

Remote

Distinguished Engineers are recognized as senior technical experts in one or more domains with deep retail industry expertise. This role involves creating a holistic technology strategy, aligning it with business objectives, and driving the implementation of resilient solutions to improve retail processes and overall operational efficiency. They have a strong track record of growing and influencing others. Distinguished Engineers will connect teams to one another in a spirit of collaboration to solve complex cross functional problems and will champion opportunities to deliver value to the organization. As a Distinguished Engineer, you will be responsible to shape the go-forward direction of the organization; working with senior leaders, vendors, and partners to influence technology roadmaps and the adoption of new technologies across the enterprise. In addition, you will teach, mentor, and grow other domain experts within the organization.

Key Responsibilities:

30% Strategy & Planning:

Works with senior leaders to shape the go-forward vision for the organization from a specific domain perspective

Works with vendors and partners on the successful strategy, planning, and implementation of critical tooling and platforms

Participates in and influences development of technology roadmaps across the enterprise

Evaluates new technologies for adoption across the enterprise

Drives thought leadership and innovation within the organization

30% Support & Enablement:

Fields questions from product, project and support teams

Evangelizes successful usage of tooling and technologies with teams

Monitors tools and leads conversations to encourage collaboration across product teams

Learns, through reading, tutorials, relationships, and videos, new technologies and best practices being used in other organizations

25% Delivery & Execution:

Teaches, mentors, grows, and advises other domain experts in the organization (including direct reports, if applicable)

Documents, reviews and ensures that all quality and change control standards are met

Works with vendors and partners on the successful planning and implementation of critical tooling and platforms

Understands and articulates the value creation and business proposition to teams and functional partners

Participates in and leads review board sessions to drive consistency across the enterprise

15% People:

Acts as a point of escalation for teams facing extremely complex challenges

Participates in and leads learning activities within the organization

Connects teams facing similar challenges and problems to encourage consistency

Presents at and attends conferences and learns how to apply new technologies and concepts

Capable of jumping into a variety of teams to resolve issues

Provides leadership, mentoring, and coaching to direct reports (if applicable)

Conducts annual and mid-year reviews, reviewing individual development plans and providing performance feedback (if applicable)

Attracts, retains, develops, and motivates top talent (applicable if incumbent has direct reports)

Direct Manager/Direct Reports:

This role typically reports to Sr. Director or Vice President and may have a small number of non-manager direct reports with VP approval.

Travel Requirements:

Typically requires overnight travel 5% to 20% of the time.

Preferred Qualifications:

8-10 years of relevant work experience

Professionally recognized by peers and leaders in the organization for significant technical and retail domain expertise

Mastery of problem solving, innovation, vision, judgement, and leadership experience working cross functionally

Experience with building custom and/or off-the-shelf machine learning and AI solutions

Track record of noteworthy innovation and execution that shaped the direction of an organization and/or the industry within a specific domain

Experience in modernizing complex solutions to modern cloud platforms

Track record of teaching, mentoring, growing and advising other domain experts inside and outside of the organization

Capable of understanding complicated systems quickly

Active participation in or leadership of professional groups affiliated with a specific domain

Mastery in an assigned domain

The compensation range for this position is $220K to $300K + benefits upon FTE conversion (dependent on factors including but not limited to client requirements, experience, statutory considerations, and location).

Note: Disclosure as required by the Equal Pay for Equal Work Act (CO), NYC Pay Transparency Law, and sb5761 (WA)

Synergis is proud to be an Equal Opportunity Employer. We value diversity and do not discriminate on the basis of race, color, ethnicity, national origin, religion, age, gender, gender identity, political affiliation, sexual orientation, marital status, disability, military/veteran status, or any other status protected by applicable law.

For immediate consideration, please forward your resume to 

If you require assistance or an accommodation in the application or employment process, please contact us at

Qualified applicants with arrest or conviction records will be considered for employment in accordance with the requirements of applicable state and local laws, including but not limited to, the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance, the City of Los Angeles Fair Chance Initiative for Hiring Ordinance, the Los Angeles County Fair Chance Ordinance for Employers and the California Fair Chance Act.