IT Principal Technical Lead, AI & Automation

FormFactor Inc.•USA - Remote - TX, TX

About The Position

The IT Principal Technical Lead, AI & Automation is responsible for leading the evaluation, implementation, governance, and adoption of Artificial Intelligence and Automation capabilities across FormFactor. This role partners with business and technology teams to identify high-value opportunities, deliver production-ready solutions, and establish the standards and implementation patterns required for scalable enterprise adoption. Success requires balancing innovation with pragmatism and delivering measurable business outcomes through secure, scalable, and maintainable AI-enabled solution. FormFactor is seeking to establish and scale the practical application of Artificial Intelligence and Automation across the enterprise. This hands-on technical leadership role is responsible for identifying high-value opportunities, implementing AI-enabled solutions, and creating the standards and governance required for safe, scalable adoption. Working closely with business and technology leaders, this individual will translate AI opportunities into measurable business outcomes. The role combines technical leadership, solution delivery, and adoption enablement to improve productivity, decision-making, operational efficiency, and quality across Engineering, Design, Manufacturing Operations, Supply Chain, Finance, HR, and Sales. The ideal candidate is a pragmatic builder who thrives in ambiguity, enjoys creating new capabilities, and focuses on delivering secure, production-ready solutions that create lasting business value rather than technology experimentation alone.

Requirements

Experience leading or building AI, automation, analytics, or digital transformation capabilities within a complex enterprise environment.
Strong technical understanding of modern AI platforms, copilots, agents, automation technologies, large language models, and implementation patterns.
Demonstrated ability to translate business challenges into practical technology solutions that deliver measurable outcomes.
Experience integrating AI solutions with enterprise applications, business processes, and data platforms.
Experience working across business and technical teams, influencing stakeholders, and driving adoption of new capabilities.
Comfort operating in ambiguous environments and building structure, standards, and processes where none currently exist.
Practical and execution-oriented mindset focused on business value, adoption, and delivery rather than technology hype.
Strong communication, leadership, facilitation, and stakeholder-management skills.
Minimum of 15 years of related experience with a Bachelor’s degree; or 12 years and a Master’s degree; or a PhD with 8 years experience; or equivalent experience

Nice To Haves

Experience with enterprise applications, business process automation, data platforms, manufacturing systems, engineering systems, supply chain processes, or other operational business environments is highly desirable.

Responsibilities

Develop and evolve the enterprise AI strategy, standards, governance frameworks, and usage policies to enable responsible, secure, and scalable adoption of AI technologies.
Partner with business leaders across Design, Engineering, Manufacturing Operations, Supply Chain, Finance, HR, and other functions to identify, evaluate, and prioritize high-value AI and automation opportunities.
Lead the evaluation, selection, implementation, and lifecycle management of AI platforms, tools, and services, ensuring alignment with business objectives and enterprise technology standards.
Drive the delivery of AI and automation solutions from concept through production, leading cross-functional teams to solve business problems and deliver measurable value.
Establish repeatable implementation patterns, reusable templates, best practices, and accelerators that enable rapid and consistent AI adoption across the enterprise.
Collaborate with enterprise application, data, infrastructure, and security teams to integrate AI capabilities into existing business processes, systems, and workflows.
Ensure AI and automation solutions comply with enterprise security, privacy, data governance, legal, regulatory, and responsible AI requirements.
Measure adoption, business impact, and operational effectiveness of AI initiatives, continuously refining priorities and approaches based on outcomes and feedback.
Serve as a trusted advisor to business and IT leaders, helping stakeholders understand AI capabilities, limitations, risks, and appropriate use cases.
Mentor technical staff and help build organizational AI capabilities through coaching, knowledge sharing, and development of internal best practices.