Senior Director, AI Engineering

Equinix•Toronto, ON

11d

About The Position

Equinix is seeking a Senior Director of AI Engineering to lead and scale a high-performing Machine Learning Engineering (MLE) organization. This leader will be responsible for building production-grade AI/ML systems that power next-generation generative and predictive capabilities across the enterprise. The role combines deep technical leadership, organizational scale, and strong business alignment to translate AI innovation into measurable impact. Reporting to Yang Song within the Digital and Innovation Office, this role will work closely with the Data & Engineering team around technology and development. This is a hands-on technical leadership role critical to transforming AI from experimentation into a scalable, enterprise capability, defining how AI is built, deployed, and leveraged across the organization to unlock faster decisions, smarter automation, and sustained competitive advantage.

Requirements

12–15+ years in software engineering, data engineering, or ML engineering
5+ years leading large, distributed engineering teams (including managers of managers)
Proven track record of delivering ML/AI systems at scale in production environments
Deep knowledge of machine learning systems, MLOps, and cloud-native architectures
Experience with ML frameworks (e.g., TensorFlow, PyTorch) and data platforms
Strong understanding of GenAI/LLMs, prompt engineering, and retrieval-augmented systems
Familiarity with distributed systems, APIs, and microservices architecture
Strong ability to translate business strategy into technical execution
Experience driving large-scale transformation initiatives
Excellent communication and stakeholder management skills

Nice To Haves

Experience building enterprise AI platforms or internal AI products
Background in both predictive ML and generative AI use cases
Experience in global delivery models (e.g., US + India engineering hubs)
Master’s or PhD in Computer Science, Engineering, or related field

Responsibilities

Build, lead, and mentor a global team of Machine Learning Engineers and technical leaders
Establish a high-performance engineering culture focused on quality, velocity, and accountability
Drive hiring, onboarding, and career development for MLE talent across regions
Own end-to-end delivery of ML platforms, pipelines, and services (training, inference, monitoring)
Operationalize models into scalable, reliable, and secure production systems
Partner with Data Science and Product to move from experimentation to deployment
Set the vision for ML platform architecture, MLOps, and GenAI enablement
Standardize tools, frameworks, and best practices for model development and deployment
Ensure systems are built for scale, performance, and cost efficiency
Lead development of GenAI capabilities (LLMs, RAG, copilots, automation workflows)
Enable reusable AI services and APIs to accelerate use case delivery
Stay ahead of industry trends and translate them into enterprise-ready capabilities
Partner with Product, Data, Engineering, and Business leaders to prioritize high-impact use cases
Communicate strategy, progress, and outcomes to executive stakeholders
Align AI initiatives with business goals, including revenue growth, efficiency, and customer experience
Establish best practices for model governance, monitoring, and lifecycle management
Ensure compliance with security, privacy, and ethical AI standards
Implement guardrails for safe and responsible use of AI technologies

Benefits

Competitive, inclusive, sustainable, connected and efficient benefits
Employee Assistance Program
Health, life, disability and voluntary plans (US)
Retirement plan (US)
Accrued amount of PTO each pay period (US)
Various paid holidays (US)
Healthcare coverage that is designed to complement the provincial healthcare system (Canada)
Life, disability and optional benefit plans (Canada)
Equinix-sponsored retirement or savings plans: Defined Contribution Pension Plan (DCPP), Group Retirement Savings Plan (RRSP) and Tax-Free Savings Plan (TSFA) (Canada)
Vacation and personal time (Canada)
Various paid holidays (Canada)