Kearney Activate AI Engineer

Kearney Activate AI Engineer

About Kearney Activate

Kearney Activate is the business acceleration and enablement arm of Kearney Management Consulting, helping clients accelerate transformation through Data and AI.

Our Data & AI business line bridges strategy, technology, and execution to deliver data-driven, AI-enabled, and cloud-powered transformations. We partner with leading platforms such as Microsoft, AWS, Snowflake, Databricks and Nvidia to help organizations build trusted data foundations, deploy intelligent solutions, and scale innovation.

We operate across four key focus areas:

• Advisory & Assurance Services\: Driving strategy, governance, and change management to ensure impactful transformation.

• Data Services\: Building trusted, high-quality data foundations using Agentic AI across engineering, architecture, and governance.

• Insights Services\: Unlocking value through analytics, data science, and AI-driven storytelling for better decision-making.

• Asset Services\: Developing reusable GenAI assets, accelerators, and AI-powered solutions that push the boundaries of innovation.

About the Role

As an AI Engineer at Kearney Activate, you will work as part of a cross-functional teams to design, build, and deploy AI-driven applications. Particularly those leveraging Large Language Models (LLMs), agents, and other modern AI techniques. This is a hands-on, client-facing engineering role where you will contribute to solution design, development, testing, and delivery. In this position we would expect you to be able to lead engineering teams while also act as an individual delivery contributor in delivery when the project requires.

As you grow in the role, you will take on more ownership, from end-to-end delivery to advising clients on AI opportunities and best practices. Our teams primarily build solutions using existing foundational models (closed and open source), sometimes with light fine-tuning.

Key Responsibilities

AI Solution Development

• Contribute to building AI-powered applications, especially those involving LLMs, retrieval-augmented generation, and autonomous agents.

• Lead the design and hands-on implementation of end-to-end solutions with guidance from senior engineers.

• Integrate AI components into micro services, APIs, and client-facing applications.

   

Agent & Workflow Development

• Contribute to the creation of multi-step reasoning agents using Lang Graph or LangChain Agents.

• Implement tool-calling, memory, and routing logic.

• Evaluate agent behavior and improve reliability over iterations.

 Client Collaboration & Communication

• Lead conversations with clients to understand their challenges, use cases, and requirements.

• Translate business needs into feasible AI/ML solution components.

• Comfortable and experienced in presenting solution concepts and explaining AI capabilities in accessible terms.

Technical Problem-Solving

• Solve technical issues encountered during development and implementation.

• Identify blockers and escalate complex challenges to senior engineers and R&D teams.

• Document learnings and reusable patterns for future solutions.

Cross-Functional Collaboration

• Work collaboratively with technical and non-technical teams to ensure solutions are aligned with client expectations.

• Provide input into product, data, and design discussions where AI components affect the user experience.

   

Continuous Learning & Growth

• Stay informed about new models, AI tools, frameworks, and best practices.

• Proactively learn new technologies and explore innovative ways to apply AI to real-world problems.

• Experiment with new open-source models, orchestration frameworks, and retrieval techniques.

• Share findings and help improve team practices.

   

Technical Skills

You have hands-on experience and strong foundational knowledge in several of the following areas:

• Python programming and data technologies (SQL, APIs, basic data pipelines).

• Building small-scale micro services or automation scripts.

• Working with LLM APIs (Azure OpenAI, Gemini, Hugging Face, Anthropic).

• Exposure to GenAI concepts (prompting, embeddings, fine tuning, vector search)

• Basic experience with RAG development and knowledge retrieval

• Understanding of model fine-tuning, vector stores, embeddings concepts.

• Ability to design simple solution architectures using Python & cloud tools.

• Strong analytical and problem-solving mindset.

• Willingness to learn new technologies when the project requires it.

Client-Facing Mindset

You should feel comfortable and excited to grow in these areas:

• Communicating clearly with non-technical audiences.

• Translating business needs into technical requirements with minimal handholding.

• Understanding business processes and identifying where AI can add value.

Personal Traits

• Adaptable & Self-Motivated\: You are proactive, resourceful, and able to operate independently with minimal handholding.

• Passionate & Positive\: You are genuinely excited about AI and its potential to transform industries.

• Creative & Curious\: You keep up with AI developments and enjoy experimenting with new tools and methods.

• Ethical & Responsible\: You understand the importance of safe, fair, and responsible AI implementation.

Nice to Have

• Experience with building data pipelines, preparing and indexing datasets, and implementing embedding generation and retrieval evaluation for GenAI applications

• Exposure to MLOps, Docker, CI/CD, or cloud platforms (AWS/GCP/Azure)

• Hands-on work with agent workflows or multi-step reasoning models

• “Vibe coding” skills - fast prototyping, AI-assisted development, improvisational coding

What We Offer

• Direct experience building real-world AI applications.

• Mentorship from experienced AI engineers and architects.

• Opportunities to work directly with clients across industries.

• Access to cutting-edge AI tools, platforms, and training.

• A growth path toward leading solution delivery and advisory work

Base Salary\: Starting at $100k
It is important to note that at Kearney, it is not typical for an individual to be hired at the top of the range for their role. Individual salaries within each range are determined through a wide variety of factors including but not limited to education, experience, knowledge and skills. Kearney reviews compensation regularly and may adjust base salaries to reflect market competitiveness.  In addition to salary, individuals may be eligible for a discretionary performance bonus. Our full suite of benefits includes paid time off, 401(k) match and profit sharing, medical, dental and vision coverage, healthcare concierge, backup child/adult care, annual employer HSA contribution, home office stipend, subsidized Gympass and annual wellness program, and leaves of absence when needed to support employees’ physical, mental, and emotional well-being. Read more about our benefits and a career at Kearney.com/careers. 

Equal employment opportunity and non-discrimination

Kearney prides itself on providing a culture where our employees belong and thrive equally, which means our people feel comfort, confidence, and joy as they do great things for our firm, our colleagues, and our clients. That’s why Kearney is committed to building a diverse workforce and inclusive environment. Kearney is an equal opportunity employer; we recruit, hire, train, promote, develop, and provide other conditions of employment without regard to a person’s gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, race or ethnicity, religion, age, national origin, disability, marital status, pregnancy status, veteran status, genetic information, or any other differences consistent with applicable laws. This includes providing reasonable accommodation for disabilities or religious beliefs and practices. We encourage everyone to apply, including those who may not feel historically represented in consulting.