Practice Director - Cloud AI, Digital Innovations

Woolpert•Dayton, OH

2d•$139,200 - $208,800

About The Position

Woolpert is hiring a Practice Director to lead its Artificial Intelligence practice within the Digital Innovations team. Reporting to the Head of Customer Engineering, the role shapes the practice’s vision, strategy, and execution, growing AI services across enterprise client engagements and aligning technologies such as Google Cloud Platform, Vertex AI, generative AI, and geospatial intelligence with client business outcomes. The Practice Director is an executive leader and practice builder responsible for strategic offerings, practice profitability, go-to-market execution, and talent development. The role partners with executive stakeholders, sales leaders, and delivery teams to position Woolpert as a provider of enterprise AI solutions, AI agents, and advanced data platforms. Visa sponsorship is not available; applicants must already have work authorization in the country where the job is located.

Requirements

At least 8 years of technical leadership or practice management experience in professional services, cloud consulting, or technology firms.
At least 3 years of experience building and delivering AI, machine learning, or data platform solutions.
Demonstrated success growing a professional services practice, managing P&L or practice metrics, and driving partner co-sell strategies.
Strong background in cloud architecture, enterprise AI models, data infrastructure, and modern software engineering principles.
Extensive hands-on experience designing, architecting, and deploying production-grade solutions on Google Cloud Platform, including big data architecture, data lakes, and data warehousing.
A Google Cloud Certified Professional Cloud Architect, Data Engineer, or Professional Machine Learning Engineer certification.
Strong understanding of modern AI patterns, including LLMs, RAG, agentic workflows, and cloud data platforms.
Strong foundation in machine learning principles, model training, evaluation metrics, and feature engineering.
Ability to translate technical opportunities into executive strategy and operational execution, build profitable consulting practices, and develop technical capability teams.
Ability to build trust with CTOs, CIOs, and business leaders and turn technical capabilities into strategic partnerships.
Effective communication, empathy, active listening, and openness to diverse perspectives.
Ability to learn new technical subject matter systematically and work with APIs, command-line interfaces, and codebases.
A DevOps mindset and understanding that repeatedly shipping production software requires discipline and infrastructure as code.

Nice To Haves

Experience with agentic AI frameworks such as LangGraph, AutoGen, CrewAI, or Semantic Kernel.
Knowledge of non-Google geospatial platforms and tools, such as ArcGIS, GeoServer, QGIS, OpenLayers, MapBox, or CARTO.
Relevant Google, Amazon, or Azure certification, such as Google Professional Cloud Architect or Data Engineer.
Experience with cloud-native infrastructure such as Docker, Kubernetes, and Terraform, and with CI/CD pipelines.
Strong debugging skills for non-deterministic AI outputs and complex API tracing.
Google Cloud partner experience is preferred.

Responsibilities

Define and execute the AI Practice’s multi-year business strategy, service offerings, and growth roadmap within Woolpert Digital Innovations.
Recruit, mentor, and lead AI Customer Engineers, Solution Architects, and AI specialists, fostering technical excellence and innovation.
Partner with sales, account managers, and executive leadership to drive revenue growth, expand client relationships, and lead high-stakes technical pitches and proposals.
Serve as the primary executive sponsor for key partner relationships, including Google Cloud, and represent Woolpert at industry conferences, panels, and executive briefings.
Ensure high-quality technical delivery across AI engagements and establish best practices for solution architecture, enterprise integrations, and Responsible AI governance.
Oversee practice utilization, resource allocation, margin targets, and financial performance for AI consulting engagements and technical solutions.
Advise enterprise C-suite executives on AI transformation roadmaps, ROI realization, AI readiness, and governance frameworks.

Benefits

Freedom to Work program allowing employees to set their own schedule and location, as appropriate.
Opportunity to become an owner of the firm through the Principal program.
Flexible paid time off and vacation.
Career development and learning opportunities across industries.
Health, life, vision, and dental insurance.
Paid sick time.
Retirement plan.
Fitness reimbursement.
Pet insurance.
Identity protection.
Technology stipend.
Employee assistance program.
Competitive pay.