AI Innovation & Portfolio Lead

Year Up United • Atlanta, GA

2d • Hybrid

About The Position

Year Up United is hiring an AI Innovation & Portfolio Lead within its Product & Design team, part of Transformation & Technology (TnT). The role owns the organization-wide operating picture of AI initiatives and the process for turning business problems into tested pilots. It identifies worthwhile problems, designs and runs low-cost experiments, makes evidence-based go/kill decisions, and prepares successful pilots for handoff to technical AI build capability and agile delivery teams for production scaling. It is explicitly not a project-management or technical-build role.

The Lead co-chairs the Strategic AI Leadership (SAIL) governance group, manages AI use-case intake, and maintains a trusted portfolio view covering initiative status, cost, adoption, outcomes, and readiness to graduate. The role also builds organizational AI fluency by leading biweekly skill shares and co-leading the national AI Champions network, while monitoring AI developments and translating relevant external trends into strategic implications for Year Up United.

The role partners across program, partnerships, marketing, Development, and operations, brings a workforce-development perspective to AI decisions, and mentors a small group of current students through weekly group sessions and participation in the broader Learning Community. It is a hybrid position requiring regular in-person engagement and occasional travel to Year Up United sites. Starting January 5, 2026, employees are expected to work on-site at least two days per week, Monday through Thursday depending on job requirements. Candidates must live and work in a state where Year Up United operates or an approved proximate state.

Requirements

• At least 5–7 years of experience in product management, portfolio management, innovation, or digital transformation; strong portfolio or operations backgrounds paired with a genuine drive to innovate are welcomed.
• Experience building and maintaining portfolio views, operating dashboards, or initiative roll-ups that leaders rely on for decisions.
• Demonstrated track record of standing up pilots or prototypes and making evidence-based go/kill decisions.
• Deep, current fluency in AI and the ability to distinguish real capabilities from hype without needing to be an engineer.
• Genuine passion for AI, including active experimentation with new tools and interest in how they can transform services for students and staff.
• Comfort operating amid ambiguity and lean experimentation, with a bias toward running multiple low-cost tests.
• Strong facilitation and stakeholder skills, including the ability to engage senior leaders and run a vendor pilot.
• Ability to partner with technical builders and agile delivery teams to move validated work into production.
• Senior-operator capability and comfort leading through influence without a dedicated team.
• Experience building or scaling a community of practice, ambassador program, or distributed change network across a complex organization.
• Ability to track and synthesize external AI developments and translate them into strategic implications for a mission-driven organization.
• Understanding of workforce development, skills-based hiring, or economic mobility, or a genuine drive to develop that understanding quickly.
• Passion for Year Up United’s mission and belief in the potential of young adults navigating the Opportunity Divide.
• Must live within a reasonable commuting distance to a Year Up United location and be eligible to live and work in a state where the organization operates or an approved proximate state.
• Commitment to diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging.

Nice To Haves

• Proficiency with Salesforce or a similar ecosystem.
• Experience in nonprofit, education, or workforce development environments.
• Prior experience presenting to senior leaders or an executive/governance committee.

Responsibilities

• Maintain a current, trusted portfolio view of every AI initiative, including status, cost, adoption, outcomes, and readiness to graduate.
• Move AI use cases from intake through discovery to clear, evidence-based go/kill decisions.
• Run discovery with people closest to the work to identify valuable problems and design fast, low-cost pilots to test them.
• Orchestrate experiments using flexible resourcing such as contractors, vendor pilots, and borrowed capacity rather than a standing team.
• Evaluate pilots against validated learning and defined milestones, retire unsuccessful pilots quickly and cheaply, and prepare validated pilots for scaled builds.
• Surface portfolio insights that inform prioritization and investment decisions, including what each initiative has taught the organization.
• Co-chair the Strategic AI Leadership (SAIL) governance group and own its AI use-case intake and triage process.
• Bring SAIL the pipeline and evidence needed to decide which pilots should graduate to a production build.
• Apply a workforce-development perspective to AI decisions, considering opportunity talent, employer expectations, and the students served.
• Lead biweekly AI skill shares (Lunch & Learns) to build cross-organizational AI fluency, encourage safe experimentation, and identify independently developed use cases.
• Co-lead and manage the national AI Champions program; set the strategy for recruiting, developing, and activating Champions.
• Create shared resources, playbooks, and peer-learning infrastructure for Champions, and track program health through participation, use-case volume, and the quality of use cases surfaced to SAIL.
• Represent the Champions program to senior leadership as an indicator of organizational AI fluency and culture.
• Partner across program, partnerships, marketing, Development, and operations to surface opportunities and reflect the full scope of Year Up United’s work.
• Monitor AI tools, models, capabilities, major releases, philanthropic investments, policy developments, and sector initiatives; brief internal leaders on relevant developments.
• Identify opportunities to position Year Up United’s AI work in national conversations and funding moments.
• Hand successful pilots to technical AI build capability and agile delivery teams with a clean transition from validated pilot to durable scaled solution.
• Coach and mentor a small group of current students and participate in weekly group sessions, staff meetings, and training as part of the Learning Community.
• Perform other duties as assigned.

Benefits

• Comprehensive healthcare options and dental coverage.
• 401(k) match for eligible participants.
• Three weeks of paid vacation in the first year of employment and four weeks after the initial year.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Senior
• Education Level: No Education Listed