Senior Director, AI Strategy, Data Foundations & Governance

AgFirst Farm Credit Bank; Columbia (SC); On-site; USD 180,000 - 250,000; Full time

Job summary

AgFirst Farm Credit Bank seeks a Senior Director of AI Strategy, Data Foundations & Governance to lead enterprise data and AI enablement initiatives in Columbia, SC. You will define strategy, governance, and adoption frameworks influencing risk management and regulatory readiness.

The role partners with Risk, Compliance, Legal, Security, and product teams to deliver measurable outcomes and scalable patterns, while guiding enterprise-wide change and talent development.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in CS/IS/Data/Analytics/Engineering or related field; Master’s preferred.
• 10+ years leading enterprise data strategy, governance, or analytics initiatives in regulated environments.
• Ability to align business strategy, AI capabilities, data readiness, and risk into an enterprise vision.
• Knowledge of governance, metadata, lineage, classification, and data quality practices.
• Experience designing operating models and governance frameworks across cross-functional teams.
• Ability to influence executives and stakeholders in a matrixed environment; strong communication.

Responsibilities

• Define and maintain enterprise AI strategy, data foundations, governance, and enablement.
• Establish frameworks to identify, evaluate, prioritize, and sequence enterprise AI and data opportunities.
• Align priorities, capabilities, data readiness, and risk for decision-making.
• Define and monitor adoption, value realization, governance effectiveness, and organizational maturity.
• Lead enablement efforts and develop reusable frameworks, guardrails, and playbooks.
• Communicate strategy and results to executives, regulatory bodies, and technical audiences.

Education

Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, Data/Analytics, Engineering, or a related field

Master’s degree preferred

Job description

Senior Director, AI Strategy, Data Foundations & Governance

Senior Director of AI Strategy, Data Foundations & Governance provides enterprise leadership for the strategy, operating model, foundational data capabilities, and governance practices that enable the Bank and associations to use data and artificial intelligence responsibly and at scale. The role connects business priorities, technology strategy, data readiness, risk management, and adoption into a cohesive enterprise roadmap focused on measurable outcomes. This leader owns the enterprise direction for AI and data enablement, including use‑case portfolio management, data foundation priorities, governance architecture, decision rights, value measurement, district adoption, and the early enablement and delivery of priority use cases. The role establishes common standards and reusable patterns while partnering with business, Risk, Compliance, Legal, Security, Internal Audit, Architecture, Engineering, platform, and product teams to translate strategy into execution. While business sponsors ultimately own the use‑case outcomes, benefits realization, process adoption, and appropriate human oversight. This role defines the enterprise strategy, priorities, operating model, guardrails, and reusable enablement practices needed to deliver consistent, trusted, and measurable outcomes. The role does not directly own enterprise data platforms, integration platforms, or infrastructure operations. However, given the emerging nature of the capability and the size of supporting teams, this role will also lead the enablement, prototyping, and early delivery of selected priority AI and data use cases to validate value, establish reusable patterns, and accelerate responsible adoption. As solutions mature, the role partners with the appropriate business, product, platform, engineering, and operational teams to transition ongoing ownership, scale, and support.

What You’ll Do

Enterprise AI & Data Strategy

• Define and maintain the enterprise strategy and roadmap for AI, data foundations, governance, and enablement.
• Establish frameworks to identify, evaluate, prioritize, and sequence enterprise AI and data opportunities.
• Align business priorities, technology capabilities, data readiness, and risk considerations to support strategic decision‑making.
• Define and monitor measures of adoption, value realization, governance effectiveness, and organizational maturity.
• Monitor industry, technology, and regulatory developments and recommend adjustments to enterprise direction.

Data Foundations, Governance & Risk Management

• Establish enterprise standards for data and AI governance, stewardship, quality, classification, lineage, and lifecycle management.
• Design and maintain governance operating models, decision rights, accountability structures, and oversight mechanisms.
• Partner with Risk, Compliance, Legal, Security, Audit, and business leaders to ensure effective governance and control practices.
• Support regulatory examinations, audits, and risk management activities through transparent and defensible governance processes.
• Identify and prioritize enterprise data‑readiness improvements that support long‑term business and technology objectives.

Enterprise Enablement & Adoption

• Lead enterprise enablement efforts that support responsible adoption of AI and data capabilities across the Bank and associations.
• Develop reusable frameworks, playbooks, guardrails, and best practices that support consistent implementation.
• Guide the evaluation, prototyping, and early delivery of selected strategic AI and data initiatives.
• Facilitate collaboration among business, technology, and association stakeholders to drive adoption and shared outcomes.
• Communicate strategy, progress, risks, and results to executive, regulatory, association, and technical audiences.

Enterprise & People Leadership

• Lead, develop, and oversee a multidisciplinary team responsible for AI strategy, data foundations, governance, and enterprise enablement activities, ensuring alignment with enterprise priorities and measurable business outcomes.
• Establish performance expectations, develop talent, and support succession planning to ensure organizational capability and leadership continuity.
• Foster a culture of collaboration, accountability, innovation, and continuous improvement across the function.
• Allocate resources and prioritize work to align team capacity with enterprise objectives and strategic initiatives.
• Build and maintain effective partnerships across business, technology, risk, compliance, security, and association stakeholders.

What You’ll Need

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, Data/Analytics, Engineering, or a related field. A Master’s degree is preferred.
• 10+ years of progressive experience in enterprise data strategy, data governance, technology strategy, analytics enablement, or related disciplines, including significant experience leading enterprise-wide initiatives, complex cross‑functional organizational change, and teams responsible for strategic, governance, technology, and data-related functions within a regulated environment.
• Ability to align business strategy, AI capabilities, data readiness, and risk considerations into an enterprise vision.
• Knowledge of enterprise data governance, stewardship, metadata, lineage, classification, and data quality practices.
• Experience designing operating models, governance frameworks, and cross‑functional decision structures.
• Ability to influence executive, business, technology, and risk stakeholders across a matrixed environment.
• Strong strategic planning, portfolio prioritization, change leadership, and communication skills.

About Us

AgFirst Farm Credit Bank provides financing, as well as technology and other value‑added services, to association partners so they can lend to rural residents and agricultural operations of all sizes. We take pride in investing in our employees, our partners and our community. Find out more on AgFirst.com , and follow us on LinkedIn!