Managing Director, Data & AI

Nelnet•Lincoln, NE

About The Position

Nelnet Business Services (NBS), a division of Nelnet, Inc., provides payment technology and education services to more than 1,200 higher education institutions, nearly 12,000 K-12 schools, and millions of individual students, families, and supporters across the globe. Our culture of service enables us to form long-lasting and trusted partnerships, while our focus on creativity and innovative solutions empowers our customer communities to thrive. The Managing Director, Data & AI owns the full data-to-AI value chain, aligning data strategy, governance, engineering, and AI/ML execution through a unified operating model. This role is accountable for setting strategic direction, advancing data readiness, enforcing governance, resolving strategic tradeoffs, and delivering dependable AI-enabled business outcomes for the segment. In addition, this role contributes to the broader Nelnet data management council.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree required in related fields
10+ years leading data organizations at enterprise scale, including leading leaders
Demonstrated ownership of an enterprise data strategy from definition through multi-year execution
Proven executive-level influence with C-suite and business stakeholders
Sufficient practical depth in data engineering and data governance to direct and challenge those teams

Nice To Haves

AI/ML and intelligent automation applied to business processes with measurable outcomes
Track record operating in regulated / financial-services data environments
Experience establishing a modern data operating model (data products, domain ownership, or equivalent)

Responsibilities

Owns the segment-wide data strategy: target-state vision, operating model, domain ownership, investment sequencing, and multi-year roadmap; define how the value of data investment is measured and report against it
Unify data engineering, governance, and AI/automation into a single operating model, with shared intake, prioritization, and delivery cadence; resolve funding and capacity tradeoffs across the chain in favor of end-to-end business outcomes
Oversee the data platform ecosystem: architecture decisions, consumption governance, cost, and roadmap prioritization
Position governance as a business enabler: policy, lineage, quality, and access practices that accelerate trusted consumption rather than gate it
Set strategy for applying AI and automation to business processes; oversee AI democratization, adoption, and the Citizen Developer program
Lead through directors: coach and develop senior leaders, build succession depth, manage performance proactively, foster cohesion, and hold leaders to a high bar in a fast-moving domain
Translate business objectives into data and AI priorities in partnership with C-suite and senior leadership; build stakeholder relationships and executive credibility to drive adoption