Generative AI Center of Excellence Associate

Darigold is seeking a Generative AI Center of Excellence (CoE) Associate to help establish and scale how we apply generative AI to deliver measurable business value. This is an entry-level role designed for someone with a strong can-do attitude, curiosity and a bias toward action. You will work hands-on through a prioritized list of AI use cases with business subject matter experts (SMEs) who will serve as ‘customers’ and ultimately ‘own’ the solution once implemented. Over time, you will help build the operating system for the CoE—intake, prioritization, delivery tracking and knowledge sharing—so Darigold can scale what works, sunset what doesn’t and do so responsibly.

Darigold is the fifth largest dairy cooperative in the United States based on milk volume and one of the largest privately held organizations headquartered in the state of Washington. Since 1918, our producers have taken pride in producing dairy products with unsurpassed quality. Today, we are one of the nation's largest agricultural cooperatives, producing over 8.5 billion pounds of milk every year.

Through innovative technology and our efficient, flexible production capabilities, we deliver value-added products and customer-driven solutions. Darigold is now known throughout the world for bringing fresh, wholesome dairy products and ingredients from the Northwest to people all around the globe.

What You Will Do:

Deliver Business Value (First 3–6 Months)

• Work through a prioritized backlog of business-identified generative AI use cases; quickly turn ambiguous requests into clear problem statements, success criteria and MVPs.
• Partner with SMEs as customers: run discovery sessions, map the current process, identify sources of friction and confirm what ‘done’ looks like.
• Build or configure solutions using approved tools (e.g., Copilot Studio, Power Automate, M365 Copilot, Fabric/Power BI or other approved enterprise AI tools) with a focus on speed-to-value.
• Document what you build so it is maintainable and transferrable (requirements, prompts, data sources, edge cases, testing notes and operating instructions).
• Transition ownership to the business: train the SME owner, create lightweight runbooks and ensure the solution is usable without you.

Build the CoE Operating System (6–12 Months)

• Create and maintain an intake tracker (single source of truth) that captures use case requests, business owner, expected value, status, risks and next actions.
• Stand up and maintain a Jira board to track throughput, cycle time, WIP limits, dependencies and blockers.
• Develop simple templates: use case one-pager, intake rubric, definition-of-done checklist and a handoff package for business owners.
• Support recurring cadence: backlog grooming, weekly/biweekly demos or showcases and lessons learned to spread wins (and failures) across the company.

Scale Responsibly (Ongoing)

• Operate within Darigold’s AI policy and governance guardrails: use approved tools, protect confidential and personal information and treat AI outputs as drafts requiring validation.
• Coordinate with IT/Security/Legal as needed on data access, permissions and risk reviews.
• Measure value: track time saved, cycle time reduced, quality improvements or cost avoidance; communicate results in plain language.
• Continuously learn: stay current on new capabilities, share learning with peers and update playbooks and templates as tools evolve.

What You Will Bring:

• ~1 year of experience (internship, co-op, or full-time) in a relevant area: business analysis, operations improvement, analytics, automation, product/project coordination or software/low-code development.
• Demonstrated bias for action: you move from idea to working draft quickly and iterate with users.
• Strong customer orientation: you listen well, clarify needs and build trust with business partners.
• Clear communication: you can translate between business language and technical concepts; you write simple, usable documentation.
• Comfort with ambiguity and rapid learning; excitement about learning both Darigold’s business and the evolving AI/tooling landscape.
• Basic technical fluency: ability to learn and use tools like Copilot Studio/Power Automate, Excel and Jira; comfort with data concepts (tables, fields, permissions).
• High integrity and responsibility: you respect data governance rules, validate outputs and escalate risk/uncertainty early.

Nice to Have’s:

• Experience building simple automations (Power Automate, scripting or workflow tools).
• Exposure to generative AI tools (Copilot, Claude, ChatGPT) and an understanding of prompt quality and limitations.
• Basic familiarity with data/analytics tools (Power BI, SQL, Fabric) or ticketing/Agile workflows (Jira/Kanban).
• Experience working in a manufacturing, supply chain, finance or customer operations environment.

Benefits of Working at Darigold:

We understand that as an employee, benefits that support you and your family in and out of work are important. We’re proud to offer eligible positions a competitive total rewards package that includes:

• 401k competitive employer matching
• Comprehensive medical, dental & vision benefits
• Employer paid life & disability coverage
• Paid time off and paid holidays
• 8 weeks paid parental leave
• Education assistance
• Employee assistance program
• Flexible hybrid working arrangement where it applies (up to 2 days/week after initial 90 days and approval by hiring manager and HR)
• Compensation range: $80,168.40-$100,676.40 (individual wage based on previous experience, knowledge, and skills)

Our Commitment to Diversity:

Achieving our vision to Lead Dairy Forward requires cultivating and supporting a team with varying backgrounds, experiences, and perspectives. We are committed to providing a workplace based on mutual respect where all employees feel included and can bring their best and authentic selves to work every day. We are proud to be an Equal Opportunity Employer and Affirmative Action Employer. We welcome all qualified applicants without regard to race, color, national origin, sex, gender identity and expression, age, sexual orientation, veteran status, disability, marital status, creed, religion, genetic information or any other characteristic protected by federal, state, or local law. As a condition of employment applicants offered a role will be required to successfully pass our pre-employment background screen, receive a negative drug screen result & confirm eligibility to work in the U.S. We participate in E-Verify - please follow the links for details, English (https://e-verify.uscis.gov/emp/media/resourcesContents/EverifyPosterEnglish.pdf) / Spanish (https://e-verify.uscis.gov/emp/media/resourcesContents/EverifyPosterSpanish.pdf) & view our Right to Work Statement, English (https://e-verify.uscis.gov/emp/media/resourcesContents/WebBPPOSTERRtoWEnglishversion.pdf) / Spanish (https://e-verify.uscis.gov/emp/media/resourcesContents/WebBPPOSTERRtoWSpanishversion.pdf).

Equal Opportunity Employer/Protected Veterans/Individuals with Disabilities
This employer is required to notify all applicants of their rights pursuant to federal employment laws. For further information, please review the Know Your Rights (https://www.eeoc.gov/poster) notice from the Department of Labor.