Senior Director, AI Operations

Huron Consulting Services•Chicago, IL

About The Position

Huron is a global consultancy that collaborates with clients to drive strategic growth, ignite innovation and navigate constant change. Through a combination of strategy, expertise and creativity, we help clients accelerate operational, digital and cultural transformation, enabling the change they need to own their future. Join our team as the expert you are now and create your future. The AI Operations Capability/ Platform Lead will define, implement and drive the AI Operations charter, MVP definition, operating model, stakeholder alignment, and platform direction for Huron’s governed AI capability within the Office of the CTO. This role combines enterprise capability leadership with hands-on platform judgment and technical expertise to guide tradeoffs across platform architecture, governance, delivery, and adoption. This Senior Director-level capability leadership role combines strategic program leadership with practical platform understanding. The role is designed to help teams move faster through appropriate governance by establishing approved pathways, clear decision rights, reusable patterns, intake and prioritization processes, evidence standards, and measurable adoption goals. The person in this role should be comfortable using approved AI tools to develop artifacts, evaluate options, review technical approaches, draft reference patterns, and continuously improve the operating model. Reporting / Organization This role sits within AI Operations in the Office of the CTO. The executive sponsor for the capability is the CTO.

Requirements

12+ years of experience in enterprise technology, platform leadership, cloud operations, AI enablement, digital transformation, or enterprise architecture, including 5+ years leading cross-functional platform or capability work.
Strong understanding of enterprise AI operating needs, including model access, data protection, cost attribution, auditability, workload classification, sandboxing, governed knowledge, and AI governance.
Technical fluency with cloud platforms, AI platforms, platform engineering, or enterprise architecture.
Demonstrated ability to use AI tools as a practical system-building accelerator for analysis, documentation, planning, technical review, or lightweight prototyping.
Ability to translate technical platform work into business outcomes, stakeholder decisions, funding needs, and adoption measures.
Proven experience working across senior stakeholders in technology, security, privacy, compliance, finance, legal, architecture, product, and delivery organizations.
Strong written communication skills, including executive narratives, decision memos, roadmap artifacts, and operating model documentation.

Nice To Haves

Experience with AWS, Amazon Bedrock, enterprise AI platforms, MLOps, LLMOps, platform engineering, or cloud governance.
Experience with Temporal or comparable workflow orchestration platforms for durable platform, business, or AI operational workflows.
Experience creating intake, prioritization, governance, exception, or architecture review processes.
Experience with regulated, client-sensitive, PHI, PII, or confidential-data environments.
Experience leading platform adoption across federated business teams.
Flexible living locations across the US.
Ability to travel as needed.

Responsibilities

Own the AI Operations charter, MVP definition, roadmap, prioritization, intake process, decision forum, adoption outcomes, and operating model.
Lead definition of the MVP for governed enterprise AI capability, including workload classes, priority use cases, Bedrock access needs, usage and cost visibility, sandbox ownership, application and agent registration, logging, exception handling, Huron Knowledge validation, and decision rights.
Establish a federated platform operating model in partnership with Client-facing AI Delivery, Enterprise IT, Global Products, Engineering, Analytics, Consulting, Security, Privacy, Compliance, Legal, Finance, and Enterprise Architecture.
Provide enough technical direction to make architecture, sequencing, control-plane, and delivery of tradeoffs visible and actionable.
Use AI tools to accelerate planning, architecture analysis, documentation, backlog development, decision records, stakeholder communication, and review of platform artifacts.
Ensure AI Operations is positioned as an enablement capability that provides reusable, approved, observable, and cost-managed paths for AI adoption.
Coordinate MVP scope, stakeholder participation, implementation of budget estimates, and phase-two scaling criteria.
Track success measures for governed access adoption, workload visibility, cost visibility, operational readiness, Huron Knowledge enablement, agent safety, and delivery acceleration.