Sr Director / Director, AI Engineering & Adoption

Our client is seeking a highly skilled and entrepreneurial Senior Director / Director, AI Engineering & Adoption to lead the practical implementation and enterprise-wide adoption of artificial intelligence across a growing organization. This is a unique opportunity for a hands-on leader who can bridge the gap between AI strategy and real-world business outcomes. Reporting directly to the CTO, you will be responsible for transforming AI from isolated experiments and pilot programs into a secure, governed, scalable, and repeatable way of working. This role combines the responsibilities of AI platform owner, solution builder, change leader, educator, and business partner. Success requires both technical depth and the ability to influence how people work. You will build AI-enabled solutions, establish adoption frameworks, create reusable assets, train users, and help embed AI into everyday business operations.

The ideal candidate is equally comfortable building AI applications, leading workshops with business users, partnering with Information Security and governance teams, and presenting progress directly to executive leadership.

This is a rare opportunity to shape and lead enterprise AI adoption from the ground up. You will partner directly with executive leadership, influence organizational strategy, build impactful solutions, and help define how AI transforms the future of work within a growing organization.
If you're passionate about combining AI innovation, hands-on engineering, business transformation, and user adoption, we'd love to hear from you.
Compensation for this role varies by experience, with a base salary ranging from $170,000 to $220,000 and total compensation ranging from $265,000 to $300,000. The client is unable to provide sponsorship at this time, so only U.S. citizens or Green Card holders should apply.

• Senior Director / Director, AI Engineering & Adoption
• Location: Chicago, IL preferred (Hybrid); Remote considered for exceptional candidates with periodic travel
• Reports To: Chief Technology Officer (CTO)
• Function: Technology / AI Enablement
• Leadership Scope: Senior individual contributor and player-coach with broad enterprise influence; opportunity to build and lead a team as the function matures
• Industry Experience: Insurance, Financial Services, Healthcare, or other regulated industries preferred

What You'll Do
AI Engineering & Solution Development

• Design, build, and deploy AI-powered applications, workflows, copilots, assistants, and automation solutions that solve meaningful business problems.
• Develop and support LLM-based applications, retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) solutions, agentic workflows, and AI-enabled business processes.
• Define technical requirements and translate ambiguous business needs into scalable AI solutions.
• Partner closely with Information Security, Architecture, and Governance teams to establish secure, compliant, and responsible AI practices.
• Create reusable AI components, prompt frameworks, templates, libraries, and development patterns that accelerate future adoption.
• Ensure solutions meet enterprise standards for reliability, governance, security, and regulatory compliance.
• Drive integration across cloud platforms, workflow orchestration tools, enterprise applications, data platforms, and collaboration environments.

AI Adoption & Change Leadership

• Serve as the primary advocate and evangelist for AI adoption across both business and technology teams.
• Work directly with employees, managers, and leaders to identify opportunities where AI can improve productivity, accuracy, decision quality, and efficiency.
• Lead organizational change efforts that encourage the adoption of new AI-enabled ways of working.
• Create training programs, learning pathways, workshops, demonstrations, office hours, hackathons, and user communities.
• Build and support networks of AI champions across departments.
• Diagnose barriers to adoption and develop practical solutions that drive sustained usage.
• Meet users where they work by understanding existing processes and identifying opportunities for improvement.

AI Operating Model & Enablement

• Develop and maintain reusable enablement assets including: Prompt libraries, Playbooks, Standard operating procedures, Knowledge articles, Training materials, Workflow templates, AI best practices, and User guides and examples
• Establish standards for responsible and effective AI usage throughout the organization.
• Help create a repeatable model for scaling AI capabilities across functions and teams.
• Support governance processes that balance innovation, risk management, and business value.

Business Outcomes & Value Realization

• Measure and report adoption, engagement, utilization, and business outcomes.
• Track key performance indicators including productivity gains, workflow improvements, time savings, and operational efficiencies.
• Translate technical progress into executive-level insights and recommendations.
• Partner with business leaders to prioritize use cases that deliver measurable organizational value.
• Ensure AI initiatives directly support strategic business objectives and operational growth.

Executive Partnership

• Serve as a trusted advisor to the CTO and senior leadership team on AI opportunities, risks, priorities, and capabilities.
• Provide ongoing updates regarding adoption trends, technology roadmaps, implementation progress, and value delivery.
• Help shape the organization's long-term AI strategy and execution approach.

Required Qualifications

• 8+ years of experience in software engineering, automation, AI, machine learning, data platforms, or related disciplines.
• Demonstrated hands-on experience building and deploying AI-enabled business solutions.
• Experience developing LLM applications, generative AI solutions, RAG architectures, AI agents, or workflow automation platforms.
• Proven success driving adoption of new technologies across an enterprise environment.
• Strong understanding of modern AI platforms, cloud technologies, APIs, orchestration frameworks, and enterprise software development practices.
• Experience working with Information Security, Compliance, Risk, Legal, or Governance teams.
• Strong communication and stakeholder management skills, including experience presenting to senior executives.
• Ability to balance technical execution with organizational change management.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience in insurance, financial services, healthcare, or other highly regulated industries.
• Familiarity with responsible AI practices, model governance frameworks, and risk management methodologies.
• Experience with Microsoft 365 Copilot, Azure AI services, enterprise knowledge management, workflow automation, or similar technologies.
• Knowledge of enterprise data governance, security, compliance, and observability solutions.
• Experience building AI enablement programs, training frameworks, and adoption communities.

The Solomon Page Distinction

Our teams, comprised of subject matter experts, develop an interest in your preferences and goals and we act as an advisor for your career advancement. Solomon Page has an extensive network of established clients which allows us to present opportunities that are well-suited to your respective goals and needs – this specialized approach sets us apart in the industries we serve.

About Solomon Page

Founded in 1990, Solomon Page is a specialty niche provider of staffing and executive search solutions across a wide array of functions and industries. The success of Solomon Page reflects an organic growth strategy supported by a highly entrepreneurial culture. Acting as a strategic partner to our clients and candidates, we focus on providing customized solutions and building long-term relationships based on trust, respect, and the consistent delivery of excellent results. For more information and additional opportunities, visit: solomonpage.com and connect with us on Facebook, and LinkedIn.

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