Director, AI Foundations Engineering

This position is listed on behalf of a partner company, who manages all applications and next steps. Our partner is looking for a Director, AI Foundations Engineering based in the United States. This is a senior engineering leadership role responsible for building the technical foundation that enables enterprise-scale agentic AI products and intelligent workflows. You will shape engineering strategy, architecture, development practices, operations, and continuous improvement across a rapidly evolving AI environment. The role focuses on creating secure, scalable, reliable, and reusable AI capabilities that can transform existing processes, products, and services. You’ll lead engineering teams while partnering closely with product, data, infrastructure, security, technology, and business stakeholders. A key part of the role will be modernizing existing systems and integrating them with emerging AI capabilities to accelerate innovation and measurable business outcomes. You’ll establish engineering standards, governance models, operating processes, and reusable platform services that support sustainable enterprise adoption. This remote US opportunity offers significant technical influence and the chance to shape how agentic AI is engineered and deployed at organizational scale. Lead the design, development, operation, and continuous improvement of the foundational AI capabilities supporting agentic AI use cases and intelligent workflows. Define and implement an agentic AI foundation, including engineering standards, development practices, operating models, and technical approaches that promote scalability, reliability, repeatability, security, and continuous improvement. Establish a clear engineering strategy and roadmap for core AI capabilities, ensuring priorities align with enterprise needs and strategic objectives. Oversee engineering teams responsible for developing reusable platform services, tools, frameworks, and components that enable AI-powered products and workflows. Partner closely with product, data, infrastructure, security, technology, innovation, and business teams to translate enterprise requirements into scalable technical solutions. Drive modernization and integration initiatives that connect existing systems, products, services, and processes with AI capabilities. Establish effective operational support models, governance practices, monitoring mechanisms, and processes that ensure reliable and consistent delivery of AI capabilities. Monitor agentic AI operations, system performance, user feedback, and emerging requirements to identify opportunities for optimization and improvement. Identify technical risks, operational challenges, dependencies, and investment requirements, developing recommendations and mitigation strategies for senior leadership. Communicate platform priorities, roadmap progress, delivery status, technical risks, and investment needs clearly to executives and cross-functional stakeholders. Promote disciplined engineering practices that enable resilient, extensible, maintainable, and high-performing AI services. Lead organizational change and adoption efforts that help teams incorporate new AI capabilities into existing workflows and operating models. Mentor and develop engineering and product-oriented leaders, encouraging strong technical practices, collaboration, accountability, experimentation, and continuous learning. Connect AI platform investments and engineering decisions to measurable business value, enterprise adoption, operational efficiency, and innovation outcomes. Requirements: Bachelor’s degree in business, engineering, computer science, data science, or a related field is required; an advanced degree is preferred. 8+ years of experience in AI engineering, with a strong track record of leading strategy, roadmaps, and delivery for complex digital, data, or AI-enabled products and platforms. Demonstrated experience working in AI- and data-driven product environments, translating bus