Principal AI Delivery Lead

Ebsco-Information-Services; Ipswich (MA); Hybrid; USD 197,000 - 282,000; Full time

Job summary

EBSCO Information Services is seeking a Delivery Lead to stand up a forward-deployed AI delivery capability within its Data & AI organization. You will lead a small, elite team to turn real business problems into production AI systems and hand them back to product and operations teams.

You will drive technical direction for agentic AI, manage a disciplined intake→build→handoff model, and codify reusable patterns, guardrails, and observability to move faster with quality at scale.

Qualifications

• 10+ years in software, product, or AI delivery with 3+ years leading teams shipping production AI software.
• Proven ownership of AI/ML or generative-AI systems from design to production rollout and adoption.
• Hands-on fluency with LLM orchestration, RAG, human-in-the-loop, and evaluation.
• Ability to partner with sponsors to translate use cases into shipped systems.
• Strong grounding in responsible AI, guardrails, and production-ready definitions of done.
• Experience in AWS cloud environments and communicating with executives.

Responsibilities

• Lead the Forward-Deployed Engineering pod, owning outcomes, delivery roadmap, and team performance.
• Set the operating model, value/feasibility review, time-boxed engagements, and clean hand-offs.
• Define technical direction for production agentic systems, including orchestration and long-running workflows.
• Stand up delivery foundations: evaluation harnesses, guardrails, observability, and reusable patterns.
• Own cost-to-serve: model selection, small-language-model migration, prompt caching, token economics.
• Partner with sponsors to convert use cases into shipped, adopted AI systems.
• Collaborate with vendors to accelerate delivery while protecting IP ownership.
• Report impact on speed/quality/cost/learning to senior leadership.
• Scale capability by growing a spoke network to avoid bottlenecks.

Skills

Team leadership

AI delivery

Cross-functional collaboration

Cloud-native architecture

Executive communication

Production AI systems

Tools

AWS

LLM orchestration

Vector search

Prompt engineering

Job description

EBSCO Information Services (EBSCO) delivers a fully optimized research experience, seamlessly integrated with a powerful discovery platform to support the information needs and maximize the research experience of our end-users. Headquartered in Ipswich, MA, EBSCO employs more than 2,700 people worldwide, with most embracing hybrid or remote work models. As an AI-enabled service leader, we thrive on innovation, forward-thinking strategies, and the dedication of our exceptional team. At EBSCO, we’re driven to inspire, empower and support research. Our mission is to transform lives by providing reliable and relevant information — when, where and how people need it. We’re seeking dynamic, creative individuals whose diverse perspectives will help us achieve this global, inclusive mission. Join us to help make an impact.

Your Opportunity

EBSCO is standing up a forward-deployed AI delivery capability inside its Data&AI organization-a smallpodstructurethat turnsreal businessproblems into production AI systems and hands them back to the teams that own them. We are hiring aDelivery Leadto lead it.

This is a player-coach role for someone who can set technical direction for agentic AI systems, run a disciplined intake → build → hand-off delivery model, and buildrepeatableinternalcapabilities. You will lead a team ofAI Engineersand partner with sponsors across Product, Security, Customer Service, and Operations to ship AIthat measurablymovesspeed, quality, and cost. Just as important, you will leave behind reusable patterns, evaluations, and guardrails that let the rest of EBSCO move faster. You willjoin atthe ground floor of a funded, executive-sponsoredteamwith a live backlog waiting on day one!

What You'll Do

• Lead the Forward-Deployed Engineering pod: Own the outcomes, the delivery roadmap, and the growth and performance of the team

• Run the operating model:Score inbound demand on value / feasibility / data-risk, time-box engagements, and enforce a clean hand-off so the receiving team can own,operate, and extend what you build

• Set technical direction for production agentic systems: Orchestration and long-running workflows, RAG / enterprise search, human-in-the-loop, governed tool and data access (e.g., MCP), and bring-your-own-model patterns

• Stand up the delivery foundations:An evaluation harness, responsible-AI guardrails, LLM observability, and a reusable pattern catalog that compounds across engagements

• Own cost-to-serve:Model selection, small-language-model migration, prompt caching, and token economics

• Partner with named business sponsors to convert their use cases into shipped, adopted systems

• Work alongside strategic delivery vendors as accelerants while protecting EBSCO IP ownership

• Instrument and report impact on a Speed / Quality / Cost / Learning scorecard and communicate back to SLT

• Scale the capability: Mature the pod and seed the embedded champion (“spoke”) network so applied-AI delivery scales without the central team becoming the bottleneck

Your Team

You will lead the Forward-Deployed Engineering (FDE) team, the delivery engine of EBSCO’s AI operating model, within the Data& AIOrganization(DAIO), reporting to the VP, Head of AI. You will work the enterprise’s highest-value applied-AI and automation use cases, backed by a standing backlog, direct executive sponsorship, and a clear mandate to define how AI delivery gets done at EBSCO. This is a build-it role, with the autonomy that comes with it.

About You

• 10+ years in software, product, or AI delivery, including 3+ years leading teams that shippedAI-powered production software

• Demonstrated ownership of production AI/ML or generative-AI systems end-to-end from solution design through production rollout and adoption not just prototypes or strategy decks

• Hands-on fluency with modern agentic AI such as LLM orchestration, RAG / vector search, human-in-the-loop design, prompt engineering, and agent evaluation

• Proven track record partnering with delivery and implementation teams to take enterprise use cases into production and hand them off cleanly

• Strong grounding in responsible AI, evaluation frameworks, and guardrails. Ability to define “done” for a production agent

• Cloud-native (AWS preferred); comfortable setting architecture direction and earning the trust of engineers

• Player-coach mindset: Lead, manage, and represent the team to executives; Hands-on enough to be credible with a small, elite team

• Excellent cross-functional communication. Technical and business fluency translating between executive sponsors, business stakeholders, and engineers

What Sets You Apart

• Experience commercializing or productizing AI at scale: Hyperscaler marketplace launches, ARR ownership, or platform productization

• Cost-optimization depth: Small language models, fine-tuning, prompt caching, token-economics modeling

• Background in information services, publishing, or other content-rich enterprises

• Experience standing up a new team or capability from ground-up

• Relevant certifications (cloud ML/AI engineering, SAFe, PMP)

Pay Range

USD $197,300.00 - USD $281,860.00 /Yr.