Director, Data and AI Platform Strategy

Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association•Chicago, IL

About The Position

The Director, Data and AI/ML platform strategy is a strategic leadership who will lead the development and execution of data and AI/ML platform strategy and will share the vision for platform as a product. This position will own end-to-end platform product delivery and program management for mission-critical data platforms and AI platform initiatives. In this role, you will collaborate with engineering, product, data science, and business stakeholders and be responsible for defining and managing core set of technical platform products that sits as a foundational capability of data platform that are leveraged to delivered data and analytical products. Some of the core technical data products include common Ingress/egress, data quality agents, data engineering agents, AI and ML agentic platforms and other capabilities. This role requires demonstrated ability to manage team members, large projects, collaborate with program managers and senior leaders, to oversee IT wide platform initiatives, manage stakeholders, and drive organizational impact through process excellence, strategic thinking, and cross-functional leadership.

Requirements

BS ; or equivalent experience
12+ years of progressive experience in data and platform product management, technical program management, platform delivery, or related roles within complex data, analytics, or software environments
Experience with AI, machine learning, and predictive analytics concepts to enhance data product capabilities.
Experience working in agile product development environments.
Experience mentoring and coaching individual contributors and people managers on product delivery, stakeholder management, and agile execution
Proven track record of defining and delivering overall data and AI/ML platform strategy in support of data and analytic products and roadmap.
Proven track record of defining and delivering platform products and capabilities at scale.
Strong strategic thinking and communication skills with ability to influence at all levels of the organization across engineering, product, and executive leadership with the ability to translate technical data concepts into business value and strategy.
Experience in managing large data and AI/ML platform portfolio and roadmap starting from business case development, delivery management, to value tracking.
Deep understanding of modern data and AI/ML architectures including expertise in cloud-based data technologies, AWS, Snowflake, Databricks, Redshift, Kafka and others.
Strong understanding of data and AI/ML engineering principles, including ETL, data warehousing, and real-time data processing.
Knowledge of data security, governance, and compliance frameworks, including SOC 2, HIPAA, and HITRUST.
Ability to drive cross-functional collaboration, influencing stakeholders across engineering, product, and executive leadership.
Proven ability to own product roadmaps and delivery plans for data platforms, cloud migrations, or AI/ML initiatives, translating business needs into executable programs
Strong background in program and delivery management, including scope, schedule, dependency, risk, and quality management across multiple workstreams
Ability to represent data platform initiatives in enterprise governance, leadership forums, and transformation efforts.

Nice To Haves

Responsibilities

Drive the overall data and AI/ML platform strategy vision across BCBSA products and position BCBSA data and analytic portfolio for the scale and growth to be able to innovate data/analytical products and insights in rapid cycles.
Manage the portfolio of strategic foundational data and AI/ML platform initiatives including cloud migration Products, Analytics and Engineering teams.
Define and drive the roadmap for the foundational platform products that enable internal customers starting from definition to consumption.
Own and drive the adoption strategy to drive adoption of platform products using KPI and metrics to demonstrate the value.
Develop a business case for foundational platform products and technical capabilities in support of BCBSA data and analytic products, and seek executive input to influence the overall data and AI/ML platform roadmap.
Build and lead high-performing platform product strategy members, mentor and coach team members to foster a culture of innovation, accountability, collaboration.
Drive business outcomes, not just project completion—ensuring delivered capabilities create measurable value
Manage the tech-debit remediation and modernization efforts by balancing with new platform product capabilities development.