Sr. Director, AI Development

OpenText; Southwestern Ontario; On-site; CAD 180,000 - 240,000; Full time

Job summary

OpenText is seeking a Senior Director of AI Development to lead the people and engineering programs turning AI ideas into dependable products. You will build capable teams, set clear priorities, and ensure delivery of enterprise AI solutions and cloud platform services.

You will collaborate with product and architecture leadership to advance AI applications and platforms, guiding incubation and translational work into supported capabilities with strong executive communication and cross-business

Qualifications

• At least 12+ years in software engineering with multi-team delivery.
• Proven leadership experience building managers and technical leaders.
• Enterprise software or cloud platform program delivery experience.
• Experience guiding applied AI initiatives from experiments to delivery.
• Up-to-date understanding of applied AI concepts and platform considerations.
• Curiosity and hands-on exploration informing leadership decisions.

Responsibilities

• Lead delivery across engineering teams with milestones and quality ownership.
• Shape product and platform roadmaps with product/architecture leaders.
• Run incubation from experiments to funded, supported capabilities.
• EstablishDev/ops practices and shared services for application teams.

Skills

Leadership across teams

Hiring and coaching

Roadmap shaping

AI solutions development

Incubation and experimentation

Dev and operational practices

Executive communication

Education

Bachelor/Master in CS or Engineering

Job description

Job Title: Senior Director AI Development

Job Location: Waterloo, ON (Office-based)

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.

One last thing:

OpenText is more than just a corporation, it's a global community where trust is foundational, the bar is raised, and outcomes are owned.

Join us on our mission to drive positive change through privacy, technology, and collaboration. At OpenText, we don't just have a culture; we have character. Choose us because you want to be part of a company that embraces innovation and empowers its employees to make a difference.