Associate Director (Strategic AI Innovation & Program Lead)

Job description

Responsibilities About the AI Innovation Lab The AI Innovation Lab enables rapid testing of new AI ideas to validate their technical feasibility and business value. A critical input into this process is strong outside‑in research—understanding market trends, emerging technologies, competitor moves, and evolving best practices to ensure the Lab’s backlog and POCs are forward‑looking, relevant, and strategically aligned. Role Overview : This role leads the end-to-end AI innovation engine, connecting enterprise strategy to rapid experimentation and measurable business outcomes. Responsible for translating executive priorities into a prioritized AI portfolio, orchestrating cross-functional teams through rapid innovation cycles, and ensuring concepts move from ideation to POC to execution at a rapid pace. Operates at the intersection of business strategy, operating model design, and AI delivery, ensuring that innovation is not isolated but embedded into how the organization drives growth, efficiency, and transformation. Requires simultaneous fluency in strategy, finance, and AI delivery (not sequential handoffs) Must drive executive alignment and funding decisions in parallel with experimentation Owns portfolio-level value realization, not just individual use cases Balances speed (weeks) with governance and enterprise integration Aligned with emerging AI trends and agentic patterns in the market to bring this expertise to the innovation lab What…