Senior Forward Deployed AI Engineering Manager

Staples is building the future of Marketplace through practical, AI-enabled solutions that help teams work smarter, move faster, and create measurable business impact. The Marketplace organization sits at the intersection of product, commercial strategy, operations, and technology—solving complex challenges that directly support growth, efficiency, and customer experience.

As the Senior Forward Deployed AI Engineering Manager, you will be a business-embedded technical leader responsible for identifying, shaping, and rapidly delivering AI-enabled solutions to high-value operational and commercial challenges. This is a hands-on builder role—not a traditional roadmap-bound engineering role and not a sales or demo function. You will work directly with Marketplace leaders, product managers, commercial teams, Technology, and Data/AI partners to uncover real-world inefficiencies, translate ambiguous problems into structured technical approaches, and develop working solution pathways that can be validated, scaled, and operationalized.

This role will require the incumbent to work on a 4-day/week on-site schedule from our Framingham corporate offices.  We are open to candidates that are willing to relocate and have the ability to provide assistance.

What you’ll be doing:

• Embed within Marketplace operations, product, and commercial teams to understand end-to-end workflows, undocumented processes, edge cases, and operational nuances.
• Identify, define, and prioritize AI and automation opportunities based on business impact, scalability, and feasibility.
• Translate ambiguous business problems into structured technical approaches, solution hypotheses, and build plans.
• Develop and deploy rapid prototypes or proof of concepts using internal platforms, enterprise data, and modern AI/ML and large language model tooling.
• Validate solutions using real-world data and workflows to demonstrate measurable business value.
• Partner with Technology and Data/AI teams to transition validated prototypes into scalable, production-ready solutions.
• Serve as a critical bridge between business stakeholders and technical teams, ensuring clarity of requirements and continuity of context.
• Drive adoption of deployed solutions by staying engaged through rollout, iteration, and performance measurement.
• Establish and track success metrics tied to business outcomes such as efficiency gains, cost reduction, revenue impact, and user adoption.
• Contribute reusable learnings, frameworks, and enhancements to enterprise platforms based on field insights.
• Lead or coordinate multiple concurrent, high-impact initiatives with cross-functional stakeholders.
• Mentor less experienced team members and contribute to capability building within the forward-deployed function.

What you bring to the table:

• Strong problem-framing and critical-thinking skills, especially in ambiguous environments where the path forward is not predefined.
• A builder mindset with the curiosity and ownership to move from problem discovery to working solution quickly.
• Ability to connect technical solutions to clear business outcomes and communicate impact in practical terms.
• Effective stakeholder engagement across technical and non-technical audiences.
• Adaptability and comfort operating in rapidly evolving technology and business environments.
• Collaborative approach with the ability to influence without direct authority.
• Clear, concise communication skills across all organizational levels, including senior leadership.
• Business acumen and judgment to balance value, feasibility, scalability, and adoption.

What’s needed- Basic Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Data Science, a related technical field, or equivalent work experience.
• 10+ years of overall experience in software engineering or technical solution development.
• Experience building and deploying AI, machine learning, automation, or data-driven solutions in a business or enterprise environment.
• Experience writing code and delivering working prototypes using modern programming languages such as Python, Java, or similar.
• Experience translating business requirements into technical solutions in partnership with business stakeholders.
• Experience delivering solutions from concept through prototype validation.
• Experience integrating or working with structured and unstructured data sources.
• Experience managing multiple complex projects or initiatives simultaneously.

What’s needed- Preferred Qualifications: 

• Master’s degree or advanced technical training.
• Experience in eCommerce, marketplaces, retail, or adjacent industries.
• Experience implementing AI or automation solutions within large, matrixed enterprise environments.
• Familiarity with enterprise data platforms, cloud environments, and modern AI/LLM tooling ecosystems.
• Experience working at the intersection of business units and centralized technology or data organizations.
• Experience contributing to or enhancing reusable platforms, frameworks, or internal tools.
• Prior experience in a forward-deployed engineering, solutions engineering, or similar business-embedded technical role.
• Experience quantifying and communicating the business impact of technical solutions.

We Offer:

• Inclusive culture with associate-led Business Resource Groups
• 22 days of PTO and Holiday Schedule (7 observed paid holidays + 1 floating holiday)
• Online and Retail Discounts, Company Match 401(k), Physical and Mental Health Wellness programs, and more!

The salary range represents the expected compensation for this role at the time of posting. The specific base pay may be influenced by a variety of factors to include the candidate's experience, skill set, education, geography, business considerations, and internal equity. In addition to base pay, this role may be eligible for bonuses, or other forms of variable compensation.