Director of AI Operations & Governance

Technical AI/ML Ownership

• Evaluate, benchmark, fine-tune, and adjust configurations of ML and generative AI models (including LLMs) in production.
• Apply applied AI/ML research and emerging techniques to inform build-vs-buy decisions, model selection, and architecture choices.
• Partner directly with data science and ML engineering teams on model performance issues, drift detection, and retraining or reconfiguration needs.
• Maintain technical fluency in prompt engineering, retrieval-augmented generation, agentic/orchestration frameworks, and distinctions between generative AI and traditional ML systems.

AI Sustainment & Governance

• Own AI sustainment and governance for workplace AI tools, acting as the central "run" function.
• Manage all AI-related licenses and entitlements, monitor usage, optimize allocations, and partner with Finance for cost visibility.
• Monitor production usage patterns and performance to recommend roadmap items, enhancements, and deprecations.
• Own and triage support tickets for workplace AI tools, driving resolution across vendors, engineering, and security.
• Lead continuous evaluations of AI tools and models, including monitoring drift and benchmarking performance.
• Maintain updates and security outlook for AI platforms, coordinating patches, upgrades, vulnerability remediation, and compliance.
• Orchestrate model swaps and configuration changes in production, including rollout planning, risk assessment, and monitoring.
• Design, maintain, and govern shared prompt libraries, including standards for quality, reuse, versioning, and training.
• Own management of secrets (API keys, credentials, tokens) for secure storage, rotation, and access control.
• Define and maintain connectors and extensions for reliable, secure data access in AI workflows.
• Establish and operate auditability frameworks for AI tools, including logging and traceability.
• Lead AI governance practices (policies, guardrails, usage standards, approval workflows) in partnership with Security, Legal, and HR.
• Partner with business solution and build teams to ensure deliverables meet sustainment, observability, and governance requirements.
• Define operational playbooks, SLAs, and incident response procedures for AI systems.

Leadership & Strategy

• Build, lead, and develop a team of AI operations professionals, contractors, and platform specialists.
• Set the strategic direction for AI operations and governance, translating priorities into a multi-quarter roadmap and budget.
• Provide regular status and risk updates to the VP of Workplace AI and senior leadership on adoption, reliability, governance, and cost trends.

Required Qualifications

• 15+ years in platform operations, ML/AI operations, DevOps, or SaaS sustainment roles, with significant leadership/people management experience running production systems in high-stakes environments.
• Direct, hands-on experience developing, training, fine-tuning, or evaluating machine learning models or generative AI systems.
• Working knowledge of AI/ML research practices and ability to apply current research to production decisions.
• Software engineering or data science background to engage deeply with technical teams.
• Direct experience with AI platforms or orchestration tools (e.g., LLM providers, RPA/workflow tools like n8n, enterprise SaaS integrations) and their operational management.
• Demonstrated understanding of distinct technical and operational challenges of generative AI versus traditional ML.
• Strong background in governance, compliance, or security for data-driven or AI systems.
• Experience managing licenses and cost optimization for SaaS or AI tools at scale, including budgets.
• Hands-on experience with monitoring and observability stacks to shape roadmaps.
• Strong technical fluency across APIs, connectors, and integrations.
• Proven track record building and leading high-performing teams of staff and contractors.
• Excellent executive communication skills.
• Experience operating in a hybrid environment of contractors and core team members.