Applied AI Engineer
Fanatics · New York City · $150,000–$200,000 (stated in the posting)
About Us
The Role
Are you a builder who has already shipped AI that changed how a business runs? Fanatics wants you.
We're hiring full-time Applied AI Engineers to join a small, senior team that sits at the center of how Fanatics transforms itself with AI. Our goal is simple and ambitious: make Fanatics a faster, more automated company. Each Applied AI Engineer works like a tiger team: embed with a business function, find its biggest bottlenecks, replace slow, manual work with AI agents and workflows that actually run in production, then move on to the next challenge.
This is a doer's role, not an advisory one. You'll own problems end to end: define them, design the solution, build it, prove it works, and drive adoption. You'll have real autonomy, executive visibility, and a direct line to leadership, with joint reporting to the CFO and Corporate AI Transformation Lead.
We're looking for someone with prior experience doing applied AI work at a startup or fast-growing company, who is used to moving quickly with limited resources and is ready to bring that pace to a global brand.
What You'll Do
- Embed within corporate functions across the business, find the workflows where AI can remove the most manual effort or unlock the most growth, fix them, then rotate to the next function.
- Design, build, and deploy production-grade agents and agentic workflows using frontier models (Claude, GPT, Gemini) and the modern agent stack: MCP servers, agent SDKs, orchestration tools, browser and computer use, and evals.
- Move fast: take a high-impact use case from concept to working solution in weeks, not quarters, and prove it with measurable results.
- Think in systems and bias toward solving the problem, not toward building for its own sake. Sometimes the right answer is a custom agent; sometimes it's configuring an existing tool.
- Partner with business leaders to be accountable for outcomes, and help them rethink how their teams operate in an AI-first way.
- Call balls and strikes: pressure-test whether a problem is worth automating, what "good" looks like, and how to measure ROI.
- Help set the bar for AI across the company, including tool evaluation, security and InfoSec coordination, governance, and best practices.
- Spread the practice: document and showcase wins, coach colleagues, and help build a company culture that automates by default.
What We're Looking For
- 3+ years of experience in applied AI or software engineering, including time at a startup or fast-growing company where you shipped AI-powered products or automations to real users.
- A track record of building and deploying custom agents or agentic workflows with frontier LLMs that solved real business problems, not just prototypes.
- Fluency with the modern AI stack: LLM APIs, MCP, agent frameworks (Claude Agent SDK, OpenAI Agents SDK, LangGraph, or similar), prompt engineering, RAG, and evaluation methods.
- Strong coding skills (Python preferred) and the judgment to pick the right tool for the job, including buying or configuring instead of building.
- Comfort operating independently in ambiguity, with a high bar for speed, ownership, and follow-through.
- A strategic mindset paired with a "get it done" attitude; you can tell the difference between a cool demo and a business outcome.
- Excellent written and verbal communication, with the ability to earn trust and drive change with senior business leaders.
- Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, AI/ML, Software Engineering, or a related field preferred; equivalent practical experience welcome.
- Bonus points if you're a fan of sports, collectibles, or fandom culture (because we're a little obsessed).
Why You'll Love It Here
- Real ownership of high-visibility problems, with exposure to every part of Fanatics and direct access to senior leadership.
- A chance to be part of a small, hand-picked team shaping how a global sports and collectibles company becomes AI-first.
- Backing for your work: dedicated headcount, budget, and executive sponsorship to get things done.
- Competitive salary and comprehensive medical, dental, and vision coverage.
- 401(k) plan with company match.
- Generous paid time off, paid holidays, and parental leave.
- Wellness benefits and a learning & development stipend.
- NYC office with daily in-person collaboration.
- Employee discount on Fanatics products and (yes) some sweet Fanatics swag.
Final Word
If you've built AI that moved a business and you're ready to do it at global scale, let's talk. This is where the doers build.
The salary range represents base pay only and does not include short-term or long-term incentive compensation. When determining base pay as part of a final compensation package, we consider several factors such as location, experience, qualifications, and training. For information about our benefits, please visit https://benefitsatfanatics.com/
Fanatics will never ask candidates for money, banking information, or other sensitive personal information as part of the interview process. If you receive a suspicious message claiming to be from Fanatics recruiting, please do not respond and report it here.