Director of AI/ML (Databricks)

Position Overview: We are seeking a strategic and hands-on Director of AI/ML with deep Databricks and Azure experience to lead enterprise AI initiatives. This role will own the technical vision, delivery, and operationalization of AI/ML solutions across the organization, driving adoption of Databricks, CoPilot-enabled workflows, and best-practice MLOps. The Director will manage a team of engineers and data scientists, partner with product and business stakeholders, and establish governance, tooling, and cloud-native practices to deliver scalable, secure, and impactful AI solutions.

Key Responsibilities: Provide technical and strategic leadership for AI/ML programs, owning architecture, roadmap, and outcomes across Databricks and Azure environments. Lead, mentor, and grow a multidisciplinary team of ML engineers, data scientists, and MLOps practitioners; set goals, manage performance, and recruit talent. Design, implement, and operationalize end-to-end ML lifecycle pipelines using Databricks, MLflow, and Azure services to ensure reproducible, monitored, and scalable deployments. Drive adoption and integration of CoPilot and other developer-assist tools to accelerate model development, code generation, and productivity. Partner closely with product, security, and business stakeholders to translate business priorities into measurable AI initiatives and production solutions. Establish and enforce AI governance, model risk management, and data privacy practices to ensure compliance, fairness, and explainability of models. Evaluate and introduce advanced AI capabilities including generative AI, agentic AI patterns, and vector databases where they deliver clear business value. Own deployment, monitoring, and incident management for production ML systems; implement robust observability, testing, and rollback strategies. Collaborate with cloud infrastructure and DevOps teams to optimize cost, performance, and security in Azure and Databricks environments. Champion best practices for MLOps, reproducible experiments, model versioning, and operational automation across the organization.

Qualifications: Proven experience leading AI/ML teams and programs, including hands-on experience with Databricks in production environments (required). Strong expertise with Microsoft Azure ML and cloud services, delivering scalable, secure AI solutions (required). Demonstrated experience using CoPilot or similar developer-assist tools to improve productivity and code quality (required). Proven people management and program management skills ability to hire, mentor, prioritize, and deliver cross-functional projects (required). Deep understanding of the ML lifecycle and MLOps practices, including MLflow, model versioning, CI/CD for ML, monitoring, and reproducibility. Experience with generative AI models, vector databases, and agentic AI patterns, and a track record of evaluating new AI technologies for production use. Familiarity with AI governance, model risk, privacy, and explainability frameworks and their practical implementation. Excellent communication and stakeholder management skills; able to translate technical trade-offs for executives and business partners. Bachelor's or Master's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Data Science, or a related field, or equivalent practical experience.

Nice-to-have: experience with RPA/Power Automate, prior Director of AI role, Databricks AI offerings, and hands-on exposure to vector DBs, advanced generative AI systems, and Power Automate/RPA tools.

Benefits: Medical Dental Vision 401k w/ match PTO Hybrid flex HSA FSA Tuition Reimbursement Programs