Senior Director of AI Engineering

The Hired Guns; Washington (District of Columbia); Hybrid; USD 247,000 - 260,000; Full time

Job summary

Globally Renowned Nonprofit is seeking a Senior Director of AI Engineering to architect enterprise AI strategy and lead hands-on development. You will drive infrastructure, governance, and engineering practices to move AI from experiments to an enterprise-grade ecosystem.

You will partner with executives and cross-functional teams across product, security, DevOps, UX and data to deploy AI responsibly at scale, balancing pragmatic decisions with ambitious outcomes.

Qualifications

• Proven track record leading software engineering organizations
• Experience modernizing enterprise cloud platforms (ideally AWS)
• Deep understanding of AI ecosystem: LLMs, RAG, vector stores, governance, security

Responsibilities

• Lead engineering orgs and still guide technical decisions
• Drive enterprise cloud platform strategy and large-scale transformations
• Collaborate with executives across security, product, and data teams to deploy AI responsibly

Skills

Leadership

Cloud architectures

AI governance

Stakeholder management

Agile culture

Tools

AWS

Job description

Senior Director of AI Engineering Wanted at Globally Renowned Nonprofit

Salary range: $247,000 to $260,000 base per year

Are You the Missing Piece?

Most organizations are still dabbling in AI. This one is ready to build the real thing.

Our client—a globally respected, mission-driven institution—is looking for a rare kind of engineering leader: someone who can architect enterprise AI strategy and roll up their sleeves to build it. You’ll be the person driving the infrastructure, governance, and engineering practices that take AI from scattered experiments to a secure, scalable, enterprise-grade ecosystem.

This isn’t a team that’s swimming in unlimited resources or chasing hype. They need someone who knows how to build intelligently, influence broadly, make pragmatic technical decisions, and create momentum across a complex organization. You’ll work shoulder-to-shoulder with executives while partnering across engineering, product, security, DevOps, UX, and data teams to shape how AI is deployed responsibly across the enterprise.

If you’re equally comfortable discussing LLM architecture with engineers, cloud strategy with architects, governance with security leaders, and organizational change with executives, keep reading.

What’s it going to take to score an interview?

• You’ve spent years leading software engineering organizations and still know your way around the technology. You’re hands‑on enough to challenge technical decisions while empowering great engineers to execute.
• You’ve built and modernized enterprise cloud platforms—ideally in AWS—and have led large‑scale transformations involving microservices, distributed systems, APIs, and modern architecture.
• AI isn’t just something you’ve experimented with. You understand today’s AI ecosystem, including LLMs, RAG, vector databases, governance frameworks, model evaluation, security, and responsible AI adoption.
• You’re exceptional at stakeholder management. You know how to collaborate across functional boundaries, influencing executives, engineers, security teams, and product leaders.
• You’ve successfully delivered big outcomes without unlimited budgets or armies of engineers. You’re resourceful, practical, and know how to prioritize what matters.
• Agile isn’t just a buzzword for you. You’ve built high‑performing engineering cultures driven by metrics, transparency, collaboration, and continuous improvement.
• You’re an excellent communicator who can translate deeply technical concepts into business value, and vice versa.

You should take this meeting because …

Opportunities like this don’t come along very often. You’ll help shape enterprise AI strategy from day one, not inherit someone else’s roadmap. You’ll build the infrastructure, governance, and engineering foundation that enables responsible AI adoption across an iconic global organization whose work genuinely makes a difference. Not to mention, you’ll have high visibility with senior leadership, significant influence across the enterprise, and the autonomy to establish technical direction, define standards, and build an AI ecosystem that will impact millions of people around the world.

If you’ve been waiting for a role where engineering excellence, AI innovation, and meaningful mission all intersect, this is the one.

The Hired Guns does not and will not discriminate in considering and referring candidates for employment, or in its treatment or advancement of its employees, and will not tolerate harassment, on the basis of race, color, religion, gender (including gender identity and expression), sexual orientation, place of origin, years on this Earth, disability, or any other status protected by applicable federal, state or local law.