AI Innovation Engineer

As AI Innovation Engineer at 829, you'll work across the organization — partnering with VPs, directors, sales leadership, and subject matter experts — to drive operational excellence through AI-native tools and workflows. Your work directly impacts the team's ability to deliver cutting-edge services to clients, building technology with real impact internally and externally. • This is not a traditional AI strategy role.** You'll write Python, build agentic workflows, ship MCP integrations, and use coding assistants (Claude Code, Cursor, Codex) as daily workflow. We're hiring a builder/coach who ships production AI work and earns adoption from subject matter experts. We are not hiring a strategist who delegates implementation, an AI evangelist without an operating record, or a researcher whose work doesn't practically reach the operating teams that need it. This is a foundational role reporting directly to the President/COO. You'll have autonomy on execution, ownership of 829's AI stack and skill library, and workflow architecture. You must be comfortable being scrappy, resourceful, and hands-on, while also operating cross-functionally to influence the broader organization. 6 Months What Success Looks Like • You've established a draft playbook around agentic workflow development inclusive of testing, implementation and adoption. • You've successfully crafted 3 - 5 workflows that have met adoption criteria. • You are able to quantify the success of 1 - 2 workflows through quantitative and qualitative data. • You have crafted a system to catalogue workflows, skills, and AI tools that enables shorter time-to-value and reduces sprawl. • Your peers, colleagues and 829's Leadership Team regularly seek your counsel in relation to AI Service Enablement. 12 Months • You have a pressure-tested playbook that details the agentic workflow implementation process and ongoing management. • You have established a framework for evaluating the performance of workflows. • You have integrated multiple workflows into a custom frontend in coordination with 829's Head of Apollo and Engineering Resources. • You have supported the growth of the innovation function as a center of excellence and / or an extension of 829's Data Platform, Apollo. Responsibilities And Duties Workflow & Agentic Engineering (60%) Architect and build proprietary AI agents and automation workflows. Using company-specific data to drive defensible competitive advantage. • Playbook: Develop and manage a playbook that includes discovery, pilot, improvement, implementation, adoption and measurement phases to execute work. • Pilots & Proof of Concept: Lead pilots across multiple disciplines to test approaches and technology, using results to inform production workflows and gain buy-in. • Integrations & Data Pipelines: Develop and maintain integrations between AI tools and core business systems and advertising platforms, including API builds, validation frameworks, and data pipelines. • SME Collaboration: Collaborate closely with subject matter experts to ensure solutions and workflows deliver value, enable team members to produce their best work, are usable, and access that appropriate data. • Leadership Collaboration: Collaborate with senior leaders to ensure that workflows accomplish desired strategic and quality objectives. • Adoption & Enablement: Ensure that workflows and systems are consistently improved and adopted through systems and cadences that check outputs, measure progress towards goals, and revisit training and adoption mechanisms. AI Stack Curation / Governance / Documentation (15%) Own the substrate of 829's AI Innovation Initiatives. • AI Stack Documentation: Build and maintain 829's AI stack — tool inventory, vendor strategy, build-vs-buy posture, integration map, and shared-context architecture. • Skill Library: Develop reusable patterns, agentic workflows, and MCP integrations that provide strategic value and compound across workflows. • Build vs. Buy: Consult on agency decisions to build workflows and tools vs. buy point solutions to achieve objectives. General Enablement & Service-Model Translation (25%) Guide and advise a technically competent team of marketing professionals to achieve shared objectives. • Internal Enablement: Run lightweight internal training, Office Hours, and troubleshooting clinics to upskill team members on AI-augmented work. • Service-Model Translation: Advise/consult on revised service-model artifacts: scope-of-work content, pricing implications, policies, and marketing collateral. • Compliance & AI Policy: Advise and actively contribute to AI policies designed to encourage and enable use, establish SOPs, and mitigate risk to clients, staff, and the business. Qualifications and Skills Must Haves • 5+ years of professional experience with at least 2 years of exposure in the marketing / agency space. • Engineering foundation strong enough to evaluate tools, build agentic workflows, ship MCP integrat