AI Technologist

About the role

Phoenix is seeking an AI Technologist to bridge the gap between creative design and technical implementation in our Shanghai studio. You will develop custom tools and workflows that integrate generative AI into our product innovation process. In this capacity, you will own the end to end execution of AI driven experiments that directly influence our product innovation pipeline. The role requires you to translate ambiguous creative challenges into concrete technical solutions using modern AI methodologies. You will be responsible for establishing the technical feasibility of design concepts early in the innovation cycle. Furthermore, you will document and share your technical discoveries to elevate the collective capability of the studio. Ultimately, you will ensure that artificial intelligence serves as a practical and scalable extension of our design thinking.

Key facts

What you'll do

• Investigate and experiment with new AI methodologies to create functional design prototypes and production workflows.
• Collaborate closely with designers and strategists to identify opportunities where AI can enhance user research outputs and creative productivity.
• Engineer custom scripts and lightweight software tools to remove friction and boost team productivity across the innovation pipeline.
• Translate complex AI trends into accessible knowledge by building reusable toolkits and methodological guides for internal staff and clients.
• Build hardware and software prototypes to rapidly test new concepts and validate design hypotheses in tangible environments.
• Act as a central technical hub within the organization to connect creative objectives with viable technical implementations.
• Champion the adoption of AI practices and facilitate knowledge sharing initiatives across our global studio network.
• Assess emerging large language model technologies and determine their applicability to specific design and innovation challenges.
• Implement robust API integration patterns to connect disparate systems and data sources within creative workflows.
• Maintain a living repository of prompts, configurations, and workflows related to ComfyUI and other generative interfaces.
• Optimize processes for generating visual assets and interactive content using multimodal AI tools.
• Evaluate the performance of AI assisted prototypes against defined success metrics for user experience and business goals.
• Guide junior team members in the correct implementation of AI tools to ensure consistent quality and output.
• Monitor the landscape of AI hardware interfaces to identify tools that can accelerate our physical prototyping capabilities.

Requirements

• You possess practical experience with generative AI technologies, including large language models and interface tools such as ComfyUI.
• You demonstrate proficiency in Python or JavaScript to create automation scripts and perform seamless API integration with existing systems.
• You have a proven ability to operate effectively within fast moving design and innovation environments that require agility.
• You maintain a portfolio that showcases experimental work, including examples of AI assisted research, generative design explorations, or interactive prototypes.
• You have hands on experience configuring and running stable diffusion or similar generative image models in local or cloud environments.
• You are comfortable working with structured and unstructured data sources to train or fine tune models for specific creative objectives.
• You understand the technical constraints and capabilities of deploying AI solutions in professional product development cycles.
• You communicate complex technical subjects clearly to non technical stakeholders, ensuring alignment between technical execution and creative intent.

Nice to have

• You have direct experience developing AI Agents and utilizing frameworks such as LangChain, MCP, or LlamaIndex to build sophisticated workflows.
• You can design systemic architectures that reliably integrate AI capabilities into complex and established creative workflows.
• You possess skills in hardware prototyping using platforms such as Raspberry Pi, Arduino, or other IoT devices and sensors.
• You have specific knowledge of AI automation applications tailored specifically for the creative industry and related production pipelines.

Practical notes

Phoenix provides a structured onboarding process, professional mentoring, and access to internal and external training resources. The role includes opportunities to attend industry conferences and trade shows where the team can represent the company. We offer flexible working hours within our Shanghai studio, which operates as a hub for a global team that has earned over 900 design awards since 1987. The position is based in Shanghai and requires physical presence in the studio environment to facilitate close collaboration with the design innovation team.