Home Based Prototype Build Engineer Jobs in New Jersey

Build practical AI solutions that improve how our technology organization delivers, supports, and operates systems.

Who We Are:

US Cold owns and operates one of the most complex temperature-controlled logistics networks in North America. Every day, our systems coordinate the storage and movement of food on a national scale across a network of state-of-the-art distribution centers, including multiple highly automated warehouse facilities.

We continue to advance our core warehouse and logistics platforms. Our current focus is on modular, event-driven, API-first and cloud architecture. We continue to enhance reliability and accelerate engineering productivity by strengthening our SRE and AI practices. This is a large investment in innovation to continue to drive operational excellence at our facilities.

If you want to help us accelerate the building of durable systems that operate in the physical world at scale, this is that opportunity.

The Role:

You will be a hands-on engineer in the AI Platform function, helping turn high-value ideas into secure, measurable solutions that improve engineering productivity and technology operations. Working closely with the Senior Manager of Engineering Productivity and teams across Technology, you will prototype, build, test, and operationalize AI-assisted and agentic capabilities.

Your work will span the delivery lifecycle—from requirements and design through software development, testing, deployment, and support. You will create reusable AI services, enterprise knowledge solutions, Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) systems, agents, MCP servers, workflow automations, and integrations with tools such as GitHub Copilot, Cursor, Claude Code, Azure AI services, and future AI platforms.

This is a hands-on engineering role rather than a research-only position. You will experiment quickly, but the goal is to convert successful prototypes into reliable, governed capabilities that teams can use in their day-to-day work.

You will report to the Senior Manager of Engineering Productivity and collaborate with software, data, cloud, infrastructure, security, service management, and business teams. Success will be measured through adoption, time saved, improved quality, faster delivery, and reduced operational toil.

What You’ll Do:

• AI Solution Development — design and build internal copilots, agents, RAG applications, and workflow automations for engineering and IT use cases.
• Enterprise Knowledge Platforms — ingest, structure, chunk, embed, retrieve, and govern content from application code, documentation, runbooks, standards, tickets, and other approved sources.
• Agent and MCP Engineering — develop tool-enabled agents and MCP servers that securely connect AI assistants to enterprise systems, APIs, repositories, and approved data sources.
• Engineering Productivity Automation — build capabilities for code understanding, code review, test generation, documentation, modernization, incident analysis, ticket resolution, and repetitive delivery tasks.
• Rapid Prototyping and Experimentation — evaluate models, frameworks, prompts, retrieval approaches, and AI-assisted development tools; document findings and recommend fit-for-purpose patterns.
• Evaluation and Quality — create test datasets, automated evaluations, grounding checks, human-feedback loops, observability, and quality gates to improve accuracy and reliability.
• Production Readiness — partner with architecture, cloud, security, and platform teams to implement identity, access controls, monitoring, cost controls, auditability, deployment pipelines, and support documentation.

What We Are Looking For:

You are a practical software engineer who enjoys learning emerging AI technologies and turning ambiguous problems into working solutions. You can build beyond a demo, explain technical choices clearly, and collaborate with others to safely move useful capabilities toward production.

Core Qualifications

• Hands-on software engineering experience building applications, APIs, integrations, automation, or data-driven solutions using Python, Java, JavaScript/TypeScript, or comparable languages, with at least 4 years of professional software development experience and demonstrated experience building automation solutions.
• Applied AI experience. At least 3 years of hands-on experience developing and delivering Generative AI solutions, with familiarity in large language models, prompt engineering, RAG, embeddings, vector search, AI agents, or model APIs through professional work or substantive projects.
• Cloud and platform fundamentals. Experience with cloud services, containers, source control, CI/CD, secrets management, identity, logging, and monitoring; Azure experience is preferred.
• Data and integration skills. Ability to work with REST APIs, JSON, SQL, relational databases, document stores, search technologies, and structured or unstructured enterprise content.
• Quality mindset. Experience writing maintainable code, automated tests, technical documentation, and evaluation criteria, with attention to security, privacy, accuracy, and operational reliability.
• Problem-solving and experimentation. Ability to compare technical approaches, learn new tools quickly, troubleshoot independently, and convert experimental findings into reusable engineering patterns.
• Collaborative communication. Able to work with engineers, architects, security partners, support teams, and business stakeholders to clarify problems, demonstrate solutions, and incorporate feedback.
• Builder mindset. You are curious, pragmatic, and motivated by shipped capabilities and measurable improvements rather than technology for its own sake.

Technical Environment:

• Azure-first cloud environment, including identity, networking, application services, data services, monitoring, and secure infrastructure automation
• Generative AI and agentic development using Azure AI services, model APIs, RAG patterns, vector search, MCP, agent frameworks, and AI-assisted development tools
• Languages and engineering tools such as Python, Java, JavaScript/TypeScript, REST APIs, GitHub, CI/CD pipelines, containers, automated testing, and observability
• Enterprise knowledge sources including application code, architecture documentation, runbooks, engineering standards, service tickets, and collaboration platforms
• Application and data landscape including Java, React, Postgres, APIs, integrations, and event-driven or service-oriented architectures
• Secure and measurable AI delivery, including evaluations, human feedback, access controls, auditability, model and cloud consumption, and operational support

Why This Role Is Different:

• You will build AI capabilities that solve real engineering and operational problems, not isolated demonstrations
• You will gain exposure to a broad technology landscape spanning modern platforms, legacy systems, data, integrations, and physical operations
• Your work will be evaluated through adoption, time saved, quality, reliability, and measurable productivity improvement
• You will help establish reusable AI engineering patterns and influence how Technology adopts AI safely at scale

Compensation & Structure:

• Location and Department: Greater Philadelphia (Hybrid), Information Technology
• Reports to: Senior Manager, Engineering Productivity
• Travel: Less than 10%
• Full-time, Exempt
• Salaried, Bi-Weekly Paid
• Salary Range: $140,000.00 - $150,000.00/yr.

Operational Context:

This role is primarily technical and office-based, with occasional interaction in operational environments depending on project and system needs.

Benefits Include

If annual hours are attained, these benefits may apply. Medical, Dental, Vision, Prescription, Legal Insurance, Pet Discount, Critical Illness, Accident Insurance, Hospital Indemnity, Long Term Care + Permanent Life Insurance, Identity Theft Protection, Short Term Disability Insurance, Long Term Disability Insurance, Supplemental Disability Insurance, Basic Life Insurance, Accidental Death and Dismemberment Insurance, Supplemental Life Insurance, Supplemental Spouse Life Insurance, Child Life Insurance, Loan Solution, Health Flexible Spending Account, Dependent Flexible Spending Account, Telemedicine, Virtual Primary Care, Prescription Savings Plan, Prescription Specialty Copay Assistance Program, Weight Management Program, Chronic Condition Management, Care Navigator Program, 24/7 Nurse Line, Expert Medical Opinion, Precious Additions Maternity Program, Health Advocacy, Employee Assistance Program, Digital Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Digital Physical Therapy, Behavioral and Mental Health Platforms, Auto and home discount program, Secure Travel Protection, Discount Programs, 401(k) plan, Education Assistance, Paid Time Off, Referral program & Commuter Benefit (NJ ONLY).

Physical & Operational Context

May require physical effort associated with using the computer to access information, or occasional standing, walking, lifting needed to carry out everyday activities.  Effective communication, vision, and hearing are essential for safety and productivity.  Operate scanners, tablets, radios, phones, computers, and other essential equipment as required.  Additional work hours may be requested by management to help manage employee production, projects, and/or special events.  Engage in frequent personal interaction and communication.  Attend in-person meetings and/or training on a regular basis.  Follow verbal instructions, written instructions, and company policies.  Work independently and coordinate with others.  Fast-paced environment, managing stress, and meeting productivity standards.

Additional Information

Job functions may vary based on the area of operation. This description outlines the most common tasks required for the job.  Reasonable accommodation may be provided to enable individuals with disabilities to perform essential duties.  This job description may not encompass all tasks necessary to complete the role.