Senior AI Engineer / – Build an Intelligent AI Management System for Hospitality SaaS

# Senior AI Engineer / Development Team Needed – Build an Intelligent AI Management System for Hospitality SaaS ## About ShiftKlaar ShiftKlaar is a hospitality management software platform being developed for restaurants, bars, hotels, and other hospitality businesses. Our platform brings together workforce scheduling, time tracking, point of sale (POS), kitchen management, inventory, food cost management, payroll-related data, and operational management. We already have existing software modules, interfaces, and designs. We are now looking for an experienced **AI developer, AI engineer, or specialized development team** to build an advanced AI management engine that integrates with our platform. Our goal is not to create a basic chatbot. We want to develop an intelligent system that continuously analyzes business data, predicts operational needs, automates workflows, and provides actionable recommendations. The AI should eventually function as a **digital operations manager for hospitality businesses**. ## Project Scope ### 1. AI-Powered Workforce Scheduling We want an AI system capable of: - Automatically generating employee schedules. - Forecasting staffing requirements based on historical revenue, expected demand, reservations, weather, and other relevant factors. - Considering employee availability, contracts, working hours, positions, and labor regulations. - Optimizing staffing levels to reduce unnecessary labor costs. - Monitoring actual labor costs against real-time sales. - Suggesting schedule adjustments when business conditions change. - Allowing managers to review, modify, and approve AI-generated schedules. ### 2. Revenue Monitoring & Business Intelligence The AI should analyze operational and financial data from our POS and management systems. Required capabilities include: - Monitoring sales and revenue in near real time. - Forecasting daily and weekly revenue. - Comparing predicted revenue with actual performance. - Calculating labor cost percentages. - Analyzing profitability and operational efficiency. - Recognizing unusual patterns and potential problems. - Generating proactive recommendations to improve business performance. For example, the AI might recognize that revenue is significantly below expectations and recommend reducing staffing levels or adjusting purchasing quantities. ### 3. Inventory Management, Waste Tracking & Food Cost We want the AI to support intelligent inventory and purchasing decisions. Features should include: - Monitoring inventory levels. - Calculating theoretical inventory consumption based on POS sales and recipes. - Calculating food costs and profit margins per product or recipe. - Tracking food waste and inventory losses. - Supporting barcode and QR-code scanning. - Processing supplier invoices, delivery notes, and packing slips using OCR/AI. - Automatically suggesting inventory adjustments after deliveries. - Predicting future inventory requirements. - Identifying unusually high food costs or excessive waste. - Suggesting improvements to purchasing quantities and menu profitability. ### 4. Automated Purchasing & Supplier Integrations An important part of our vision is connecting ShiftKlaar to major hospitality wholesalers in the Netherlands: - HANOS - Sligro - Makro We want the AI to calculate required purchasing quantities based on current inventory, recipes, expected sales, and upcoming demand. Ideally, the system should be able to: - Generate intelligent purchasing lists. - Compare supplier products and available prices. - Recommend appropriate suppliers. - Add required products to supplier shopping carts automatically, where supported. - Prepare purchase orders for manager approval. - Track purchasing history and supplier price changes. We understand that direct integrations depend on supplier API availability and permissions. We expect the developer to investigate technical feasibility and propose realistic integration methods rather than assume all suppliers have public APIs. ### 5. Weather, Demand Forecasting & Predictive AI The AI should use external information to improve operational predictions. Examples: - Weather forecasts and historical weather data. - Historical sales. - Day of the week and seasonality. - Holidays and local events. - Reservations and expected customer traffic. The goal is to predict business activity and automatically translate these predictions into staffing, inventory, and purchasing recommendations. ### 6. AI Management Assistant We also want an integrated AI assistant that allows hospitality managers to ask questions such as: - "How is my restaurant performing today?" - "Are my labor costs too high?" - "How many employees do I need this weekend?" - "Which products should I order tomorrow?" - "Why has my food cost increased?" - "Can you create next week's schedule?" - "Where am I losing money?" The assistant should answer using actual business data and provide clear explanations and actionable recommendations. Ultimately, the AI should proactively identify opportunities and problems without requiring managers to ask questions first. ## Technical Requirements We are looking for a scalable, secure, and maintainable AI architecture. **An important requirement: the AI engine must be built as an independent, modular service.** Our current application architecture may change in the future. We do not want the AI system to depend entirely on one specific frontend, hosting platform, or database provider. The solution should ideally include: - An independent AI backend with secure API access. - Modular integrations with our existing and future applications. - Support for multiple businesses and locations. - Secure data processing and GDPR considerations. - Role-based access control and proper tenant isolation. - Reliable calculations for financial and operational data. - Background data processing and scheduled analysis. - Audit logs and manager approval for sensitive automated actions. - Clear API documentation. - A maintainable architecture that can scale as ShiftKlaar grows. We are open to recommendations regarding programming languages, AI models, frameworks, databases, and cloud infrastructure. We are particularly interested in developers experienced with Python, AI/LLM APIs, machine learning, forecasting, optimization algorithms, and SaaS API integrations. We are not looking for someone who simply connects a chatbot to an API. We need someone who understands how to combine AI with actual business logic, operational calculations, predictive models, and automation. ## Existing Platform ShiftKlaar already has multiple software modules and user interfaces in development. We can provide access to the existing platform, relevant source code, technical information, and workflow demonstrations during the evaluation process. **We are not looking to rebuild the entire ShiftKlaar platform.** The primary objective is to develop the independent AI management engine and integrate it into our existing ecosystem. ## Expected Deliverables - A proposed AI system architecture. - A working, modular AI backend. - Secure APIs for integration with ShiftKlaar. - Functional AI modules developed in agreed milestones. - Integration with relevant ShiftKlaar data sources. - Documented source code and technical documentation. - Testing, security considerations, and deployment instructions. - A clear plan for future expansion. We prefer a phased development approach, beginning with core AI intelligence, revenue analysis, and workforce scheduling, followed by inventory management, food cost optimization, and supplier integrations. ## What We Would Like to Know From You **Please include the following information in your proposal:** 1. Have you previously developed an AI-powered SaaS platform, business intelligence system, or autonomous AI workflow? Please share relevant examples. 2. How would you technically approach a project like ShiftKlaar Intelligence? 3. Which technologies, AI models, and frameworks would you recommend, and why? 4. Would you recommend building this as a single AI system or several specialized AI components? 5. How would you approach revenue forecasting, workforce optimization, and inventory predictions? 6. How would you investigate and implement integrations with suppliers such as HANOS, Sligro, and Makro? 7. What would be your estimated development timeline, divided into realistic phases? 8. **Please provide your estimated total development cost and, preferably, a cost breakdown per module or milestone.** 9. What information or technical access would you need from us to provide a more accurate estimate? 10. Would you personally develop the solution, or would you work with a team? We understand that the final scope and price will depend on technical requirements and integration possibilities. At this stage, we are looking for an initial technical proposal, a realistic cost estimate, and an estimated development timeline. ## Long-Term Collaboration We are building ShiftKlaar as a long-term commercial SaaS product. We are interested in working with an experienced developer or development team that can potentially continue supporting and expanding our AI capabilities as the platform grows. We value clear communication, clean code, transparent estimates, technical ownership, and practical solutions. **If you have experience building real AI-powered business systems rather than simple chatbot integrations, we would be interested in hearing from you.** Please share your experience, proposed approach, estimated timeline, and cost indication. We look forward to discussing the project. **The ShiftKlaar Team**