Director, AI Strategy

Axial Search; United States; On-site; USD 210,000 - 380,000; Full time

Job summary

Axial Search, a specialist executive search firm focused on AI transformation, is seeking senior AI governance leaders to shape enterprise risk and policy across large organizations.

This market overview underscores the demand for governance professionals who can translate complex technical concepts into actionable guidance, collaborate with legal and compliance teams, and drive responsible AI implementations across production environments.

Qualifications

• 7+ years in AI governance, risk management, compliance, or AI strategy roles - ideally a mix of technical and policy-facing work
• Demonstrated experience building governance frameworks, policies, or control mechanisms in regulated industries or complex organizations
• Strong understanding of machine learning workflows and the technical decisions that create governance risk - model development, data pipelines, deployment, monitoring
• Track record of influencing cross-functional teams without direct authority - ability to partner with engineering, legal, and business leaders simultaneously
• Familiarity with emerging AI regulations (EU AI Act, SEC guidance, industry frameworks) and ability to translate regulatory requirements into operational practice
• Excellent communication skills: can explain governance trade-offs to both technical audiences and non-technical executives

Responsibilities

• Own the design and implementation of enterprise AI governance policies, frameworks, and guardrails that balance innovation velocity with risk management
• Lead cross-functional alignment between AI/ML engineering, legal, compliance, risk, and business units to embed governance into the AI development lifecycle
• Build and maintain AI risk assessment processes, including model validation, bias detection, and ongoing monitoring protocols
• Develop and communicate AI governance standards, documentation requirements, and approval workflows to technical teams and executive leadership
• Partner with external stakeholders-regulators, auditors, industry consortia to stay ahead of emerging regulatory requirements and best practices
• Drive adoption of AI governance tools and platforms, integrating them into existing ML ops and data governance infrastructure
• Conduct training and change management initiatives to embed responsible AI principles across the organization
• Advise the executive team on AI-related regulatory risk, competitive positioning, and strategic governance priorities

Skills

AI governance

risk management

compliance

AI strategy

stakeholder coordination

regulatory awareness

communication

Job description

Axial Search is a specialist executive search firm built for one kind of hire: leaders who help organizations navigate AI transformation.

Visit our website to learn more about our process and explore free tools for your job search, including our live job market dashboard with salary, skills and hiring trend data from thousands of AI transformation roles.

What The Market Looks Like

We've tracked 200+ senior-level postings in AI governance across the US in the last six months, with concentrated hiring in California, New York, and Texas. Financial services, professional services, and technology firms are the most active hirers, followed by healthcare, manufacturing, and life sciences. Compensation for this cohort ranges from $210K to $380K base salary. The strongest candidates bring hands-on experience building or scaling AI governance frameworks, translate between technical and non-technical stakeholders with ease, and have navigated real compliance, risk, and ethical dilemmas in production AI environments.

Job Responsibilities

• Own the design and implementation of enterprise AI governance policies, frameworks, and guardrails that balance innovation velocity with risk management
• Lead cross-functional alignment between AI/ML engineering, legal, compliance, risk, and business units to embed governance into the AI development lifecycle
• Build and maintain AI risk assessment processes, including model validation, bias detection, and ongoing monitoring protocols
• Develop and communicate AI governance standards, documentation requirements, and approval workflows to technical teams and executive leadership
• Partner with external stakeholders-regulators, auditors, industry consortia to stay ahead of emerging regulatory requirements and best practices
• Drive adoption of AI governance tools and platforms, integrating them into existing ML ops and data governance infrastructure
• Conduct training and change management initiatives to embed responsible AI principles across the organization
• Advise the executive team on AI-related regulatory risk, competitive positioning, and strategic governance priorities

Candidate Requirements

• 7+ years in AI governance, risk management, compliance, or AI strategy roles-ideally a mix of technical and policy-facing work
• Demonstrated experience building governance frameworks, policies, or control mechanisms in regulated industries or complex organizations
• Strong understanding of machine learning workflows and the technical decisions that create governance risk-model development, data pipelines, deployment, monitoring
• Track record of influencing cross-functional teams without direct authority-ability to partner with engineering, legal, and business leaders simultaneously
• Familiarity with emerging AI regulations (EU AI Act, SEC guidance, industry frameworks) and ability to translate regulatory requirements into operational practice
• Excellent communication skills: can explain governance trade-offs to both technical audiences and non-technical executives