Senior Manager - Delivery - Applied AI

Horizontal Talent; Minneapolis (MN); On-site; USD 131,000 - 195,000; Full time

Job summary

Horizontal Talent is seeking a Senior Manager, Delivery – Applied AI to lead the execution and delivery of enterprise AI solutions. You will guide multidisciplinary teams building production-ready AI, ML, generative AI, and agentic AI capabilities that drive meaningful business impact.

In this high-visibility role, you’ll own end-to-end delivery, establish governance, coach engineers, and partner with stakeholders across architecture, security, product, and operations to scale AI initiatives

Qualifications

• 10+ years software engineering with increasing leadership responsibility.
• 5+ years leading AI or machine learning engineering teams delivering production solutions.
• Hands-on experience building and operating ML, generative AI, and AI-powered applications in production.
• Strong understanding of the full AI development lifecycle, including evaluation, deployment, monitoring, governance.

Responsibilities

• Lead end-to-end delivery of enterprise AI initiatives from concept through production deployment and ongoing support.
• Oversee design, build, integration, and operation of AI solutions that meet goals and measurable outcomes.
• Provide technical leadership across AI engineering efforts, ensuring alignment with architecture, security, scalability, and operations.

Skills

AI leadership

Cloud-native architecture

ML engineering

Cross-functional leadership

Stakeholder management

DevOps / CI/CD

Team coaching

Strategic planning

Communication

Governance

Education

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, AI, or related field

Master's degree preferred

Job description

We’re looking for a Senior Manager, Delivery – Applied AI to lead the execution, delivery, and operational success of enterprise AI solutions. In this highly visible role, you’ll guide multidisciplinary teams building production-ready AI, machine learning, generative AI, and agentic AI capabilities that drive meaningful business impact.

Responsibilities

• Lead end-to-end delivery of enterprise AI initiatives from early concept through production deployment and ongoing support
• Oversee the design, build, integration, and operation of AI solutions that support business goals and measurable outcomes
• Provide technical leadership across AI engineering efforts, ensuring solutions are aligned with architecture, security, scalability, and operational standards
• Help establish and continuously improve the AI development lifecycle, including experimentation, model development, evaluation, deployment, monitoring, and governance
• Partner with architecture, engineering, operations, data, security, product, and business teams to bring AI capabilities into enterprise systems
• Remove delivery blockers, manage risks, and keep multiple AI initiatives moving forward with clarity and predictability
• Lead and develop a multidisciplinary AI organization, including AI engineers, machine learning engineers, MLOps engineers, and AI platform specialists
• Support staffing, capacity planning, prioritization, and sprint execution across active initiatives
• Build a strong team culture centered on accountability, learning, collaboration, quality, and continuous improvement
• Manage team performance, coaching, development planning, onboarding, and retention in partnership with leadership and HR
• Communicate progress, dependencies, risks, and future needs to senior stakeholders
• Drive operational excellence through delivery metrics, reusable frameworks, documentation, and engineering best practices

Skills

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, or a related technical field
• 10+ years of software engineering experience with increasing technical leadership responsibility
• 5+ years leading AI or machine learning engineering teams delivering production solutions
• Hands-on experience building and operating machine learning, generative AI, and AI-powered applications in production
• Strong understanding of the full AI development lifecycle, including evaluation, deployment, monitoring, governance, and lifecycle management
• Deep software engineering knowledge across cloud-native architecture, APIs, distributed systems, CI/CD, DevOps, and modern delivery practices
• Proven success leading cross-functional technology efforts involving engineering, infrastructure, cloud, data, security, architecture, product, and business teams
• Ability to build, coach, and scale high-performing technical teams
• Excellent communication, planning, prioritization, and stakeholder management skills
• Strong commitment to quality, responsible AI practices, and operational reliability

Preferred Skills

• Master’s degree in a related technical field
• Experience with agentic coding practices, AI evaluations, and evolving AI platform capabilities
• Background in enterprise governance, privacy, security, or regulatory environments
• Experience shaping team structure, hiring strategy, succession planning, and long-term talent development
• Ability to translate strategy into practical delivery plans and scalable operating models

Horizontal is committed to building an inclusive workplace where diverse perspectives are valued, respected, and supported. We believe equity and belonging strengthen teams, improve outcomes, and help create better experiences for everyone.

Applications will be accepted for 4 weeks.

For those that join the team, we offer competitive compensation and benefits including medical, dental, vision, and retirement. The pay range for this role is $130,600 - $195,000 per year based on qualifications and experience.