Sr. Director, AI Development

OpenText; Ottawa; On-site; CAD 180,000 - 270,000; Full time

Job summary

OpenText in Ottawa is seeking a Senior Director of AI Development to lead teams delivering AI-powered solutions and platforms for enterprise customers.

You will partner with product and architecture leaders to advance AI applications, drive incubation, and shape cloud and platform strategies, ensuring reliable, scalable services adopted by product teams.

Qualifications

• Experience leading managers and engineers across multiple teams.
• Proven ability to translate ideas into reliable AI-enabled products.
• Strong communication with executives and product partners.

Responsibilities

• Lead AI development initiatives across platforms and cloud services.
• Shape roadmaps with product and architecture leaders; balance capabilities and reliability.
• Oversee incubation from experiments to funded capabilities.
• Establish shared services with documentation, release readiness, and support.
• Guide discussions on model choices, context, orchestration, evaluation.

Skills

People leadership

Delivery leadership

Roadmap planning

AI development

Executive communication

Education

Bachelor's or Master's in CS/Eng or equivalent

Job description

Opentext - The Information Company

OpenText is a global leader in information management, where innovation, creativity, and collaboration are the key components of our corporate culture. As a member of our team, you will have the opportunity to partner with the most highly regarded companies in the world, tackle complex issues, and contribute to projects that shape the future of digital transformation.

AI-First. Future-Driven. Human-Centered.

At OpenText, AI is at the heart of everything we do—powering innovation, transforming work, and empowering digital knowledge workers. We are hiring talent AI can't replace to help us shape the future of information management. Join us.

Opentext - The Information Company

OpenText is a global leader in information management, where innovation, creativity, and collaboration are the key components of our corporate culture. As a member of our team, you will have the opportunity to partner with the most highly regarded companies in the world, tackle complex issues, and contribute to projects that shape the future of digital transformation.

AI-First. Future-Driven. Human-Centered.

At OpenText, AI is at the heart of everything we do—powering innovation, transforming work, and empowering digital knowledge workers. We are hiring talent AI can't replace to help us shape the future of information management. Join us.

OpenText's AI Development and Enablement organization designs and delivers AI solutions that power customer-facing products, agents, and intelligent workflows. We work across the product portfolio, bringing new ideas into applications and building the shared AI technology that helps teams innovate faster.

The Opportunity

As Senior Director of AI Development, you will lead the people and engineering programs that bring OpenText's AI solutions to life. Reporting to the VP, you will build capable teams, establish clear delivery priorities, and turn promising ideas into dependable products and services.

You will work with product and architecture leaders to advance AI applications and the platforms that support them. This role offers the opportunity to lead incubation, shape cloud and platform programs, and help teams apply new AI capabilities to enterprise needs. Success means teams that execute well, ideas that progress into useful capabilities, and services that product teams can confidently adopt and depend on.

You Are Great At

• Leading engineering delivery across teams, with clear milestones, effective execution, and accountability for quality, reliability, and customer outcomes. Identifying delivery risks early and removing obstacles to progress.
• Hiring, coaching, and developing engineering managers and technical leaders; building teams that combine delivery discipline with curiosity and initiative.
• Shaping roadmaps with product and architecture leaders, managing capacity and dependencies, and making timely priority and investment decisions. Balancing new capabilities with service reliability and technical debt.
• Leading development of AI solutions, cloud services, and platforms, including tools and shared primitives that enable larger enterprise applications.
• Running incubation from focused experiments and customer validation through investment decisions and transition into supported capabilities. Establishing clear criteria for advancing, redirecting, or stopping an initiative.
• Establishing development and operational practices that help application teams adopt shared services, including documentation, release readiness, support ownership, and feedback from consuming teams.
• Guiding technical discussions and encouraging informed experimentation with emerging AI approaches; building partnerships across business units and communicating progress to executives.

What It Takes

• 12+ years in software engineering or related disciplines, with a record of delivering complex products and programs across teams through engineering managers and technical leaders.
• Proven people leadership, including developing managers, building technical capability, and improving execution across teams.
• Enterprise software experience is highly desirable, particularly leading platform or cloud programs and delivering tools, services, and reusable capabilities for application teams.
• Experience guiding an applied AI initiative through experimentation and technical decisions into delivery or adoption, with a clear account of your leadership contribution and the outcome.
• Current understanding of applied AI concepts, agent patterns, and development challenges, sufficient to lead AI solution development and engage confidently with architects and engineers. Familiarity with how model choices, context, orchestration, and evaluation affect product behavior and delivery.
• Demonstrated curiosity and technical currency through hands-on exploration, experimentation, or prior development with AI technologies, with the ability to discuss what you learned and how it informs your leadership decisions.
• Sound judgment about AI quality, reliability, security, cost, and operational readiness, with creativity in identifying useful applications and advancing new ideas.
• Strong product partnership, cross-business collaboration, and executive communication skills.
• Bachelor's or Master's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field, or equivalent practical experience.

OpenText's commitment to diversity and inclusion surpasses legal requirements, evident in our Equal Employment Opportunity Statement of Policy which promotes a respectful and empowering environment for employees of all backgrounds, culture, national origin, race, color, gender, gender identification, sexual orientation, family status, age, veteran status, disability, religion, or other basis protected by applicable laws.

If you need assistance and/or a reasonable accommodation due to a disability during the application or recruiting process, please submit a ticket at Ask HR. Our proactive approach fosters collaboration, innovation, and personal growth, enriching OpenText's vibrant workplace.

Compensation: At OpenText, we offer a thoughtfully designed benefits package that supports your physical, emotional, and financial wellbeing. As you move through the hiring process, we’re happy to provide more details about our compensation programs, including variable and commission compensation opportunities for eligible roles, vacation entitlement, and paid time off.

AI Usage Disclosure: As part of our commitment to transparency, we use artificial intelligence (AI) tools to assist in various stages of our recruitment process, including resume screening, candidate matching, interview scheduling, and communications. These tools are designed to improve efficiency, reduce bias, and enhance candidate experience. All decisions regarding hiring are made by qualified human professionals, and we continuously monitor our AI systems to ensure fairness and compliance with applicable regulations.