Job DescriptionReporting to the CIO, the Director is accountable for execution and measurable business impact. A successful candidate will partner closely with the regional IT leaders, business function heads, and AI champions to ensure consistent delivery across our multi-brand, multi-region portfolio. This is not a traditional engineering role and not a purely strategic role - it is a high-leverage delivery leadership role for someone who can identify the right problems, shape AI-enabled solutions, drive pilots, measure value, and help scale what works.
AI Portfolio Delivery & Value Realization- Execute the enterprise AI roadmap across tablestakes, transformational, and disruptive opportunity tiers; own end-to-end delivery from prototype through production.
- Drive rapid experimentation cycles and accelerate time-to-value, ensuring disciplined progression from pilot to scaled deployment without bottlenecks.
- Own definition, tracking, and reporting of ROI and business KPIs; tie initiatives directly to revenue growth, margin improvement, cost efficiency, or working capital optimization.
- Maintain a disciplined backlog of AI use cases across consumer experience, supply chain, retail and eCommerce, marketing, finance, and operations.
AI Delivery & Platform Integration- Lead the development, deployment, and scaling of AI/ML and GenAI solutions, including consumer-facing experiences (conversational assistants, agentic commerce, personalization) and AI-driven marketing and discovery capabilities.
- Work with Digital and Data Strategy team to lay solid foundation for Samsonite's AI journey
- Drive integration of AI capabilities into core enterprise platforms (eCommerce, CRM, CDP, SAP, O365) and establish scalable MLOps practices for lifecycle management, monitoring, and cost/performance optimization.
- Operate the AI technology stack day-to-day and drive strategic platform and ecosystem decisions in partnership with IT leadership (hyperscalers, GenAI platforms, agentic commerce platforms, enterprise SaaS).
AI Governance & Compliance Execution- Operate the enterprise AI governance framework; ensure compliance with EU AI Act, GDPR, SOX/GRC, and equivalent regional regulations, with support from regional teams.
- Maintain audit-ready model documentation, risk assessments, and validation evidence in coordination with Legal, Compliance, and Internal Audit.
- Apply readiness tests before promoting AI from pilot to production, particularly for autonomous and agentic deployments; flag governance gaps to the CIO.
Cross-Regional Coordination- Partner with regional IT and business leaders across Americas, EMEA, and APAC to deliver AI use cases tuned to local market and regulatory needs.
- Coordinate with regional AI roles and adoption leads to ensure consistent execution; scale proven regional use cases group-wide.
AI Adoption & Enablement- Build, lead, and develop the global AI CoE; create reusable patterns, accelerators, and documentation to compound delivery velocity.
- Operate enterprise AI literacy and upskilling programs (tiered by user proficiency) and a network of AI champions across regions and functions, in partnership with HR.
- Lead group-wide activation and adoption of enterprise AI tooling (copilots, GenAI assistants, productivity AI platforms) and maintain a shared inventory of approved tools.
Vendor & Budget Execution- Manage day-to-day relationships with AI vendors, hyperscalers, and delivery partners; execute against the approved AI budget and surface variance and reallocation needs.
- Support build-vs-buy assessments with delivery feasibility, effort estimates, and operating cost modeling.
Stakeholder Reporting- Provide regular delivery updates to the CIO and prepare materials for executive and Board reporting; present to leadership as needed.
- Translate technical progress into clear business outcomes for non-technical stakeholders across functions and regions.
QualificationsQualifications:- Bachelor's or Master's degree in Computer Science, Data Science, AI, or a related field.
- 8-12 years of progressive technology experience, including 4+ years leading AI/ML delivery teams.
- Demonstrated track record shipping AI and GenAI solutions into production at scale, with quantifiable business outcomes.
- Hands-on expertise in machine learning, NLP, and Generative AI - including LLMs, RAG, prompt engineering, AI agents, model evaluation, AI workflow orchestration, and responsible AI.
- Direct experience with major cloud platforms (AWS, Azure, GCP); comfort using AI tools, copilots, and agentic workflows to accelerate delivery.
- Experience leading distributed delivery teams in matrixed, multi-region organizations.
- Working knowledge of AI governance, ethics, and regulatory frameworks (EU AI Act, GDPR, and emerging US/APAC regulations).
Preferred Skills and Experience- Global retail, consumer goods, fashion, or omnichannel environments - ideally in a multi-brand portfolio.
- Building or scaling consumer-facing AI experiences (conversational assistants, agentic commerce, personalization, recommendation systems).
- AI-driven marketing capabilities - content/creative generation, AI-led advertising, and AI-driven discovery and search optimization.
- Activating enterprise AI tooling and copilots at scale across a global workforce.
- Operating within or alongside large-scale ERP or digital transformation programs (e.g., SAP S/4HANA migrations).
- Thinks like a product leader, delivers like an engineering leader, and communicates like a transformation lead.
- Is deeply curious about AI but pragmatic about deploying it in real enterprise workflows.
- Is comfortable with ambiguity and creates structure where none exists.
- Has strong judgment about when to use AI, when not to use AI, and how to evaluate AI responsibly.
- Influences without authority and aligns stakeholders across business, IT, compliance, and operations.
