Innovation Assistant Director

Commonwealth of Massachusetts•Boston, MA

6d•$94,043 - $141,042

About The Position

The Innovation Assistant Director leads the Office of the State Auditor’s IT Innovation group, which designs, builds, procures, and supports AI-enabled applications to accelerate audit production, strengthen oversight, and streamline operations. The group primarily serves the Audit division and also delivers programs for Human Resources, Administration & Finance, Occupational Schools, the Division of Local Mandates, and the Bureau of Special Investigations. The group builds applications using existing foundation models through approved platforms such as Azure AI Foundry; it does not train or develop large language models. IT Innovation supports the AI layer of its applications, including models, prompts, retrieval, agents, and evaluations, while Enterprise IT supports hosting, infrastructure, and general application maintenance. This is a player-coach position responsible for managing staff, contractors, priorities, technology decisions, and the group’s project portfolio, while also contributing to design reviews, prototypes, and code. The position works under the direct supervision of the Chief Information & Technology Officer and supervises the IT Innovation group, including the Senior AI Engineer, AI Application Developer, data engineering staff, the Agency Data Research & Integration Analyst, and assigned contractors.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science or a related field, or equivalent experience.
At least 8 years of experience in software development or technology, including at least 3 years supervising or leading technical teams.
Current hands-on programming ability in Python and JavaScript/TypeScript, using GitHub, CI/CD, and AI-assisted development tools.
Hands-on experience building or delivering applications that use large language models, such as RAG, agents, or tool-calling features.
Experience with Azure cloud services, SaaS integration, and API design for cloud and on-premises databases.
Working knowledge of solution architecture and information security frameworks sufficient to review and approve designs.
Project and portfolio management experience implementing new technologies.
Experience managing budgets, vendors, or contractors.
Demonstrated ability to communicate persuasively and build support across technical and non-technical groups.

Nice To Haves

Government or regulated-industry experience, including Microsoft GCC.
Experience with Azure AI Foundry, Azure AI Search, Microsoft Agent Framework, and RAG evaluation practices.
Knowledge of data engineering and analytics concepts; Microsoft SQL or PostgreSQL.
Experience leading AI governance, responsible AI, or AI policy work.
Familiarity with audit or oversight work, including GAGAS.
Microsoft Azure, project management, or Agile certifications.
Experience partnering with business units on process automation and change management.

Responsibilities

Hire, supervise, coach, and evaluate IT Innovation staff, and manage contractor and vendor engagements.
Set group priorities in line with the IT Governance Council, balancing new application delivery with ongoing AI-layer support.
Establish practices for documentation, code review, and knowledge sharing, and develop staff skills through training plans, pairing, and stretch assignments.
Make technology, platform, and build-versus-buy decisions for AI-enabled applications, informed by technical assessments from the Senior AI Engineer.
Review and approve solution architectures, serve as design reviewer and technical backup, and coordinate enterprise integration and platform work with relevant teams.
Rationalize technology portfolios and plan system replacement or consolidation.
Investigate emerging technologies and sponsor sandbox experiments to streamline and automate manual processes.
Manage the group’s budget, cloud and software consumption costs, and procurement.
Contribute to prototypes, proofs of concept, and production code in Python and JavaScript/TypeScript; participate in design and code reviews and provide technical capacity when needed.
Stay current with Azure AI services, agent frameworks, and AI-assisted development practices.
Run AI-request intake for non-Audit units and sequence Audit work with the Manager, System and Process Improvements.
Plan and manage the group’s project portfolio, including scope, schedules, risks, dependencies, and status reporting.
Oversee the transition of delivered applications to Enterprise IT for long-term hosting and maintenance while retaining support for the AI layer.
Track delivery metrics such as schedule, adoption, cost, and quality, and provide them alongside audit workflow KPIs maintained by the Manager, System and Process Improvements.
Manage external development organizations and contractors delivering AI and advanced technology applications.
Help align OSA AI policies with Commonwealth protocols for AI development, use, and monitoring, in collaboration with Policy and Governance.
Own software quality assurance for AI-enabled applications, using test tooling and evaluation metrics built by the Senior AI Engineer.
Ensure work supports GAGAS-compatible AI-use protocols and meets OSA security, privacy, and records requirements.
Build stakeholder relationships, communicate project status and technical decisions, and collaborate with internal teams and peer Commonwealth organizations.