Senior IT Manager - AI Innovation & Engineering
About The Position
The Senior Manager, AI Innovation & Engineering is a strategic technology leader within Ferguson's AI Technology and Innovation organization, responsible for leading high-performing teams that design, build, and scale AI-powered products and capabilities. This role oversees multiple AI engineering and innovation squads, driving the successful delivery of solutions that transform business operations, enhance customer experiences, and accelerate enterprise innovation. Partnering closely with Product, Platform Engineering, Data Science, Architecture, and business leaders, this individual will translate Ferguson's AI strategy into actionable roadmaps and engineering priorities. The ideal candidate combines deep technical leadership, people management, product delivery expertise, and a passion for innovation to guide solutions from experimentation through production while ensuring scalability, security, reliability, and measurable business value. Reporting to the Director, AI Technology and Innovation, this leader will foster a culture of continuous improvement, engineering excellence, and innovation while building and developing teams that deliver impactful AI solutions across the enterprise.
Requirements
- Bachelor’s degree in information technology, computer science or related field, or equivalent experience preferred.
- At least 8-10 years of hands-on experience delivering AI or software engineering initiatives, including meaningful time in a formal people-management role, with a breadth of knowledge on how innovation and engineering squads integrate within and across different business domains.
- Prior experience directly managing engineering or technical talent — including managing other managers or squad leads — with performance management and career development responsibility; experience with offshore/onsite personnel preferred.
- Experience in process architecture aimed at analyzing, simplifying, and improving existing processes, and bringing in accountability using data/BI tooling to capture and track the right benchmarks across squads.
- Hands-on software programming background in Java and/or Python, with Software Architecture and Engineering experience building services (MSA, SOA, Integrations); architect-level experience strongly preferred.
- Experience in DevSecOps, CI/CD, pipeline development.
- Hands-on experience building and leading engineering squads on Google Cloud Platform (GCP).
- Experience creating operational dashboards, telemetry configurations and alerting templates for end-to-end flow of data services using APM and Data Logging solutions such as AppDynamics, DataDog etc.
- Solid understanding and experience implementing software design patterns and modern standards.
- Hands-on technical leader able to work alongside and guide multi-functional squads of software engineers, software architects, data scientists, and software quality engineers as needed.
- Demonstrates strong competence, initiative, and self-drive across multiple squads. Proactively develops technical and cultural direction. Sets a tone of responsibility that other leaders follow.
- Strong leadership and interpersonal relationship building skills.
- Strong written communication skills with the ability to deliver compelling presentations.
Nice To Haves
- Knowledge of Ferguson's business and application data domains, and how they integrate with core enterprise and third-party systems, is a plus.
Responsibilities
- Lead and develop several AI engineering and innovation groups, encouraging a culture of collaboration, accountability, and continuous improvement.
- Partner with business and technology leaders to define AI priorities, roadmaps, and delivery plans aligned with strategic objectives.
- Drive the design, development, and deployment of scalable AI-powered products and solutions on Google Cloud Platform (GCP).
- Provide technical leadership and guidance across solution architecture, engineering practices, code quality, testing, security, and performance.
- Build, coach, and retain high-performing teams through effective hiring, mentoring, and career development.
- Oversee delivery of AI initiatives from concept through production, ensuring quality, reliability, and business value.
- Collaborate with Product, Data Science, Platform Engineering, and Architecture teams to deliver innovative solutions that meet business needs.
- Manage budgets, vendor partnerships, project plans, and team capacity to ensure successful execution of critical initiatives.
- Drive continuous improvement of Agile delivery practices, engineering standards, and software development processes.
- Monitor operational performance, address risks and dependencies, and ensure ongoing support and scalability of AI solutions.
- Build strong relationships with business customers across the organization and communicate progress, outcomes, and strategic recommendations.
- Stay ahead of emerging AI technologies and industry trends to help shape Ferguson's AI strategy and innovation roadmap.
- Adhering to all policies, rules, regulations, and procedures.
- Performing other duties or functions as requested by management.
Benefits
- health
- dental
- vision
- paid time off
- life insurance
- 401(k) with a company match
- mental health coverage
- gender affirming and family building benefits
- paid parental leave
- associate discounts
- community involvement opportunities
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What This Job Offers
Job Type
Full-time
Career Level
Senior
