Director, Data and AI Platform Strategy

bcbsa; Chicago (IL); On-site; USD 147,000 - 195,000; Full time

Job summary

BCBSA seeks a Director, Data and AI/ML platform strategy to lead end-to-end platform delivery and program management for mission-critical data platforms and AI initiatives across the organization.

You will collaborate with engineering, product, data science and business stakeholders to define core platform products, roadmaps and adoption strategies with KPIs, delivering measurable business value and scalable impact.

Qualifications

• Education: BS or equivalent, MS preferred.
• Requires 12+ years in data/platform product management or related roles.
• Experience with AI/ML concepts to enhance data product capabilities.
• Experience in agile product development environments.
• Mentoring and coaching of contributors and managers on delivery and agile execution.
• Proven ability to define and deliver platform strategy and roadmap at scale.
• Strong communication to influence across engineering, product, and executive leadership.

Responsibilities

• Lead end-to-end platform product delivery and program management for data and AI/ML platforms.
• Define and manage core platform products and roadmaps.
• Drive adoption using KPI-based metrics and business cases.
• Balance modernization with new capabilities to accelerate value and cycle time.

Skills

AI/ML platform strategy

Platform product management

Program management

Agile methodologies

Stakeholder management

Cloud data technologies

Education

BS or equivalent

MS preferred

Tools

AWS

Snowflake

Databricks

Redshift

Kafka

Job description

Job Description Summary

The Director, Data and AI/ML platform strategy is a strategic leadership who will lead the development and execution of data and AI/ML platform strategy and will share the vision for platform as a product. This position will own end-to-end platform product delivery and program management for mission-critical data platforms and AI platform initiatives.

In this role, you will collaborate with engineering, product, data science, and business stakeholders and be responsible for defining and managing core set of technical platform products that sits as a foundational capability of data platform that are leveraged to delivered data and analytical products. Some of the core technical data products include common Ingress/egress, data quality agents, data engineering agents, AI and ML agentic platforms and other capabilities.

This role requires demonstrated ability to manage team members, large projects, collaborate with program managers and senior leaders, to oversee IT wide platform initiatives, manage stakeholders, and drive organizational impact through process excellence, strategic thinking, and cross-functional leadership.

Job Description

Drive the overall data and AI/ML platform strategy vision across BCBSA products and position BCBSA data and analytic portfolio for the scale and growth to be able to innovate data/analytical products and insights in rapid cycles.

Manage the portfolio of strategic foundational data and AI/ML platform initiatives including cloud migration Products, Analytics and Engineering teams.

Define and drive the roadmap for the foundational platform products that enable internal customers starting from definition to consumption.

Own and drive the adoption strategy to drive adoption of platform products using KPI and metrics to demonstrate the value.

Develop a business case for foundational platform products and technical capabilities in support of BCBSA data and analytic products, and seek executive input to influence the overall data and AI/ML platform roadmap.

Build and lead high-performing platform product strategy members, mentor and coach team members to foster a culture of innovation, accountability, collaboration.

Drive business outcomes, not just project completion-ensuring delivered capabilities create measurable value

Manage the tech-debit remediation and modernization efforts by balancing with new platform product capabilities development.

The posting range for this position is:
147,050.99 - 194,886.85

Qualifications:

• Education
  Required BS ; or equivalent experience
• Education
  Preferred MS
• Experience
  Required 12+ years of progressive experience in data and platform product management, technical program management, platform delivery, or related roles within complex data, analytics, or software environments
• Experience
  Experience with AI, machine learning, and predictive analytics concepts to enhance data product capabilities.
• Experience
  Experience working in agile product development environments.
• Experience
  Experience mentoring and coaching individual contributors and people managers on product delivery, stakeholder management, and agile execution
• Experience
  Experience with AI, machine learning, and predictive analytics concepts to enhance data product capabilities.
• Experience
  Experience working in agile product development environments.
• Experience
  Experience mentoring and coaching individual contributors and people managers on product delivery, stakeholder management, and agile execution.
• Knowledge Skills and Abilities
  Proven track record of defining and delivering overall data and AI/ML platform strategy in support of data and analytic products and roadmap.
• Knowledge Skills and Abilities
  Proven track record of defining and delivering platform products and capabilities at scale.
• Knowledge Skills and Abilities
  Strong strategic thinking and communication skills with ability to influence at all levels of the organization across engineering, product, and executive leadership with the ability to translate technical data concepts into business value and strategy.
• Knowledge Skills and Abilities
  Experience in managing large data and AI/ML platform portfolio and roadmap starting from business case development, delivery management, to value tracking.
• Knowledge Skills and Abilities
  Deep understanding of modern data and AI/ML architectures including expertise in cloud-based data technologies, AWS, Snowflake, Databricks, Redshift, Kafka and others.
• Knowledge Skills and Abilities
  Strong background in program and delivery management, including scope, schedule, dependency, risk, and quality management across multiple workstreams

Ability to represent data platform in