AI & GENAI LEAD

Function: Information Systems

Location: Brakes India, Chennai, Padi

Experience: 15+ years overall, including strong polyglot full-stack engineering experience and at least 5 years in AI/ML/GenAI, with demonstrated production deployments

Role Summary

Lead the technical architecture, engineering implementation and production operations for Brakes India’s enterprise AI, Generative AI and agentic AI solutions. This is a senior hands-on technology leadership role for a polyglot full-stack engineer who has grown through enterprise software engineering, cloud-native application development, APIs, integrations and production operations, and can now apply that foundation to AI, GenAI and agentic AI at scale. The role will work as a technical lead within the AI CoE, translating the enterprise AI roadmap into scalable, secure, cost-effective and well-operated platforms, products and deployment pipelines.

Key Responsibilities

• Translate the enterprise AI, GenAI and agentic AI roadmap into technical architecture, delivery plans, engineering standards, implementation approaches and production operating models.
• Lead technical discovery with business, data and application teams to assess feasibility, integration needs, model approach, deployment architecture and engineering complexity.
• Own end-to-end solution architecture for production AI systems covering models, data, retrieval, agents, orchestration, applications, APIs, security, observability and resilience.
• Guide development of RAG, tool-using agents, multi-agent workflows, copilots and AI-enabled enterprise applications.
• Ensure robust evaluation for quality, grounding, safety, latency, cost, resilience and business effectiveness.
• Establish and manage reusable engineering patterns, reference architectures, CI/CD pipelines, infrastructure-as-code, release practices and secure deployment standards.
• Implement responsible AI, model risk, access, privacy, intellectual property, auditability and human-oversight controls as part of the technical design and operating model.
• Build, mentor and technically guide a multidisciplinary team of AI engineers, Python developers, full-stack engineers, data scientists and platform specialists.
• Partner with enterprise architects, data teams, cybersecurity, infrastructure, SAP and digital product teams for scaled adoption.
• Lead platform operations across MLOps, LLMOps, AgentOps, AI observability and AIOps, including monitoring, incident response, lifecycle management and production support.
• Manage pipeline engineering, environment management, deployment readiness, performance tuning, capacity planning, FinOps and ongoing cost optimisation for AI workloads.

Required Experience & Skills

• Strong polyglot software engineering background across Python and one or more modern enterprise programming languages, with proven ability to move across languages, frameworks, tools and technology stacks as needed.
• Strong full-stack engineering foundation across frontend, backend, APIs, microservices, databases, cloud platforms, DevOps and production support, with the ability to review architecture and code credibly.
• Deep knowledge of machine learning, deep learning, LLMs, embeddings, prompt engineering, RAG and agentic AI patterns.
• Hands-on understanding of agent frameworks such as LangGraph, Semantic Kernel, AutoGen or comparable orchestration approaches.
• Experience designing and operating enterprise-grade applications involving APIs, microservices, event-driven integrations, relational and vector data stores, containers, CI/CD, identity, secrets management and secure enterprise integration.
• Ability to guide teams across the complete engineering lifecycle: solution design, coding standards, code reviews, testing, deployment, monitoring, performance tuning, incident handling and continuous improvement.
• Strong knowledge of LLM evaluation, guardrails, tracing, monitoring, model and prompt lifecycle, cost optimisation and production support.
• Experience with Microsoft Azure AI services, Azure OpenAI and Microsoft Foundry or equivalent enterprise AI platforms.
• Ability to connect AI architecture choices to process transformation, adoption, risk and measurable business value.

Demonstrated Experience Required

Candidates must substantiate their individual ownership and contribution through specific examples, scale and measurable outcomes.

• Prior leadership in building and scaling production-grade enterprise software platforms, full-stack applications, API-led integrations or cloud-native products before or alongside AI/GenAI solutions.
• Multiple AI or GenAI solutions personally led into production, with active users and measurable business outcomes.
• Candidate’s individual role in use-case selection, architecture, engineering decisions, risk controls, deployment and scale-up.
• Examples of RAG, agentic or workflow-integrated solutions beyond demonstrations or isolated proofs of concept.
• Scale and performance evidence, including users, transaction or document volumes, quality measures, latency, cost and support model.
• AI technical architecture, engineering standards, platform operating model, deployment practices or AI CoE technical capability personally established or materially shaped.
• Team mentoring outcomes and evidence of improving engineering quality, delivery speed and production readiness.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Mathematics, Data Science or a related discipline.
• Relevant cloud, AI or architecture certifications are preferred.

Leadership Attributes

• Hands-on polyglot technology leader with strong engineering fundamentals, architectural depth and a builder mindset.
• Balances experimentation with engineering discipline, responsible deployment and measurable value.
• Develops internal capability and anticipates the evolution of models, platforms and operating practices.

Stakeholder & Communication Skills

• Able to frame use cases with business leaders and explain architecture, risk and value in clear business language.
• Strong mentoring, influencing and cross-functional leadership across business, engineering, data, security and operations.

Diversity Statement

Brakes India is an equal opportunity employer committed to a diverse and inclusive workplace. Women candidates are strongly encouraged to apply.