Director, AI Foundations Engineering

This position is listed on behalf of a partner company, who manages all applications and next steps. Our partner is looking for a Director, AI Foundations Engineering based in the United States.

• Lead the design, development, operation, and continuous improvement of the foundational AI capabilities supporting agentic AI use cases and intelligent workflows.
• Define and implement an agentic AI foundation, including engineering standards, development practices, operating models, and technical approaches that promote scalability, reliability, repeatability, security, and continuous improvement.
• Establish a clear engineering strategy and roadmap for core AI capabilities, ensuring priorities align with enterprise needs and strategic objectives.
• Oversee engineering teams responsible for developing reusable platform services, tools, frameworks, and components that enable AI-powered products and workflows.
• Partner closely with product, data, infrastructure, security, technology, innovation, and business teams to translate enterprise requirements into scalable technical solutions.
• Drive modernization and integration initiatives that connect existing systems, products, services, and processes with AI capabilities.
• Establish effective operational support models, governance practices, monitoring mechanisms, and processes that ensure reliable and consistent delivery of AI capabilities.
• Monitor agentic AI operations, system performance, user feedback, and emerging requirements to identify opportunities for optimization and improvement.
• Identify technical risks, operational challenges, dependencies, and investment requirements, developing recommendations and mitigation strategies for senior leadership.
• Communicate platform priorities, roadmap progress, delivery status, technical risks, and investment needs clearly to executives and cross-functional stakeholders.
• Promote disciplined engineering practices that enable resilient, extensible, maintainable, and high-performing AI services.
• Lead organizational change and adoption efforts that help teams incorporate new AI capabilities into existing workflows and operating models.
• Mentor and develop engineering and product-oriented leaders, encouraging strong technical practices, collaboration, accountability, experimentation, and continuous learning.
• Connect AI platform investments and engineering decisions to measurable business value, enterprise adoption, operational efficiency, and innovation outcomes.

• Bachelor’s degree in business, engineering, computer science, data science, or a related field is required; an advanced degree is preferred.
• 8+ years of experience in AI engineering, with a strong track record of leading strategy, roadmaps, and delivery for complex digital, data, or AI-enabled products and platforms.
• Demonstrated experience working in AI- and data-driven product environments, translating business needs into scalable technical solutions and partnering with engineering teams to deliver innovative products.
• Strong understanding of AI engineering, machine learning, data-driven products, AI platforms, intelligent workflows, and enterprise technology ecosystems.
• Proven ability to lead engineering strategy and establish scalable development standards, operating models, governance practices, and technical roadmaps.
• Experience building or scaling reusable AI services, platform capabilities, tools, or components that support multiple products, teams, or business use cases.
• Strong cross-functional leadership skills, with the ability to build alignment across Engineering, Innovation, Design, Data Science, Commercial, Product, and other business functions.
• Demonstrated ability to influence senior stakeholders, communicate complex technical concepts clearly, and make informed decisions involving priorities, trade-offs, risks, and investments.
• Experience managing, mentoring, and developing product managers, technical leaders, or other junior leaders, including coaching and prioritization support.
• Strong strategic, analytical, and problem-solving skills, with the ability to connect technical decisions to business outcomes.
• Experience with AI, machine learning, data science, data governance, data quality, statistical analysis, or related disciplines is highly valuable.
• Strong change management, stakeholder engagement, mentorship, learning agility, and curiosity are important for success in this role.
• Ability to operate effectively in a rapidly evolving environment where emerging AI technologies, business requirements, and enterprise priorities continuously change.

• Base salary: $194,600–$361,400 USD per year, with final compensation determined by relevant skills, experience, and other applicable factors.
• Performance incentive: Eligibility for a performance-based cash incentive.