Sr Manager/ Director, AI and Data Product

Title: Sr Manager/ Director, AI and Data Products
Location: Remote (US based)
Type: Contract through EOY (high chance of conversion to full time for candidates located in/or willing to relocate to Chicago or Boston)

Role Overview

We are seeking a Senior Manager / Director-level individual contributor to partner directly with executive leadership to establish and scale an Enterprise AI Center of Excellence (AI COE) . This role will help define the strategy, governance, and operating model that enables AI adoption across the organization while ensuring responsible, scalable deployment of AI technologies.

Working closely with the VP of AI and senior stakeholders across technology, data, and business teams, this leader will design and operationalize enterprise-wide AI frameworks, intake processes, and governance models to accelerate high-value AI initiatives. This role will serve as the central orchestrator for AI innovation and enablement , ensuring AI solutions are aligned with business priorities, delivered responsibly, and scaled effectively across the enterprise.

This is a high-impact, strategic individual contributor role responsible for shaping the organization's AI operating model and enabling multiple teams to successfully adopt AI capabilities.

Key Responsibilities

Enterprise AI Strategy

• Partner with executive leadership to design and operationalize an Enterprise AI Center of Excellence
• Define the AI operating model, governance framework, and best practices for enterprise-wide AI adoption
• Develop enterprise AI strategy roadmaps aligned with organizational priorities and digital transformation initiatives
• Establish frameworks for identifying, prioritizing, and scaling AI use cases across the business
• Build reusable patterns, reference architectures, and playbooks for AI product development and deployment

AI Use Case Intake & Portfolio Management

• Lead the enterprise AI use case intake process, partnering with business units to evaluate opportunities
• Define prioritization frameworks to identify high-impact AI initiatives
• Manage a portfolio of AI initiatives across multiple business functions
• Develop business cases and value realization frameworks for AI investments

AI Governance, Risk & Responsible AI

• Establish AI governance standards, guardrails, and model lifecycle frameworks
• Partner with legal, security, and compliance teams to implement responsible AI and model governance policies
• Define processes for model monitoring, evaluation, and lifecycle management
• Ensure enterprise AI initiatives adhere to regulatory, ethical, and operational standards

Enterprise Enablement & Adoption

• Develop playbooks, toolkits, and frameworks to enable teams to build and deploy AI solutions consistently
• Support the rollout of enterprise LLM tools, agentic AI capabilities, and emerging AI platforms
• Drive internal education and enablement initiatives to accelerate AI literacy and adoption
• Establish success metrics and measurement frameworks for enterprise AI initiatives

Cross-Functional Collaboration

• Act as the central coordination point for AI initiatives across data, engineering, product, and business teams
• Partner with platform, cloud, and data teams to align AI initiatives with enterprise architecture
• Collaborate with Agile delivery teams to support AI implementation and execution
• Provide clear communication and updates to executive stakeholders

Required Qualifications

Must-Haves

• 10 years of experience in AI, data product management, or digital transformation roles
• Experience operating in large enterprise environments
• Demonstrated experience launching or scaling AI/ML programs or platforms
• Strong understanding of the machine learning lifecycle, including model development, deployment, and monitoring
• Experience working with cloud-based AI ecosystems (Azure preferred)
• Proven ability to partner with senior leadership and executive stakeholders
• Experience developing AI governance frameworks and operational processes
• Strong strategic thinking and ability to operate independently in ambiguous environments

Nice-to-Haves

• Experience building or operating a Center of Excellence (COE) or enterprise capability model
• Exposure to LLMs, generative AI, and agentic AI systems
• Experience with enterprise AI platforms and model serving infrastructure
• Familiarity with Kubernetes, model orchestration frameworks, or MLOps platforms
• Experience implementing enterprise AI transformation initiatives
• Background in AI-driven business transformation or revenue-generating AI products