Principal AI Solution Developer

Donaldson is committed to solving the world’s most complex filtration challenges. Together, we make cool things. As an established technology and innovation leader, we are continuously evolving to meet the filtration needs of our changing world. Join a culture of collaboration and innovation that matters and a chance to learn, effect change, and make meaningful contributions at work and in communities. ​   Position Summary The Principal AI Solutions Engineer is the most senior engineering role in Donaldson's AI Center of Excellence, a focused central team with enterprise-wide reach and a short path from idea to production. Reporting to the Director of Artificial Intelligence, you will build AI solutions and integrations into systems and processes across Donaldson's global manufacturing footprint, take them from prototype to production, and define the engineering standards every AI solution is built to. Qualified candidates must be able to work a hybrid schedule at our Bloomington, MN office.

Responsibilities Serve as the technical authority in the AI Center of Excellence for how AI solutions are designed and built, evaluating new models, frameworks, and tools and setting the direction the enterprise builds to. Partner with business stakeholders and AI leads embedded across functions to identify high-value opportunities, redesigning existing processes with AI as a foundational element rather than a bolt-on. Rapidly build and demonstrate working prototypes using large language models, agentic frameworks, and generative AI tools to validate ideas before full investment. Lead the end-to-end delivery of AI solutions from prototype through production, ensuring scalability, reliability, observability, and maintainability. Design and implement agentic AI systems, including multi-agent orchestration, retrieval-augmented generation pipelines, tool-calling integrations, and context engineering strategies. Define the reference architecture and engineering standards that both centrally built and business-built AI solutions are held to, covering prompt engineering, evaluation, monitoring, cost controls, and responsible AI guardrails. Take on problems where the constraint is process and data maturity rather than model access, spanning supplier and customer communications, master data quality, and operational planning across a global manufacturing network. Integrate AI solutions with enterprise data systems, APIs, and platforms such as cloud data services, collaboration platforms, and ERP and CRM systems to deliver measurable business outcomes. Multiply impact through a federated delivery model, coaching business and IT teams who build their own AI solutions so their work meets enterprise standards for governance, security, and quality. Mentor and upskill a central team of AI developers and program managers, along with colleagues across the business, fostering an AI-ready culture and working with IT, data, security, and compliance teams to meet enterprise standards. Travel: Up to 10% Minimum Qualifications Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Data Science, or a related field and 6+ years of professional software engineering experience OR a high school diploma and 10+ years of professional software engineering experience. 3+ years building and deploying AI/ML or applied AI solutions in production environments. Professional experience developing in Python with modern AI and agent frameworks such as Microsoft Agent Framework, LangChain, LangGraph, or equivalent. Professional experience building and deploying agentic AI systems, including multi-agent architectures and tool-calling integrations.

Hands-on experience building knowledge assistants or retrieval-augmented generation systems over enterprise documents and data, including evaluating and improving retrieval quality. Experience with Azure OpenAI Service and Azure AI Foundry for AI solution delivery, and with Snowflake Cortex AI