Senior Manager, AI Enablement

CDW•Vernon Hills, IL

4d•$143,000 - $199,800

About The Position

The Sr Manager, AI Enablement turns CDW's AI First strategy into the practical work of building AI fluency across the organization, translating it into a clear, sequenced enablement plan and making sure coworkers have the skills, guidance, and confidence to use AI well in their everyday work. Enablement at CDW is leader-led and delivered through others. The Sr Manager partners with leaders across functions and regions to activate their enablement plans, tracks progress against agreed success measures, and keeps listening and feedback loops open so the approach adapts to what coworkers are actually experiencing. They stay close to external research on the AI skills coworkers need, build a strong network inside and outside CDW, and design what they deliver to scale across the enterprise rather than one team at a time. The successful candidate will bring disciplined program management, credibility and ease in working across leaders and teams they do not manage, an active network inside and outside the company, a habit of following where the research on AI skills is heading, and a track record of rolling work out at scale.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in business, organizational development, human resources, or a related field and 7+ years of experience in program management, change management, transformation, technology adoption, or capability building. Experience specific to AI enablement is valued but not required; experience driving adoption and behavior change at scale is OR 11+ years of experience in program management, change management, transformation, technology adoption, or capability building
Strong program and project management discipline — planning, sequencing, dependency and risk management, status reporting, and relentless follow-through on work owned by many different teams.
Demonstrated success delivering cross-functional programs in a large, matrixed organization, including managing competing priorities and delivering through influence rather than authority.
Experience delivering at enterprise scale — taking an approach from pilot or a single function to thousands of coworkers across multiple regions, with the standards and repeatable ways of working that make that possible.
Able to build credibility and influence across functions, levels, and regions.
Experience acting as a trusted advisor on a specialized subject — helping teams who own their own processes understand what is changing and decide how to respond.
Active networker inside and outside their company, with a track record of building relationships and communities and bringing external practice back into the work rather than building everything internally.
Demonstrated practical application of AI in their own work and a track record of helping others apply it — able to share concrete examples and explain limitations and trade-offs. Technical or machine learning engineering expertise is not required.
Strong facilitation and coaching skills, with the presence to run a session for senior leaders and the ability to help people work through practical application rather than simply be presented to.
Comfort operating in the gray, and the ability to help others keep moving — supporting sound decisions with sensible guardrails rather than waiting for a more settled technology landscape.

Nice To Haves

Experience building or scaling a champion, ambassador, or community-of-practice network.
Experience applying a maturity or capability model to assess an organization and shape a multi-year plan.
Background in learning and development, organizational effectiveness, communications, or HR, or prior experience working closely with those functions.
Experience partnering on responsible technology use, governance, or risk guidance.
Experience in a multinational organization.

Responsibilities

Drive the Enterprise AI Enablement Program
Own the operating rhythm for coworker AI enablement — the plan, milestones, dependencies, status reporting, decision forums, and follow-through — bringing program management discipline to work that spans many owners.
Maintain the enablement roadmap with the Director, Talent Strategy & Planning, sequencing initiatives, flagging risks and trade-offs early, and refreshing it as the technology and the business evolve.
Represent coworker enablement in CDW's enterprise AI program (AI360) governance forums, keeping the coworker agenda connected to the broader enterprise AI effort and carrying decisions back into the plan.
Partner Across Leaders and Functions
Work with functional and regional leaders to build and activate their enablement plans, meeting each organization where it is rather than applying one template everywhere.
Serve as the connective tissue across CDW, finding where enablement efforts overlap or conflict and pulling them into one coherent approach.
Support senior leaders in leading AI adoption in their organizations. Deliver or orchestrate leader and manager enablement sessions and hold regular check-ins on progress and where support is needed.
Partner with Legal, Risk, IT, and Learning to translate responsible AI policy into practical day-to-day guidance on how coworkers work with AI at CDW — what good use looks like and where the boundaries sit — and keep that guidance current.
Act as an AI advisor across the Talent organization — including talent management, learning, talent acquisition and culture & engagement — creating clarity about what AI is changing and how to respond.
Build the Network and Bring In Best Practices
Grow and mature the AI Champion network from pilot to a sustainable, scaled community with clear roles, strong facilitation support, and ongoing accountability.
Build and maintain an active external network across peer companies, partners, and industry communities, and use those relationships to bring proven, practical examples into CDW's approach.
Stay current on external research and thinking on the AI skills coworkers need, and work with Learning & Development to translate that into CDW's skill definitions and enablement priorities — identifying emerging capability needs, advising on content and delivery choices, and keeping the approach current as AI changes.
Work day to day with the external partners and platforms supporting AI enablement, making sure what they deliver fits the enterprise plan and flagging where it needs to change.
Establish repeatable ways of working and operating standards so enablement scales and does not depend on any single person, session, or partner. Partner with the teams that build and maintain AI tools and platforms, so enablement stays aligned to what coworkers have available.
Track Adoption and Impact
Maintain the measures that reflect CDW's current stage of AI maturity and help evolve them as capability advances, framing the questions worth answering and aligning stakeholders on what the available data can and cannot tell us.
Partner with IT, analytics, and external partners on dashboards and reporting so leaders have a clear, self-serve view of progress in their own organizations.
Use adoption data, assessment results, and coworker feedback to spot where progress is stalling, and adjust the plan accordingly.