Engagement Type
Contract
Complete Description
Description of Duties
- Design and implement AI solutions for back-office contact centers using Dynamics Contact Center solution, including virtual assistants for voice and chat, intelligent routing, and sentiment-aware human centered customer support.
- Develop and maintain Natural Language Processing (NLP) models to analyze customer inquiries across voice, chat, email, and social media channels.
- Collaborate with customer service, IT, and data analysis teams to identify automation opportunities and improve customer engagement.
- Integrate AI capabilities with existing systems such as Microsoft Dynamics Customer Relationship Management (CRM), website and mobile app.
- Monitor and optimize AI model performance to ensure high accuracy, responsiveness, and customer satisfaction.
- Leverage machine learning to predict customer needs, personalize interactions, and reduce call volumes.
- Stay up-to-date with emerging AI technologies and retail trends to continuously enhance our contact center capabilities.
- Fully document all created work associated with this position, including technical and functional designs and diagrams, test plans, test scripts, impact analysis reports, lessons learned, best practices for others to follow, plus any other documentation as required by the Commission. This documentation shall follow the format and/or templates as instructed by the Commission.
- Develop and maintain a productive working relationship with technology staff, business owners, project sponsors, vendors, and key clients.
- Lead and participate in project team activities for system work efforts related to enterprise systems.
- Work independently to accomplish the tasks and duties assigned.
- Adhere to and follow all The Commission standards, policies, and procedures.
- Utilize various software and/or technology tools to perform job duties.
- Perform tasks and other duties as related to this position and role and assigned by the Commission.
Required Qualifications
- Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Computer Science, Artificial Intelligence, Data Science, or related field.
- 5+ years of experience in AI Machine Learning (ML) development, preferably in retail or customer service environments.
- Strong programming skills in Python and experience with ML frameworks (e.g., TensorFlow, PyTorch).
- Proficiency in NLP tools and libraries (e.g., spaCy, Hugging Face, NLTK).
- Hands on experience in Microsoft Dynamics Contact Center solution creating voice bot and chatbot using copilot studio and other Azure AI services.
- Experience with cloud platforms (Azure) and deploying AI models in production.
Preferred Qualifications
- Experience with voice AI and speech-to-text technologies.
- Knowledge of customer journey analytics and personalization engines.
- Understanding of omnichannel retail strategies and customer behavior.
- Experience with real-time data processing and streaming platforms (e.g., Kafka, Spark).
- Familiarity with other contact center platforms and tools (e.g., Zendesk, Salesforce Service Cloud, Amazon Connect).
- Additional beneficial skills include:
o Enterprise Business Solutions, specifically SAP projects.
o ITIL / ITSM practices and methodologies.
Engagement Requirements
- Candidate’s location is preferred to be within the Continental United States.
- The work location will be virtual/remote until further notice. When required to be onsite, the work location will be at either The Commission Central Administration Building located at 700 South Eisenhower Boulevard in Middletown, PA, or The Commission Turnpike Industrial Park location located at 2850 Turnpike Industrial Drive, Middletown, PA.
- The resource shall attend onsite meetings at one of the Commission Middletown PA locations for 1 week per month based on the schedule set by the Commission.
- In-person interviews or work sessions with stakeholders will be conducted at the Commission facilities in Middletown, PA.
- The resource may be required to provide onsite post go-live support activities at one of the Commission Middletown PA locations. This includes one or more one-to-two week tours of duty onsite on a rotating basis with other team members. The post go-live support period is planned for the six months beginning immediately after the UBOS is “live” with active customers.
- The resource shall attend an orientation session onsite at one of the Commission’s Middletown, PA offices. The resource shall be onsite for the full day of this orientation where they will pick up any assigned Commission Equipment, by the resource. Equipment will not be shipped and cannot be pick up by anyone other than the selected resource. Travel costs associated with picking up this equipment plus the orientation day will not be reimbursed.
If the resource is based within a 3-hour commuting distance of the Commission’s Middletown PA offices, then no additional compensation for any travel is allowed. The rate is inclusive of any travel costs.
If travel expenses are authorized, then the travel expenses submitted for reimbursement must adhere to federal GSA guidelines governing hotel, mileage, and meals per diem rates, and must include appropriate expense documentation (receipts). GSA Guidelines are available at: https://www.gsa.gov/travel/plan-book/per-diem-rates?gsaredirect=""portalcontent104877. • The vendor must arrange for workspace for its project team. The Commission will provide meeting space; however, it does not plan to house the project team on a daily basis unless this statement of work states otherwise.
Remote connectivity: computer equipment and access to required administrative services and facilities will be provided to vendor resources as required. Computer equipment for use while engaged with the Turnpike may include a laptop, iPad or other tablet device, laptop bag, monitors, wireless keyboard, mouse, or other equipment as required to perform job functions. When an engagement ends, all equipment issued to the vendor resources must be returned to the Commission within 2 weeks of the resources being offboarded. All equipment shall be returned to the Commission in good working condition. The Prime Contractor will be invoiced for any unreturned equipment or equipment damaged beyond reasonable wear and tear.
Vendors are responsible for providing complete and accurate information and correctly completed forms for on-boarding resources. The vendor should allow a minimum of five to seven business days to fully on-board new resources. Vendor resources must:
o Complete the consultant onboarding spreadsheet provided by the Commission.
o Sign the Commission’s “Acceptable Use of Commission Technology Resources” (Policy 8.01) and the Non-Revenue Card Application Use Agreement for door access.
o Provide a contact phone number and a current professional photo.
o Must provide a copy of the results of a Pennsylvania Access to Criminal History - Record Check Certification (ePATCH) of the selected candidate dated after the release date of the Statement of Work.
o Provide a copy of the results of a National Criminal Check.
o If vendor resources will manage or access The Commission systems and/or data for the Commission, they must sign a non-disclosure agreement (NDA), which must also be approved and signable by their Commission supervisor.
- The Commission IT Department has established the following guidelines while working virtually and the vendor resource is expected to follow them:
o Use cameras during meetings.
o Maintain a professional appearance when in meetings and on camera.
o Resources must be available to come to the Commission work location within 3 hours in case of an emergency.
o The vendor-provided resource is expected to be on-site as needed for planned implementations or system issues (when required) with advance notice given when possible.
- The Commission has eleven (11) holidays (for salaried employees) when the CAB is closed. Those holidays are New Year’s Day, M.L. King Jr. Birthday, Presidents Day, Good Friday, Memorial Day, Juneteenth, Independence Day, Labor Day, Veterans Day, Thanksgiving Day, and Christmas Day.
- Resources must abide by all published IT Standards, including those published publicly at http://paturnpike.service-now.com/kb.
- Overtime requests always need to have prior approval of Project Principal with the rightful reasons for overtime.
Required/Desired Skills
Skill Required/Desired Amount of Experience AI Machine Learning (ML) development, preferably in retail or customer service environments. Required 5.0 Years Strong programming skills in Python and experience with ML frameworks (e.g., TensorFlow, PyTorch). Required Proficiency in NLP tools and libraries (e.g., spaCy, Hugging Face, NLTK). Required Hands on experience in Microsoft Dynamics Contact Center solution creating voice bot and chatbot using copilot studio and other Azure AI services. Required Experience with cloud platforms (Azure) and deploying AI models in production. Required Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Computer Science, Artificial Intelligence, Data Science, or related field. Required Experience with voice AI and speech-to-text technologies. Highly desired Knowledge of customer journey analytics and personalization engines. Highly desired Understanding of omnichannel retail strategies and customer behavior. Highly desired Experience with real-time data processing and streaming platforms (e.g., Kafka, Spark). Highly desired Familiarity with other contact center platforms and tools (e.g., Zendesk, Salesforce Service Cloud, Amazon Connect). Highly desired