Sr. Director, AI Strategy

Dallas Cowboys & Jones Entities•Frisco, TX

10d

About The Position

Owns the organization's AI and automation agenda across business operations — sets the roadmap, builds the business case and prototypes personally, and partners with IT on production delivery. Spends real time embedded with both front-of-house and back-of-house departments to find where automation actually moves the needle, then drives adoption. The AI/automation portfolio — intake, prioritization, and business-case approval for every initiative. Build-vs-buy calls — in partnership with IT, Finance, and Legal on vendor selection. Budget recommendations across software, vendors, consultants, and future headcount. ROI accountability — track realized impact against projection, report to leadership on a defined cadence. Data-readiness standard — determine whether a proposed use case is actually supportable by existing data before it's funded. Build — stand up the intake process, assess current tooling/data/vendor landscape, and personally prototype high-potential use cases. Embed — spend recurring time inside each vertical (including games/events) to see the real workflow, validate use cases with the people who'd use them, and turn what's working elsewhere in sports/entertainment into specific recommendations here. Collaborate —partner with the specific departments/IT to develop and implement approved use cases. Govern & Report — set responsible-use standards (privacy, compliance, model oversight) with the AI Council, measure adoption (not just delivery), and brief leadership in clear, decision-grade terms. Growth – help with other projects or duties as identified/required. Football Operations: Secondary, advisory mandate: on-call AI/technology advisor to football operations on tooling, vendor, and build-vs-buy questions where business-side capability can accelerate their work.

Requirements

8–10+ years combining hands-on analytics/data science work with business strategy or operations
Track record owning a build-vs-buy or vendor evaluation process with budget authority attached.
Comfortable prototyping personally (SQL required; Python or similar a plus)
P&L literacy — proven ability to translate technical work into a business case executives fund.
Demonstrated success building credibility with skeptical operating departments
Bachelor's required

Nice To Haves

Sports, live entertainment, or hospitality experience a plus but not required.
MBA or technical master's a plus.

Responsibilities

Owns the AI/automation portfolio — intake, prioritization, and business-case approval for every initiative.
Manages build-vs-buy calls — in partnership with IT, Finance, and Legal on vendor selection.
Makes budget recommendations across software, vendors, consultants, and future headcount.
Is ROI accountable — track realized impact against projection, report to leadership on a defined cadence.
Sets data-readiness standard — determine whether a proposed use case is actually supportable by existing data before it's funded.
Builds the intake process, assesses current tooling/data/vendor landscape, and personally prototypes high-potential use cases.
Spends recurring time inside each vertical (including games/events) to see the real workflow, validate use cases with the people who'd use them, and turn what's working elsewhere in sports/entertainment into specific recommendations.
Partners with specific departments/IT to develop and implement approved use cases.
Sets responsible-use standards (privacy, compliance, model oversight) with the AI Council, measures adoption (not just delivery), and briefs leadership in clear, decision-grade terms.
Helps with other projects or duties as identified/required.
Acts as an on-call AI/technology advisor to football operations on tooling, vendor, and build-vs-buy questions where business-side capability can accelerate their work.