Chief Product Officer - AI Optimization

Ford • Dearborn, MI

12h • Hybrid

About The Position

We are seeking a strategic, outcomes‑driven leader to establish and scale an AI Products Center of Excellence — a horizontal capability responsible for transforming how the organization prioritizes, governs, and delivers AI-enabled business value. This role is designed for a senior leader with experience shaping enterprise operating models, guiding portfolio transformation, and embedding product discipline within large, matrixed organizations. The ideal candidate blends consulting-level strategic framing with hands-on experience implementing new practices, enabling them to move seamlessly between executive alignment, structured problem-solving, and delivery oversight.

Requirements

• Experience designing and implementing organization-wide operating models in product, digital, or AI contexts.
• Demonstrated ability to bring order and structure to ambiguous environments.
• Expertise in creating portfolio frameworks, prioritization models, value realization structures, and roadmap harmonization.
• Proven ability to align executives, engineering, product, design, and business stakeholders around shared goals.
• Experience navigating organizational silos and building coalitions across large enterprises.
• Strong background in design thinking, journey mapping, or service blueprinting to connect business needs to product strategy.
• Comfortable shaping high-level narratives for C-suite leaders, guiding strategic decisions, and translating complexity into clarity.
• Experience standing up new functions, playbooks, frameworks, or CoEs-especially in digital, product, or data contexts.
• 10+ years of professional experience.
• BS or equivalent degree.

Nice To Haves

• MS, MBA or equivalent business degree.
• Design Thinking, Problem Solving, or Human Centered Design certifications.
• Product Management: Agile/SCRUM CSPO, PSPO, Six Sigma Black Belt, Certified Product Manager, Product Strategy.
• Experience in both consulting and industry leadership roles.
• Background in the business implementation of AI platforms, data modernization, or advanced analytics products.
• Experience in dealer ecosystems, connected customer experience, or large operational networks.

Responsibilities

• Establish the AI Product CoE from the ground up, defining the mission, operating model, governance design, and engagement model.
• Create repeatable practices that scale across the enterprise, informed by best-in-class product operating frameworks and organizational design principles.
• Develop a single, unified AI product portfolio with consistent granularity, strategic alignment, and transparent prioritization.
• Implement portfolio rationalization and value case standardization to address duplicate investments and fragmented solution architectures.
• Partner with senior leadership to clarify strategic priorities, align on problem statements, and communicate enterprise-wide value narratives.
• Translate complex AI capabilities and data foundations into meaningful business outcomes, enabling leadership decisions and measurable ROI.
• Create lightweight governance mechanisms: intake, ownership, lifecycle, stage gates, data trust checkpoints, and value realization tracking.
• Ensure teams adopt consistent product definitions, decision frameworks, and documentation standards.
• Identify shared components, reusable patterns, and consolidation opportunities across AI, analytics, and data products.
• Partner with engineering and data leadership to reduce fragmented data sources and reinforce trust in enterprise datasets.
• Facilitate structured workshops using design thinking and service design methods to uncover real customer problems and shared needs.
• Create coherent value stories that integrate dealer, customer, and internal business perspectives into a unified narrative.
• Analyze sources of duplication, divergent development paths, and inefficiencies across teams.
• Recommend harmonization strategies, closure of redundant workstreams, and reuse-first approaches to product development.

Benefits

• Immediate medical, dental, vision and prescription drug coverage
• Flexible family care days, paid parental leave, new parent ramp-up programs, subsidized back-up child care and more
• Family building benefits including adoption and surrogacy expense reimbursement, fertility treatments, and more
• Vehicle discount program for employees and family members and management leases
• Tuition assistance
• Established and active employee resource groups
• Paid time off for individual and team community service
• A generous schedule of paid holidays, including the week between Christmas and New Year’s Day
• Paid time off and the option to purchase additional vacation time.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Senior
• Number of Employees: 5,001-10,000 employees