Director of AI

Our client, a leading manufacturer and brand, is looking to hire a Director of AI for a full-time onsite role.  The Director will help shape and accelerate a major transformation for the company. Reporting directly to the CIO, this high-leverage delivery leadership role sits at the intersection of applied AI, enterprise platform delivery, and global business transformation. This is not a traditional engineering role or a purely strategic role; being accountable for execution, managing the global AI Center of Excellence (CoE), and driving measurable business impact.

Key Responsibilities:

• Execute the enterprise AI roadmap from prototype through production. Drive rapid experimentation cycles, manage the use-case backlog, and track ROI and business KPIs tied to revenue growth and cost efficiency.
• Lead the development and scaling of AI/ML and GenAI solutions (including conversational assistants, agentic commerce, and AI-driven marketing). Integrate AI into core enterprise platforms (eCommerce, CRM, CDP, SAP, O365) and establish scalable MLOps practices.
• Operate the enterprise AI governance framework. Ensure compliance with the EU AI Act, GDPR, SOX/GRC, and regional regulations. Maintain audit-ready documentation and run readiness tests before production deployment.
• Partner with regional IT and business leaders across the Americas, EMEA, and APAC to tune and scale AI use cases. Operate literacy programs and build a network of AI champions to drive group-wide adoption of enterprise AI tooling.
• Manage day-to-day relationships with AI vendors, hyperscalers, and delivery partners. Execute against the approved AI budget and lead build-vs-buy assessments.
• Provide regular delivery updates to the CIO and prepare materials for executive and Board reporting, translating technical progress into clear business outcomes.

Desired Skills:

• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Computer Science, Data Science, AI, or a related field.
• 8–12 years of progressive techno-functional experience, with a demonstrated track record of shipping AI/GenAI solutions into production at scale with quantifiable business outcomes.
• Hands-on expertise in machine learning, NLP, and Generative AI (LLMs, RAG, prompt engineering, AI agents, model evaluation, and workflow orchestration).
• Direct experience with major cloud platforms (AWS, Azure, GCP) and comfort using AI tools and copilots to accelerate delivery.
• Experience leading distributed delivery teams in matrixed, multi-region organizations.
• Working knowledge of AI governance, ethics, and regulatory frameworks (EU AI Act, GDPR, etc.).
• Ability to travel internationally (~10%).