Associate Director, AI & Innovation Solutions

Position Summary

The Associate Director, AI & Innovation Solutions serves as the strategic bridge between business stakeholders and enterprise enablement partners, including Technology, AI Centre of Excellence (CoE), Enterprise Architecture, Information Security, Privacy, Risk, Legal, Compliance, and external technology providers. The role is accountable for identifying, shaping, and advancing AI, Agentic AI, Intelligent Automation, and innovation opportunities that deliver measurable business value.

The incumbent will establish, lead, and continuously mature the AI & Innovation Solutions practice by translating business priorities into actionable technology initiatives, while ensuring alignment with enterprise standards, governance frameworks, and risk management requirements. Acting as a trusted advisor and innovation partner, the role will help business leaders understand emerging technologies, identify high-value use cases, assess feasibility, and guide initiatives from concept through implementation and operationalization.

The position will serve as the primary point of coordination and accountability for AI-related initiatives within the portfolio, bringing together business teams and key enterprise partners to evaluate opportunities, navigate governance processes, resolve dependencies, and accelerate responsible adoption. Success in this role requires the ability to translate complex business challenges into solution opportunities and, conversely, communicate technical concepts in a business-relevant and understandable manner.

A key responsibility of the role is to work closely with business stakeholders and enterprise partners to validate opportunities, develop business cases, assess risks, and advance viable concepts into implementation-ready initiatives.

In addition, the Associate Director will provide leadership and oversight for the Power Platform and Innovation Solutions portfolio, including Power Apps, Power Automate, Copilot technologies, AI Agents, Agentic AI solutions, intake and demand management, governance, delivery coordination, and operational support. The role will ensure solutions are aligned with business objectives, enterprise technology strategies, and responsible AI principles while maximizing organizational productivity, employee experience, operational efficiency, and business outcomes.

AI Strategy & Innovation Leadership

Key Responsibilities

Develop and execute the AI and Innovation Solutions strategy and roadmap.
Establish a long-term vision for AI, Agentic AI, automation, and emerging technologies.
Identify opportunities where AI and innovation can improve business processes, employee productivity, client experience, and operational efficiency.
Evaluate emerging technologies, industry trends, vendor capabilities, and competitive developments.
Assess and recommend opportunities involving Generative AI, Agentic AI, AI Agents, intelligent automation, copilots, and autonomous workflows.
Create and maintain an innovation framework that balances experimentation with appropriate governance and risk controls.
Advise senior leaders on strategic AI investments, implementation priorities, and innovation opportunities.
Drive a culture of innovation, curiosity, experimentation, and continuous improvement.

AI Opportunity Assessment & Business Consulting

Key Responsibilities

Lead AI opportunity intake, discovery, assessment, and prioritization activities.
Facilitate business workshops, interviews, and discovery sessions.
Analyze business challenges and identify opportunities for AI-driven solutions.
Develop business cases, cost-benefit analyses, and value realization plans.
Assess solution feasibility, scalability, implementation complexity, and organizational readiness.
Evaluate business, operational, regulatory, technology, and reputational risks.
Act as a trusted advisor to business leaders navigating AI opportunities.
Develop executive recommendations and implementation strategies.

Innovation Incubation, Agentic AI & Proof of Concept Development

Key Responsibilities

Establish and lead an AI innovation and incubation function within the team.
Design, build, and execute proof-of-concepts, rapid prototypes, business-led pilots, and technology experiments.
Develop lightweight solutions to validate ideas and business value prior to formal project initiation.
Explore and assess Agentic AI capabilities, AI Agents, copilot solutions, and autonomous workflows.
Build and evaluate AI-driven concepts using approved enterprise tools and platforms.
Conduct solution trials with business stakeholders to determine viability and readiness for enterprise adoption.
Validate user experience, process impacts, operational requirements, and expected business outcomes.
Prepare recommendations on whether initiatives should proceed, be refined, or be discontinued.
Partner with technology teams to transition successful prototypes into enterprise delivery and production environments.
Create repeatable innovation assessment and incubation methodologies.

AI Governance, Compliance & Risk Management

Key Responsibilities

Establish governance frameworks, standards, controls, and operating procedures for AI initiatives.
Lead AI due diligence and assessment activities.
Ensure compliance with enterprise AI governance requirements and responsible AI principles.
Coordinate reviews with Legal, Compliance, Information Security, Privacy, Risk Management, Enterprise Architecture, and Procurement partners.
Evaluate implementation risks and establish mitigation strategies.
Support audits, governance reviews, regulatory assessments, and control validation processes.
Define standards for responsible deployment of AI Agents and autonomous capabilities.
Ensure appropriate human oversight, transparency, escalation paths, and operational controls are established for AI-enabled solutions.

AI Program & Portfolio Management

Key Responsibilities

Lead the end-to-end AI and Innovation Solutions port