Umain
Umain
51 – 200 Employees
ConsultingEnterpriseMarketing
Umain is a digital product consultancy helping brands and organizations develop, launch, and grow digital products and experiences. Founded in Stockholm in 2001, its team of more than 100 strategists, product managers, designers, and engineers supports clients throughout the product lifecycle, from product strategy and user-focused design to software engineering and ongoing development. As part of the Eidra consultancy collective, Umain offers a multidisciplinary environment for professionals working in digital transformation, product development, and technology consulting.

AI Technology Director - Chicago Hybrid

Lead production AI architecture, delivery, and engineering teams at Umain, a digital product consultancy. Advise senior clients and shape AI proposals across North America.

Description

  • Lead technology and AI discussions with senior client stakeholders as a CTO-level partner
  • Monitor advances in generative AI, agents, machine learning, computer vision, on-device AI, and physical AI
  • Turn AI developments into practical client guidance and company strategy
  • Define technical vision and architecture standards for AI initiatives
  • Coach and mentor AI engineers
  • Make architecture decisions and solve complex technical challenges
  • Build prototypes for emerging capabilities when required
  • Evaluate feasibility and risks related to data security, privacy, licensing, regulation, and responsible AI use
  • Oversee projects from initial concept through production delivery
  • Maintain team focus, remove bottlenecks, and identify delivery risks
  • Contribute to pitches, develop proposals, and establish scope and budgets
  • Help expand the North American AI engineering team
  • Work closely with teams across Europe
  • Represent Umain’s AI capabilities to U.S. clients and the broader industry

Requirements

  • More than 10 years of engineering experience
  • At least three years of hands-on AI experience
  • Several years working in consulting or agency settings
  • Experience working directly with clients on complex, multi-team engagements
  • Experience developing and pricing proposals and scoping projects as the technical authority
  • A clear perspective on AI’s direction, with a record of turning emerging opportunities into action
  • Experience building and launching products or offerings
  • Demonstrated ability to architect and oversee complex AI solutions in production
  • Hands-on experience with LLMs, embeddings, vector databases, retrieval, agents, fine-tuning, evaluation, and leading model providers
  • Experience across areas beyond generative AI, such as traditional machine learning, computer vision, multimodal models, forecasting, or recommendation systems
  • Strong Python and/or TypeScript skills, including backend services and data pipelines
  • Experience deploying applications on AWS, Azure, or Google Cloud Platform
  • DevOps experience with containers, CI/CD, and monitoring
  • Ability to lead conversations with senior executives and communicate complex ideas clearly
  • Ability to turn ambiguous client questions into actionable plans
  • Sound judgment about where AI should be applied
  • Curiosity about emerging capabilities and a hands-on approach to experimentation
  • Based in Chicago or willing to relocate
  • Available to work in the office at least three days per week
  • Preferred: experience with large consumer brands, edge or on-device AI, robotics, physical AI, or establishing a team or practice in a new market

Benefits

  • Healthcare insurance premiums fully covered for employees and their families
  • Flexible time-off policy
  • At least three weeks of leave each year
  • Two-week vacation periods are encouraged
  • Culture of inclusive decision-making
  • Collaborative workplace
  • Ongoing opportunities for learning
  • Environment built on transparency and trust
  • Commitment to equal opportunity, diversity, and inclusion

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