Cloud AI Engineer, Lead

Overview:

At Zebra, we are a community of innovators who come together to create new ways of working. United by curiosity and a culture of caring, we develop smart solutions that anticipate our customer’s and partner’s needs and solve their challenges.

Being part of Zebra Nation means you are seen, heard, valued, and respected. Drawing from our unique perspectives, we collaborate to deliver on our purpose. Here you are part of a team pushing boundaries today to redefine the work of tomorrow for organizations, their employees, and those they serve.

You’ll have opportunities to learn and lead in a forward-thinking environment, defining your path to a fulfilling career while channeling your skills toward causes you care about—locally and globally.

Come make an impact every day at Zebra.

What We’re Looking For:

The Cloud AI Engineer, Lead plays a critical role in driving innovation across Zebra’s IT Platform Engineering, Cloud Security, and Artificial Intelligence initiatives. Acting as a hands-on technical architect and strategic trailblazer, you will partner with key stakeholders to identify opportunities, translate ideas into actionable solutions, and deliver value through rapid proofs of concept. This role focuses heavily on designing, building, and scaling our next-generation cloud-native AI platforms, AI-powered log intelligence (AIOps), and semantic developer tooling.

Location: This is a hybrid position requiring a minimum of three days per week on-site at either our Lincolnshire, IL, or Holtsville, NY office.

Essential Duties/Responsabilities:

• Identify and evaluate emerging innovation opportunities across Platform Engineering and Cloud Infrastructure functions, matching business needs with cutting-edge technology solutions.
• Conduct comprehensive business and systems analyses, translating complex technical findings into clear user stories, system requirements, and actionable solution concepts.
• Coordinate and execute Proof of Concepts (PoCs) and hands-on delivery activities to rapidly validate and advance cloud and platform innovation initiatives.
• Research, analyze, and report on disruptive technologies—such as Generative AI, Machine Learning (ML), Robotic Process Automation (RPA), and Virtual Agents—providing strategic recommendations for corporate adoption.
• Act as the primary IT Cloud Innovation Liaison, driving cross-functional collaboration and alignment with other innovation and product teams across Zebra.
• Plan, coordinate, and facilitate structured ideation workshops, fostering a culture of collaborative brainstorming and innovative problem-solving.
• Serve as an active Innovation Evangelist within IT and the broader enterprise, promoting modern engineering methodologies and pushing the boundaries of cloud-native possibilities.
• Track, analyze, and report key performance indicators (KPIs), ensuring leadership has complete visibility into the progress, and business outcomes of all innovation initiatives.
• Establish and maintain a repeatable operating model for cloud-native AI/ML deployment, ensuring all initiatives consistently address pipeline architecture, performance metrics, and compliance guidelines across GCP and Azure.
• Lead and mentor a high-performing team of cloud and AI platform engineers, guiding their professional evolution toward predictive log analytics, automation (AIOps), and robust cloud data readiness.
• Translate complex AI governance, cloud security guardrails, and regulatory requirements into practical technical specifications, partnering directly with systems engineers to integrate PII masking and RBAC into automated CI/CD pipelines.
• Manage roadmap alignment within assigned technology portfolios.

Minimum Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Electronic Engineering, Computer Engineering, or related field.
• 5+ years experience working on an operations style team (NOC, SOC, MOC, etc.) and troubleshooting networking, service desk, operations center and/or supporting cloud based Infrastructure.
• Hands-on Google Gemini Enterprise Expertise: Demonstrated experience working with Google Gemini Enterprise, with a proven ability to build and deploy custom agents using the Agent Development Kit (ADK).
• Multi-Cloud & GenAI Platform Proficiency: Deep familiarity with leading cloud platforms and generative AI solution providers, including Google Cloud Platform (GCP), Azure, OpenAI, and Anthropic.
• Experience working in a global, …