Senior Developer & AI Innovation Lead

This is proactive role target rate $55-65/hr on W2

Manager Notes:

This position is onsite WHQ for the hybrid work schedule

What Success looks like;

In 30 days: You have deep fluency in the current LRAP tool have built relationships with key planners and have delivered a modernization roadmap with a prioritized backlog

In 2 months: Planners are using at least one AI-augmented capability that measurably reduces planning cycle time and architecture for the next-generation platform is in place

In 3 6 months: The team has shifted off legacy Excel/VBA workflows for core use cases plan adjustments happen in hours instead of weeks and the platform is positioned to scale across additional planning horizons and teams

We are looking for a forward-thinking technologist who sits at the intersection of modern software development and applied AI. This is not a traditional developer role - it is a transformation role. You will inherit a production Assortment Planning that Sport Planners rely on daily to build multi-season demand forecasts manage style-level assortment plans and support the Line Planning process across Footwear Apparel and Equipment. Today the tool is Excel and VBA-based. Tomorrow it needs to be something fundamentally better.

Your mission is to reimagine how planners interact with Assortment and Demand data - reducing cycle times from weeks to hours replacing manual macro-driven workflows with intelligent AI-augmented experiences and making the platform resilient enough to evolve as business needs change. You will lead this evolution end-to-end: from vision through architecture through delivery.

RESPONSIBILITIES

AI Strategy & Transformation

• Define and execute the technical vision for modernizing the LRAP platform moving from Excel/VBA to a scalable cloud-native architecture
• Identify high-impact opportunities to apply AI/ML - such as forecast generation anomaly detection in plan inputs intelligent defaults and natural-language plan adjustments - and prioritize them against business value
• Serve as the teams AI thought leader: evaluate emerging tools frameworks and paradigms (LLMs copilots agentic workflows) and translate them into practical capabilities for Sport Planning

Platform Development & Architecture

• Design and build the next-generation LRAP platform enabling planners to construct and adjust multi-season demand forecasts at Mid-Level through Style/Geo granularity
• Architect data pipelines that replace manual CSV ingestion with automated real-time data flows from upstream systems
• Build intuitive interfaces that let planners filter slice and manipulate plans (by Sport Gender Category Season Silhouette Geo) with the speed and flexibility they have today - without the fragility of spreadsheet macros
• Ensure seamless version control import/export and plan comparison capabilities that planners depend on for seasonal continuity

Planner Partnership & Delivery

• Partner directly with Sport Planners to understand their workflows pain points and decision-making processes - turning planner feedback into rapid iterations
• Collapse the feedback-to-deployment cycle: drive a culture where plan adjustments and tool enhancements are delivered in hours not weeks
• Own the end-to-end delivery lifecycle: requirements design development testing deployment and ongoing support
• Maintain and support the existing LRAP tool during the transition period ensuring zero disruption to active planning cycles

Team Enablement & Influence

• Mentor teammates on AI-first development practices and modern engineering approaches
• Advocate for and demonstrate how AI can augment (not replace) planner expertise - building trust through practical visible results
• Contribute to broader technology strategy by sharing learnings and patterns that can scale across the Planning organization

QUALIFICATIONS

Required

• 5 years of software development experience with strong proficiency in at least two of: Python TypeScript/JavaScript SQL or cloud-native frameworks
• Demonstrated experience applying AI/ML in a product or business context - not just experimentation but solutions that users depend on
• Proven ability to take a legacy tool or process and modernize it end-to-end (architecture data layer UX deployment)
• Experience designing and building data-intensive applications - working with large structured datasets aggregation logic and multi-dimensional planning grids
• Strong communication skills with the ability to translate between technical and business stakeholders; comfortable leading workshops demos and whiteboard sessions with non-technical planners
• Self-directed mindset: you can take ownership of a problem space define the roadmap and execute with minimal direction

Strongly Preferred

• Working knowledge of demand planning assortment planning or merchandise financial planning processes - understanding how planners think about seasonal horizons style-level forecasting and geo-level allocation
• Experience with Excel/VBA automation tools and an appreciation for why users love spreadsheets (flexibility speed visibility) - and how to preserve those qualities in a modern platform
• Hands-on experience with LLMs prompt engineering AI agents or copilot-style interfaces in an enterprise setting
• Familiarity with cloud data platforms (e.g. Snowflake Databricks BigQuery) and modern data orchestration tools
• Background in retail consumer products or supply chain technology

Nice to Have

• Experience with forecasting models (statistical ML-based) for demand or sales planning
• Familiarity with planning tools such as Anaplan o9 Kinaxis or similar
• Experience building tools that replaced or augmented spreadsheet-based workflows
• Background in sport or lifestyle retail