Head of (AI) Artificial Intelligence

Kline Franchising, Inc.•Cornelius, NC

About The Position

Burn Boot Camp is one of the fastest-growing fitness franchises in the country, with over 400 gyms and an aggressive growth plan to reach 1,000 locations by 2028. Franchise Partners operate independent businesses under the national brand. This role is responsible for building an enterprise-grade intelligence layer to provide Franchise Partners with daily insights on priorities, risks, and performance. The Head of AI will own this layer end-to-end, architecting AI systems, leading a modern data platform, and translating strategy into shipped products. This position sits within the Technology organization, reports to the VP of Technology, and operates at the intersection of data engineering, applied AI, and franchise operations. The hired individual will shape the architecture, own the roadmap, and build the team for this critical function.

Requirements

7+ years in data engineering, ML engineering, or AI product roles with a track record of shipping AI systems in production at scale.
Hands-on experience with cloud data warehouse platforms, with Snowflake strongly preferred.
Deep fluency in modern data stack: ELT/ETL design, data modeling, API integration patterns, and real-time vs. batch pipeline trade-offs.
Experience designing and deploying LLM-based or generative AI products, including prompt engineering, retrieval-augmented generation, and output quality/safety.
Strong product instincts: ability to translate complex, ambiguous business problems into well-scoped AI solutions with clear success criteria.
Demonstrated ability to lead cross-functional initiatives and manage vendor/partner relationships.

Nice To Haves

Background in franchise, multi-location retail, fitness, or hospitality, with working knowledge of unit-level economics and operator decision-making.
Experience designing data products for operationally focused, non-technical end users.
Familiarity with Domo, HubSpot, Loopspark, or similar franchise, CRM, and membership technology ecosystems.
Track record of building high-performing teams and developing talent.

Responsibilities

Define and drive Burn's enterprise AI strategy, including Franchise Partner intelligence, operational automation, and generative AI applications.
Own the AI product roadmap, prioritizing initiatives based on business impact and technical readiness.
Lead architecture decisions for data pipelines, model serving, LLM integration, API design, and feedback loops.
Partner with operations, marketing, franchise development, and finance to identify AI leverage points.
Architect and deliver AI-powered tools for Franchise Partners to provide actionable daily intelligence.
Own the end-to-end product experience for AI tools, including data ingestion, scoring models, recommendations, and quality assurance.
Develop performance frameworks to translate data into decision-ready insights.
Define and track Franchise Partner adoption as a key success metric.
Lead multiple simultaneous AI initiatives, including franchise partner intelligence platforms, generative AI applications, AI-powered lead nurturing, intelligent automation, and conversational AI.
Own the strategy and lead the team for the data platform, including architecture, governance, and roadmap.
Manage the Snowflake enterprise data warehouse strategy, data modeling standards, cost governance, and virtual warehouse design.
Define the architecture for the Operational Data Store (ODS) to ensure clean, current, and trustworthy data.
Own the roadmap for the Domo BI platform and its integration with Snowflake.
Implement end-to-end data governance, including field-level definitions, data dictionaries, freshness SLAs, quality monitoring, and access controls.
Build and lead the Data & AI team, including hiring, development, and retention.
Manage key vendor and implementation partner relationships.
Set engineering standards for code quality, testing, documentation, security, and deployment.
Represent AI and data in leadership forums.