AI Engineer- Distribution (Chicago IL or St. Louis MO) chez Bunzl Distribution

We are seeking an AI Software Engineer with a strong foundation in software development and applied machine learning to design, build, and integrate cutting-edge AI-powered capabilities into our applications. This role blends hands-on experimentation with large language models (LLMs) and generative AI tools with practical engineering to deliver scalable, production-ready solutions that enhance business impact and customer experience.

You will play a critical role in bridging the gap between research and real-world application—transforming emerging AI capabilities into innovative features that directly empower our users and drive company growth.

This role will sit in either our Chicago IL (Morton Grove) or St. Louis, MO (Creve Coeur) offices 3+ days per week. Other 1-2 days would be work from home. 

Responsibilities:

• AI Solution Development: Design, prototype, and implement generative AI solutions (text, image, speech, and/or code generation) leveraging state-of-the-art models.
• Integration & Deployment: Develop, maintain, and scale software components that integrate AI into web, mobile, or backend platforms.
• Model Customization: Fine-tune, evaluate, and optimize LLMs and multimodal models for specific business use cases, applying prompt engineering, RAG, and fine-tuning strategies.
• Collaboration & Productization: Partner with product managers, designers, and engineers to create user-facing features powered by AI that are intuitive, reliable, and impactful.
• Engineering Excellence: Write clean, efficient, and well-documented code, contribute to architecture decisions, and apply software engineering best practices across the AI stack.
• Research & Innovation: Stay current with the latest developments in AI/ML research, tools, and frameworks, and proactively identify opportunities to apply them.
• Operationalization: Design and implement monitoring, evaluation, and feedback loops to ensure deployed AI systems remain accurate, fair, and high-performing.
• Security & Compliance: Ensure AI solutions follow responsible AI principles, data privacy requirements, and compliance standards.

Requirements:

• High school diploma or GED equivalent required
• Bachelor's degree preferred
• Experience working with generative AI models (GPT, Claude, Gemini, or equivalents).
• Proficiency in Python and strong familiarity with ML libraries and frameworks (Hugging Face Transformers, PyTorch, TensorFlow).
• Solid software development skills, with hands-on experience in APIs, microservices, and full-stack/backend engineering preferred.
• Understanding of prompt engineering, fine-tuning, embeddings, and retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) pipelines.
• Experience with cloud platforms (Azure, AWS, or GCP) and version control systems (Git, Azure DevOps).
• Strong problem-solving skills, ability to translate abstract business needs into technical AI solutions.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Experience with vector databases (Pinecone, Weaviate, Milvus, or similar) for semantic search and RAG pipelines.
• Background in NLP, computer vision, multimodal AI, or applied AI research.
• pipelines deploying models in production environments using CI/CD pipelines, containerization (Docker, Kubernetes), and monitoring tools.
• Familiarity with MLOps workflows, model governance, and A/B testing of AI-driven features.

What We Offer:

• The opportunity to work on high-impact AI features that directly shape our customer experience and business outcomes.
• A collaborative, forward-thinking environment that values innovation, creativity, and experimentation.
• Resources and support to stay on the cutting edge of AI, including research exploration and conference participation.

Bunzl Salary range for this role is $75,000-$90,000 per year based on education, experience and geography. 

So, what are you waiting for? A new career awaits you with endless opportunities.

Bunzl is a global leader in the Cleaning & Hygiene, Food Processing, Grocery, Health Care, Non-Food Retail, and Safety industries. We have grown both organically and through acquisitions to sales in excess of $10 billion.  Bunzl North America is headquartered in St. Louis, Missouri.  Bunzl North America owns and operates more than 100 warehouses and serves all 50 states, Puerto Rico, Canada and parts of the Caribbean and Mexico. With more than 5,000 employees and 400,000 plus supplies, Bunzl is regarded as a leading supplier in North America.

Bunzl Distribution offers competitive salaries, a comfortable work environment, and a full range of benefits including a 401k with a company match.

Bunzl Distribution has a tradition of commitment to equal employment opportunity. It is the established policy to attract and retain the best qualified people without regard to race, color, religion, national origin, sex/gender (including pregnancy), sexual orientation, age, disability or veteran status as provided by law.