HiringCafe
Posted 3w ago

Head of AI

@ PennEngineering
View All Jobs
Waterford, Michigan, United States
OnsiteFull Time
Responsibilities:Own roadmap, Lead processes, Score automation
Requirements Summary:7–12 years in tech/ops/strategy; BS in engineering/science; experience with AI/ML, ROI-driven programs; 2–5 people leadership; manufacturing/industrial exposure; ERP familiarity; advanced degree preferred.
Save
Mark Applied
Hide Job
Report & Hide
Job Description

Position Summary   

The Head of AI for the Business Unit is the senior leader responsible for the BU’s AI strategy and execution, with a mandate to convert AI capability into measurable business performance. Reporting to the BU President, this role owns the BU’s AI roadmap end-to-end: from mapping the BU’s processes, to scoring automation opportunities by ROI and feasibility, to building and deploying AI-powered solutions, to driving adoption and measuring the resulting business impact across productivity, quality, speed, margin, and decision-making.

This is a hands-on leadership role. The Head of AI manages a small team of Forward Deployed Engineers (FDEs) embedded in the BU’s departments, partners with the central AI Enablement function at corporate for platform support, and engages with the company-wide AI Steering Committee on cross-BU patterns. We are looking for a leader senior enough to be credible with the BU President and to operate a function independently — but hands-on enough to spend meaningful time on the shop floor, in the data, and in front of users.

Key Responsibilities & Essential Functions

  • Own the BU’s AI roadmap, accountable to the BU President for measurable business impact across growth, margin, productivity, quality, speed, and decision-making
  • Lead the BU’s end-to-end process mapping effort — building the complete inventory of departmental processes that serves as the funnel for AI applications
  • Score and prioritize automation candidates by ROI, feasibility, adoption readiness, data availability, and business criticality; defend prioritization decisions to BU leadership
  • Recruit, manage, and develop a team of department-level Forward Deployed Engineers — initially 1–3 per BU onshore/offshore, scaling with demonstrated readiness
  • Build and deploy AI applications using Claude and other approved tools; design measurement frameworks to track impact per application, including baseline, expected benefit, user adoption, and realized business impact
  • Drive enterprise AI tool adoption across the BU; serve as the local champion and trainer
  • Partner with the central AI Enablement function (corporate IT) for tools, data access, vendor agreements, governance, cybersecurity, and responsible AI standards — escalating blockers through the company’s Unblock queue
  • Represent the BU in the company-wide AI Steering Committee on cross-BU patterns, shared learnings, and structural improvements
  • Track and report against KPIs: percent of BU processes mapped, percent automated by milestone, business impact per deployed application, adoption by target users, Finance-validated business impact, and scalability of deployed application