Director, Applied AI Engineering [US - Remote]
CDK

Preferred Location(s):

• Near Austin, TX
• Near Hoffman Estates, IL
• Open to US-Remote for right candidate

CDK is on a mission to transform into a Data-driven and AI-First Company. The CDK Global technology team is looking for a strong AI leader to make our AI vision successful by delivering innovative AI solutions embedded within our core products to provide value to our customers.

We are seeking an experienced AI Engineering leader with a customer-centric mindset, a solid background in innovation, creating and implementing AI/ML solutions, driving growth and collaborating across the company to expedite incubation, development and delivery of new AI/ML based business capabilities across our core products.

In this role, you will be responsible for driving applied AI solutions embedded in products in collaboration with product and technology leaders across the company. You will have the opportunity to work closely with product leaders throughout the organization to identify challenges that can be addressed through innovative AI/ML-based solutions and collaborate with our internal teams and customers to deliver those solutions through iterative value creation.

In this role, you will lead the following critical areas for the successful delivery of AI/ML solutions for our businesses:

1) AI/ML Innovation and Delivery - Lead a team of skilled data engineers, ML engineers, and data scientists to develop innovative AI/ML models using our data and AI platform capabilities. This includes product ideation, design, development, MVP creation, and deploying scalable AI solutions to production.

2) AI Value Engineering - Foster a culture of value engineering-based AI solution development to drive innovation within CDK. This involves customer discovery, MVP scope development and defining business value KPIs.

3) MLOps - Operationalize MLOps and implement best practices, along with required tools and technologies for ML operations. This includes model governance, model tuning, optimization, and ensuring the delivery of AI models with high precision and efficacy.

Your role will involve serving as the Subject Matter Expert on Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning disciplines. You will provide thought leadership on emerging topics and trends, while collaborating with product teams across CDK to establish and deliver AI roadmaps across multiple focus areas such as FixedOps, Modern Retailing, and Accounting. Through collaboration and success across the enterprise, we aim to optimize productivity and efficiency and provide a great customer experience.

The AI Engineering leader we are seeking is a transformative, collaborative, and inspirational leader with deep expertise and a passion for leading and inspiring cross-functional teams to solve business challenges, create solutions, and deliver business value.

At CDK, there are significant growth potential, flexibility, and the opportunity to make a material impact on the success and quality of next-gen solutions. This makes CDK an excellent choice for those who thrive in challenging, fast-paced engineering environments. The possibilities for impact are endless, and we have exceptional opportunities to evolve our industry by driving change through modern technologies.

Responsibilities and Essential Functions:

• You will establish and lead the AI Value Engineering and AI Center of Excellence at CDK through close collaboration across product engineering, data science, product management, platform engineering, and software engineering. The focus of the AI Value Engineering and CoE is to accelerate the impact of AI/ML across CDK's businesses to enhance our customers' experience, make our products more intelligent.
• You will build and lead a strong team to develop, deploy and manage state of art AI/ML models in production which include classic ML, and Large Language Models/GenAI.
• You will be an effective evangelist of AI and ML, helping executives and stakeholders understand the capabilities and potential value of AI/ML as well as its limitations. Leveraging a team of dedicated product managers, you will oversee the manifestation of AI roadmaps for the various focus areas across CDK's businesses. To do this you'll work closely with executives and relevant business units, providing ideas and insights to identify opportunities where ML solutions can drive meaningful business results. Part of this will include insights into build vs buy decision making.
• You will play a crucial role in determining which technologies, services, toolkits, data structures, and methodologies should be utilized to effectively achieve AI objectives.
• Success in this role means effectively driving the company's business metrics through consistent execution of AI initiatives.

Qualifications:

• Bachelor's, master's in computer science, Electrical Engineering, MBA or related fields
• 7+ years comprehensive advanced analytics, research, modeling/data science or relevant experience
• Leadership experiences in leading artificial intelligence and machine learning teams on a variety of business impacting areas that enabled innovation and business outcomes.
• A strong record in delivering machine learning and/or data products including defining ML problems, identifying data strategy, building AI/ML MVP and scaling/production of a prototype to full-scale production.
• Experience leading and executing cross functional projects with remote and distributed teams and vendor partners. Familiarity and proficiency with agile methods and tools to support project management in a timeline sensitive environment.

Required Skills for Success:

• A strong understanding of the technical aspects of AI/ML and business needs. Ability to bridge the gap between business and technology with respect to artificial intelligence.
• Ability to go deep technically on which AI methodologies are best suited to specific business and customer problems, as well as elevate your thinking to consider business and strategic implications.
• Ability to facilitate thoughtful and constructive conversations within and outside the team with an ability to communicate complex ideas effectively.
• Enjoys making difficult things happen, leading the way in doing things for the first time, changing current ways of working and solving the many challenges along the way.
• Strong analytical skills to effectively create recommendations, influence decision- making, assess impacts, compare solutions, problem solve, and achieve business and/or technical objectives.
• Ability to learn quickly (technology, business models, target industries)
• Entrepreneurial spirit and a vibrant personality
• Strategic orientation with an attention to detail
• Structured thinking, ability to remove ambiguity and work under pressure.
• Proficiency to work closely and collaboratively with multiple departments and executives, and in cross-functional teams.
• High accountability when it comes to meeting deadlines and ship dates, and ability to lead numerous projects simultaneously under time constraints.
• Provides leadership and vision for development and implementation of Artificial Intelligence.
• Sets and drives cross-functional objectives and priorities and forms a vision for the future of the enterprise.
• Effectively influences across multiple teams, senior leaders, organizations, and/or enterprise.
• Demonstrates the vision and thought leadership necessary to set broad technical direction and can communicate/articulate a clear vision of services.
• Influences all levels and contributes to the transformation agenda.
• Leads functional objectives and priorities across multiple platforms, technologies and teams

Salary Range: $190,000 - $230,000

At CDK, we believe inclusion and diversity are essential in inspiring meaningful connections to our people, customers, and communities. We are open, curious and encourage different views, so that everyone can be their best selves and make an impact.

CDK is an Equal Opportunity Employer committed to creating an inclusive workforce where everyone is valued. Qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, creed, ancestry, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, marital status, creed or religion, age, disability (including pregnancy), results of genetic testing, service in the military, veteran status or any other category protected by law.

CDK Global is committed to fair and equitable compensation practices. Compensation packages are based on several factors, including but not limited to skills, experience, certifications, and work location. The total compensation package for this position may also include annual performance bonus, benefits and/or other applicable incentive compensation plans.We offer Medical, dental, and vision benefits in addition to:

• Paid Time Off (PTO)
  
• 401K Matching Program
  
• Tuition Reimbursement
  

At CDK, we believe inclusion and diversity are essential in inspiring meaningful connections to our people, customers and communities. We are open, curious and encourage different views, so that everyone can be their best selves and make an impact.

CDK is an Equal Opportunity Employer committed to creating an inclusive workforce where everyone is valued. Qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, creed, ancestry, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, marital status, creed or religion, age, disability (including pregnancy), results of genetic testing, service in the military, veteran status or any other category protected by law.

Applicants for employment in the US must be authorized to work in the US. CDK may offer employer visa sponsorship to applicants.

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