AI Operations EngineerAI Operations Engineer

Why Turtle? At Turtle, we’re redefining what it means to be an industry leader in electrical distribution, and we want you to be part of our exciting journey! For over 100 years, we’ve built a reputation for innovation, excellence, and exceptional customer service—and we’re just getting started. We are a diverse, passionate team spread across the US, Canada, Mexico, and Puerto Rico, committed to growth, learning, and creating opportunities for each other. At Turtle, every day is a chance to make a real difference, solve complex challenges, and push the boundaries of what’s possible. We believe in fostering an environment that inspires collaboration and sparks creativity, where employees are empowered to contribute to our mission and shape the future of the industry. If you're looking for a fast-paced, dynamic career where your ideas are valued and your growth is prioritized, Turtle is the place for you. Join us and be a part of a company that’s making waves and empowering its people to do extraordinary things every single day! About the Role The AI Operations Engineer is a hands-on, technical role responsible for building and supporting Turtle's day-to-day AI operations. The role develops and maintains AI agents and chatbots, migrates individually created or shadow AI tools into enterprise-managed and access-controlled equivalents, and keeps the underlying platforms, integrations, and cost structures healthy. The position works closely with the AI Center of Excellence, Data Services and Enterprise Architecture, and Cyber Security to deliver AI capabilities that are supportable, secure, and cost-effective. This position is remote, with periodic travel to Turtle's Clark, NJ office for team meetings and stakeholder collaboration. What You'll Do: • Build, test, and support AI agents and chatbots that address internal business use cases, translating stakeholder requirements into working designs and improving them based on feedback and usage data. • Maintain and continuously improve AI agents and chatbots in production, including prompt and workflow tuning, error handling, and performance monitoring. • Identify individually created or informally deployed AI agents, bots, and chat tools across the organization and migrate them to enterprise-managed, centrally hosted, and access-controlled platforms. • Apply consistent governance, authentication, and access control standards to migrated tools, in coordination with Cyber Security and the AI Center of Excellence. • Administer and support core AI platforms, including NeuralSeek, Claude, and Copilot, and monitor platform health, performance, and usage using Data Dog and related observability tools. • Evaluate new AI tooling and platform capabilities and recommend adoption where appropriate. • Support and maintain Model Context Protocol (MCP) server infrastructure that connects AI agents to enterprise data and systems. • Build, test, and maintain API integrations linking AI agents and chatbots to enterprise applications and data sources, and resolve integration issues with internal teams and vendors. • Monitor and manage consumption-based AI costs, including token and API usage, and support cost allocation, budgeting, forecasting, and optimization without compromising performance. • Maintain an up-to-date inventory of AI agents, bots, and integrations in production, including ownership, data access, and business purpose. • Participate in incident response for AI-related issues, including outages, integration failures, and unexpected model behavior. • Support vendor management for AI platform providers, including renewals, license reconciliation, and issue escalation. • Develop and deliver training and enablement materials so business users adopt enterprise AI tools instead of building their own. • Ensure agents and integrations comply with Turtle's AI governance, data handling, and security policies. • Document architecture, configurations, and runbooks for supported agents, chatbots, and integrations to reduce key-person dependency. What You'll Bring Education: • Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, or a related field, or equivalent hands-on experience. Experience: • 3 to 5 years of experience in an AI, automation, integration, or DevOps/AIOps engineering role. • Practical experience building or supporting AI agents or chatbots in a business environment. Skills: • Working knowledge of REST APIs and experience building or maintaining API integrations. • Strong troubleshooting skills across applications, integrations, and infrastructure. • Ability to work independently while collaborating across IT, business, and security teams. Preferred: • Familiarity with NeuralSeek, Claude, Microsoft Copilot, or comparable AI orchestration and assistant platforms. • Experience with Data Dog or similar observability and monitoring platforms. • Exposure to Model Context Protocol (MCP) or similar agent-to-system integration frameworks. • Understanding of cloud or SaaS cost management (FinOps) principles as applied to AI consumption. • Experience operating in a regulated or compliance-driven environment (for example, ISO 27001 or NIST CMMC). • Relevant certifications (for example, in AI platforms, cloud services, or FinOps) are beneficial but not required. What We Offer We offer a competitive benefits package that includes: • 401(k) plan • Health insurance • Dental insurance • Vision insurance • Life insurance • Paid holidays • Vacation • Employee negotiated discounts Who We Are Founded in 1923, Turtle is a fourth-generation, family-owned, and three-generation women-owned business, and one of the nation’s largest independent electrical and industrial distributors. Headquartered in Clark, NJ, our Electrical Distribution division operates 14 branches spanning from coast to coast. It is a significant force in the engineering and procurement of power distribution, automation, lighting, and energy projects, offering integrated services for the industrial and construction markets. Turtle Integrated provides on-site MRO procurement, cost-saving, and spend analytics across the US and in Canada, Puerto Rico, and Mexico. What To Do Next You can begin by filling out our application online. If you want to learn more about Turtle, please visit our website www.turtle.com or our LinkedIn: @Turtle. Turtle is proud to be is an equal opportunity employer that is committed to diversity and inclusion in the workplace. We prohibit discrimination and harassment of any kind based on race, color, sex, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, national origin, disability, genetic information, pregnancy, marital status, military or veteran status, or any other protected characteristic as outlined by federal, state, or local laws.