Director, AI Transformation & Enterprise Automation

Starbucks Corp.; Seattle (WA); On-site; USD 180,000 - 260,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical, dental & vision insurance

401(k) with employer match

Starbucks College Achievement Plan

Job summary

Starbucks Coffee Company is seeking a Now Brewing Director, AI Transformation to lead enterprise AI acceleration, partnering with SMEs across retail, supply chain, digital, operations, and support to turn processes into scalable AI-powered workflows.

The role is based in Seattle, requires in-office collaboration four days a week, and demands 8+ years in product management with AI/ML focus; you will guide engineers, shape roadmaps, and ensure safe, reliable deployments of agent-based systems.

Qualifications

• 8+ years in product management with at least 3 years focused on AI/ML, intelligent automation, or agent-based systems.
• Experience leading or partnering with engineering teams to translate business needs into technical requirements.
• Strong capability in mapping, analyzing, and redesigning complex enterprise workflows.
• Understanding of when humans should stay in the loop and how agents should behave in production environments.

Responsibilities

• AI Workflow Decomposition — map current state processes, identify automation opportunities, break into human-in-the-loop and agent-driven components.
• End to End Product Ownership — drive initiatives from discovery through requirements, prototyping, validation, and handoff to engineering for spec-based development.
• Enterprise AI Strategy — contribute to the roadmap for Starbucks AI acceleration, prioritizing use cases by impact, feasibility, and alignment.
• Cross Functional Leadership — collaborate with engineering, data science, operations, legal, and compliance to ensure scalable and safe solutions.
• Technical Stewardship — guide engineering teams with clear requirements, edge cases, evaluation criteria, and agent behavior expectations.
• Change Management — support adoption by partnering with business leaders to prepare teams for new AI-enabled workflows.
• Measurement & Optimization — define KPIs, evaluate agent performance, and iterate based on real-world usage.

Skills

AI product leadership

Engineering collaboration

Process design

Human agent interaction

AI evangelism

Enterprise experience

Seattle presence

Job description

Starbucks Coffee Company is seeking a Now Brewing Director, AI Transformation to lead enterprise AI acceleration, partnering with SMEs across retail, supply chain, digital, operations, and support to turn processes into scalable AI-powered workflows.

The role is based in Seattle, requires in-office collaboration four days a week, and demands 8+ years in product management with AI/ML focus; you will guide engineers, shape roadmaps, and ensure safe, reliable deployments of agent-based systems.