AI Solutions Lead — Construction Ops & Strategy

Columbia Construction Company; Reading (MA); On-site; USD 110,000 - 200,000; Full time

Job summary

Columbia Construction seeks an AI Solutions Lead to shape and drive our AI strategy across sites and back office, partnering with executives including the CFO.

This player-coach role builds prototypes while establishing governance, roadmap, and collaboration with operations, estimating, accounting, and IT, embedded with project teams.

You’ll help deploy practical AI that improves turnaround times, reduces admin time, and delivers measurable business impact for the firm.

Qualifications

• 5+ years in technology, product, consulting, data, or operations roles with hands-on solution delivery.
• Proven success leading technology or AI initiatives in new industries or environments.
• Significant familiarity with modern AI tools, LLMs, automation, and enterprise AI platforms.
• Working understanding of data structure, quality, and governance.
• Track record of leading change across an organization with stakeholder alignment.
• Entrepreneurial mindset; eagerness to build and make decisions with partial information.
• Excellent written and verbal communication with credibility to be the AI face at Columbia.
• Sound judgment on risk, confidentiality, and client obligations.
• Collaborative, proactive leadership aligned with Columbia's values.
• Prior construction experience is not required; curiosity and willingness to learn are essential.

Responsibilities

• Develop and own Columbia’s AI strategy in partnership with executive leadership and advise on investments, pilots, and scaling.
• Stand up and run a citizen development program with sanctioned tools and guardrails.
• Identify and prioritize AI, automation, reporting, and analytics opportunities across the business.
• Build prototypes (GPTs, automations, light integrations) with IT and data teams.
• Lead AI initiatives from pilot to adoption with measurable business impact.
• Ensure data structure, quality, and governance understanding supports AI work.
• Establish policies and governance for safe AI use across the company.
• Improve company-wide AI fluency through training and direct support.
• Partner with department leaders to translate needs into AI solutions.

Skills

5+ years exp

AI initiatives

AI tools

Data governance

Change management

Entrepreneurial mindset

Communication

Risk management

Leadership style

Curiosity

Tools

Procore

Sage Intacct

Salesforce

ChatGPT

Claude

Power BI

Power Automate

Zapier

n8n

Python

SQL

APIs

Job description

Columbia Construction seeks an AI Solutions Lead to shape and drive our AI strategy across sites and back office, partnering with executives including the CFO.

This player-coach role builds prototypes while establishing governance, roadmap, and collaboration with operations, estimating, accounting, and IT, embedded with project teams.

You’ll help deploy practical AI that improves turnaround times, reduces admin time, and delivers measurable business impact for the firm.