Gen AI Lead

About Us

We are a global leader in food & beverage ingredients. Pioneers at heart, we operate at the forefront of consumer trends to provide food & beverage manufacturers with products and ingredients that will delight their consumers. Making a positive impact on people and planet is all part of the delight. With a deep-rooted presence in the countries where our ingredients are grown, we are closer to farmers, enabling better quality, and more reliable, traceable and transparent supply. Supplying products and ingredients at scale is just the start. We add value through our unique, complementary portfolio of natural, delicious and nutritious products. With our fresh thinking, we help our customers unleash the sensory and functional attributes of cocoa, coffee, dairy, nuts and spices so they can create naturally good food & beverage products that meet consumer expectations. And whoever we’re with, whatever we’re doing, we always make it real.

Job Description

The Gen AI Lead is responsible for driving the strategy, development, and implementation of Generative AI solutions across ofi’s business domains. This role involves identifying use cases, designing architectures, independently delivering high-impact solutions, and ensuring responsible AI practices to enable scalable and meaningful innovation across the organization.

While this is primarily an individual contributor role, it also includes setting the foundation for future team growth and cross-functional collaboration.

Key Responsibilities

1.    Identify and prioritize business opportunities for Generative AI in areas such as manufacturing, supply chain, sustainability, sales, and customer experience.
2.    Design and develop Gen AI architectures and solutions using state-of-the-art foundation models (e.g. LLMs, multimodal models), with a focus on operational impact and user value.
3.    Independently build and deploy Gen AI applications and prototypes, iterating quickly and effectively to meet business needs.
4.    Collaborate with cross-functional teams to ensure Gen AI solutions are scalable, secure, and aligned with business goals.
5.    Work with Azure-based infrastructure and services (e.g., Azure OpenAI, Azure ML, Azure Data Lake, Azure Cognitive Search) to operationalize Gen AI applications.
6.    Utilize diverse foundation models (e.g., LLMs from different providers, multimodal models) to design and develop innovative solutions.
7.    Ensure ethical AI usage, data privacy, and governance compliance in Gen AI projects.
8.    Continuously explore new Gen AI technologies and evaluate their feasibility and value within the business context.

Experience Requirements

Minimum Qualifications and Skills
1.    MS/PhD in Computer Science, AI/ML, Data Science, or a related technical discipline.
2.    Minimum 7+ years of experience in AI/ML, including 2+ years in building and deploying Generative AI solutions.
3.    Proficient in Python and familiar with AI/ML libraries such as Hugging Face Transformers, LangChain, PyTorch, TensorFlow, and OpenAI/Anthropic APIs.
4.    Hands-on experience with LLM applications, prompt engineering, retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), and vector databases (e.g. FAISS, Azure AI Search).
5.    Proven experience working with Azure-based cloud infrastructure and services to build and scale AI/ML applications.
6.    Strong understanding of ML Ops, data engineering pipelines, and API integration.

Preferred Qualifications and Skills
1.    Strong communication and leadership skills with the ability to work with senior business stakeholders.
2.    Strategic mindset and the ability to translate business needs into AI/ML roadmaps.
3.    Experience in scaling Gen AI solutions from prototype to production.
4.    Familiarity with enterprise-grade data privacy, security, and responsible AI standards.

ofi is an equal opportunity/affirmative action employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, nationality, disability, protected veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, genetic information, or any other characteristic protected by law.

Applicants are requested to complete all required steps in the application process including providing a resume/CV in order to be considered for open roles.