What are the responsibilities and job description for the RPG Developer - AI Experience position at Thorndale Partners?
RPG Developer / AI Enthusiast
Position Type:
Full-Time Contract (7–10 Months)
Location:
Remote (with initial and periodic on-site visits to Alabama)
Industry Focus:
Warehouse Management (WMS), Inventory, & Retail Distribution
Core Tech Stack:
RPG III, RPG IV, ILE, Claude AI, Visual Studio Code
Role Summary
We are seeking a highly skilled and forward-thinking RPG Developer / AI Enthusiast for a 7–10 month full-time contract. This unique role requires a blend of heavy, hands-on legacy RPG development experience and a passion for leveraging modern Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools. The successful contractor will extract legacy applications from an existing ERP/WMS system, feed them into Claude AI to evaluate functionality, input requirements for modern updates, and test/implement the reconstructed code into a brand-new ERP/WMS system.
Key Responsibilities
- Legacy Analysis & AI Prompting: Download legacy source code via Visual Studio and feed applications into Claude AI to dissect, document, and map existing functionality.
- AI-Augmented Recoding: Provide precise, business-specific instructions to Claude to adjust and rewrite applications to align with the framework of the new WMS system.
- Core RPG Development: Directly program, refactor, and maintain high-volume code leveraging RPG III, RPG IV, and ILE environments.
- Supply Chain Logic Execution: Engineer and update applications managing critical warehouse processes: Purchase Orders, Vendor Management, Warehouse Transfers, and Retail Outlet Product Distribution.
- Deployment & Testing: Deploy the rebuilt applications into the new ERP/WMS system, managing end-to-end testing, error debugging, and final optimization.
Required Qualifications & Expertise
- Deep RPG Domain Knowledge: Extensive, proven experience coding in RPG III, RPG IV, and ILE architectures within ERP/WMS domains.
- AI Tool Fluency: Active, hands-on experience using Claude AI or similar LLMs to interpret code logic, generate code variations, and streamline development pipelines.
- Modern IDE Familiarity: Proficiency using Visual Studio / VS Code for managing source code control, exploration, and editing.
- Functional Supply Chain Experience: Strong understanding of core inventory and logistics workflows: vendor coordination, purchase order cycles, inventory moving, and retail setups.
- Availability & Travel Flexibility: Ability to dedicate 40 hours a week to a 7-10 month contract, with willingness to travel to the client site in Alabama for kickoff acclimation and occasional milestones.