Product Management - Associate Director, Product Management

ECI•Boston, MA

1d•$155,000

About The Position

An operational leadership role accountable for building and running ECI's AI Service Desk capability under the direction of the Microsoft Modern Work & AI Solutions organization. ECI is seeking a Associate Director, AI Service Desk to lead the growth, delivery, and evolution of its AI Operations organization. This leader will build the operational foundation that helps clients adopt, operate, govern, and expand their use of Microsoft 365 Copilot, Anthropic Claude Enterprise, OpenAI ChatGPT Enterprise, Copilot Studio, and future approved AI technologies. The Associate Director owns day-to-day managed AI service execution, including service performance, team leadership, escalation management, governance coordination, client value realization, service reporting, workforce planning, and continuous improvement. This is not a traditional Service Desk Manager role. The position combines service delivery leadership, customer success, AI operations, managed services, governance coordination, and team development. The Associate Director works alongside AI engineers, governance specialists, adoption resources, the Business Development Representative, Client Service, and senior AI leadership to translate client demand into reliable operational outcomes and appropriate service paths. Overall AI strategy, portfolio direction, pricing authority, and executive commercial ownership remain with the Director of Microsoft Modern Work & AI Solutions and designated leadership teams.

Requirements

Eight or more years of experience across managed services, service delivery, customer success, technical account management, professional services, Microsoft 365 operations, SaaS operations, or a comparable enterprise technology discipline.
Three or more years of people leadership, team management, service ownership, or practice leadership experience.
Demonstrated experience leading client-facing technical services and managing material escalations across multiple teams.
Experience building operating processes, service metrics, staffing models, and continuous improvement programs.
Ability to manage budgets, capacity, service performance, and financial tradeoffs.
Ability to influence across technical, commercial, governance, security, and executive stakeholders.
Strong understanding of Microsoft 365, identity and access management, enterprise SaaS operations, and AI platform support models.
Working knowledge of Microsoft 365 Copilot and familiarity with enterprise AI platforms such as Claude Enterprise and ChatGPT Enterprise.
Foundational understanding of Microsoft Purview, data protection, security, compliance, AI governance, and responsible AI concepts.
Executive-level communication, facilitation, and presentation skills.
Ability to translate business objectives into service priorities, operating requirements, and measurable outcomes.
Ability to lead difficult client conversations, restore confidence during escalations, and align stakeholders around decisions.

Nice To Haves

Leadership experience in an MSP, managed services, financial services technology, or another regulated-industry environment.
Experience launching or scaling a new managed service, operations center, customer success program, or technical practice.
Experience with Copilot Studio, Microsoft Purview, Defender for Cloud Apps, Power Platform, enterprise connectors, agents, or AI governance programs.
Microsoft 365 Certified: Administrator Expert, ITIL 4 certification, AI fundamentals certification, or comparable credentials.
Experience partnering with business development and client relationship teams to convert operational demand into qualified service opportunities.

Responsibilities

Lead daily AI Operations execution and advance operational maturity under the direction of senior AI leadership.
Establish service standards, operating procedures, escalation frameworks, service levels, and quality controls.
Own day-to-day service performance, client experience, and operational accountability across supported AI platforms.
Serve as the leadership escalation point for material client, service, vendor, or cross-functional issues.
Ensure requests are classified, routed, coordinated, communicated, and closed with a confirmed outcome.
Implement and continuously improve an operating model that keeps support inside a broader operations discipline rather than allowing the function to become a traditional help desk.
Recruit, onboard, coach, and retain AI Support Specialists, AI Operations Analysts, and future specialist roles.
Define role expectations, coverage models, career paths, competency frameworks, training plans, and certification goals.
Perform workforce planning, capacity forecasting, scheduling, and succession planning.
Create a culture of ownership, client empathy, technical curiosity, disciplined escalation, and strong documentation.
Develop team leads and senior individual contributors who can operate independently and scale the function.
Own the delivery model for managed AI services and ensure contracted commitments are executed consistently.
Oversee service review cadence, client action tracking, service roadmaps, operational backlogs, and value-realization discussions.
Coordinate priorities across AI Operations, AI Engineering, AI Deployment, AI Adoption, AI Governance, Security Operations, and Client Service.
Use operational demand, adoption patterns, governance needs, and platform changes to recommend improvements to client service plans.
Ensure the technical team recognizes when a support request represents a larger use case or service need and hands it off with useful context.
Manage the AI Operations service catalog, delivery standards, and operational boundaries, and recommend portfolio changes to senior AI leadership.
Analyze recurring client demand to identify opportunities for new managed services, projects, adoption programs, governance engagements, platform deployments, agents, integrations, or automation.
Build a repeatable opportunity-identification and handoff process with the BDR, Client Service, Sales, and delivery leaders.
Participate in strategic discovery conversations and provide operational and technical context without turning the service team into a direct sales organization.
Develop recommendations for pricing, packaging, staffing, and investment based on delivery complexity, capacity, demand, and client value; final approval remains with designated leadership.
Ensure AI governance, privacy, compliance, responsible AI, and security concerns are recognized and routed to the correct owner.
Coordinate governance escalation paths and recurring governance operating activities with the appropriate specialists.
Ensure suspected security events move immediately through established Security Operations processes.
Maintain clear boundaries between operational guidance, formal governance advice, risk acceptance, legal interpretation, and security authority.
Use trend reporting to identify emerging risk patterns and gaps in controls, documentation, ownership, or client communications.
Manage approved operating budgets, staffing plans, capacity assumptions, and service performance reporting for the function.
Monitor utilization, delivery cost, vendor dependency, service economics, and automation opportunities, and provide recommendations to senior AI leadership.
Manage operational vendor relationships and escalation paths for supported AI platforms, engaging senior leadership when executive sponsorship is required.
Use service data to guide hiring, automation, training, coverage, and portfolio decisions.
Drive continuous improvement across knowledge management, self-service, reporting, standardization, and release readiness.