Principal AI Solutions Evaluation Lead (contract)

Description Title: Principal AI Solutions Evaluation Lead Location: Charlotte, NC Duration: 18 months Work Engagement: W2 Work Schedule: Hybrid 3 days in office/2 days remote Benefits on offer for this contract position: Health Insurance, Life insurance, 401K and Voluntary Benefits Summary: In this contingent resource assignment, you may: Consult on complex initiatives with broad impact and large-scale planning for Specialty Software Engineering. Review and analyze complex multi-faceted, larger scale, or longer-term Specialty Software Engineering challenges that require in-depth evaluation of multiple factors, including intangibles or unprecedented factors. Contribute to the resolution of complex and multi-faceted situations requiring solid understanding of the function, policies, procedures, and compliance requirements that meet deliverables. Strategically collaborate and consult with client personnel. Required Qualifications: Specialty Software Engineering experience, or equivalent demonstrated through one or a combination of the following: work or consulting experience, training, military experience, education. Key Responsibilities: Key Requirements: • Applicants must be authorized to work for ANY employer in the U.S. This position is not eligible for visa sponsorship. • Deep expertise in designing and scaling reusable evaluation frameworks, including advanced test pattern design, comparative benchmarking models, and mature scoring methodologies that enable cross-solution standardization. • Advanced application of AI/ML and agentic systems to transform scouting, assessment, and evaluation lifecycles—enabling intelligent orchestration, automated competitive analysis, adaptive test generation, and production of investment-grade insights (e.g., structured memos, comparative scoring, and executive-ready synthesis) • Advanced Infrastructure-as-Code and automation capabilities, including modular architecture, policy-as-code, and CI/CD or GitOps patterns for complex, multi-environment evaluation setups. • Experience embedding automated evaluation ecosystems at scale, including extensible pipelines, reusable test harnesses, and integration with enterprise platforms for continuous evaluation. • Strong experience evaluating SaaS and emerging vendor solutions in regulated enterprise environments, with depth in integration complexity, identity/auth patterns, data flows, operational readiness, and long-term supportability. • Familiarity with enterprise governance and control frameworks, including third-party risk lifecycles, security review processes, and audit-quality evidence expectations in large regulated organizations. • Strong background in platform and infrastructure engineering (e.g. OpenShift, Observability), enabling deep technical judgment and architectural tradeoff analysis during evaluations. • Demonstrated ability to produce executive-level narratives and decision artifacts, including PoVs and “whitepaper-light” analyses that clearly articulate tradeoffs, risks, and recommendation rationale. • Experience in technology scouting and evaluation of emerging products, including identifying, screening, and assessing vendor capabilities against strategic business and technical needs. • Proven experience designing and delivering hackathons at scale, including structuring problem statements, evaluation criteria, judging frameworks, and end-to-end execution. • Advanced AI/ML certifications or equivalent applied expertise preferred. • • Software engineering experience, including hands-on delivery of at least one production-grade Agentic AI solution (preferred). • Experience leading end-to-end PoC evaluations in collaboration with third-party lab/platform teams and vendors, including defining scope, success criteria, standardized test patterns, execution plans, and scoring frameworks, while coordinating environment readiness, connectivity, access, and execution workflows across diverse technologies. • Experience in cloud-native, containerized environments (public/private cloud), with the ability to assess integration, operability, scalability, and risk of vendor solutions. • Experience enabling repeatable environment configuration and building or supporting automated evaluation frameworks, including test orchestration, validation, and scoring, to standardize, scale, and accelerate PoC assessments while validating vendor deployment patterns. • Strong Agile execution skills in a fast-moving, cross-functional environment. • Excellent technical writing and stakeholder communication skills to produce decision-ready artifacts (PoV, findings summaries, scoring inputs, recommendations).