Job DescriptionMost companies talk about "modernizing HR." We're funding a team to do it - and we need someone to run it.
You'll lead a small, scrappy squad responsible for four disciplines - AI product, knowledge engineering, process optimization, and project/change management - plus the people who operate them. These four disciplines aren't side projects. They're the actual source code for how HR and the associate experience get better at Albertsons - every faster answer, simpler process, smarter tool, and successfully-adopted change traces back to work this team owns. Your job is to prove that out.
If you've ever sat inside a big, slow-moving company, watched a genuinely good idea die in committee, and thought "I could fix this if someone just let me" - this is that chance.
We're not looking for someone who wants to inherit a playbook and run it. We're looking for someone who wants to write the first one.
Main responsibilities:What you're walking into: HR Operations at Albertsons touches over 285,000 associates. Most of the tools, processes, and knowledge systems behind that scale were built for a different era. Our job is to fix that - with better AI tools, cleaner processes, less manual busywork, and change management that actually sticks instead of fading out after the kickoff email. You'll lead the team doing that work, and you'll personally own the initiatives that matter most.
This is a builder role, not a maintainer role. You'll be writing requirements one day, untangling a broken process the next, and briefing HR leadership on ROI the day after that. If you need a fully-scoped, someone-already-figured-it-out job, this isn't it.
What You'll Own- AI Product Ownership: Know Where the Investment Actually Matters
- You'll own the roadmap for our AI-enabled HR tools - working across HR leadership to figure out where investment actually matters most, not just where it's easiest to build something. That means turning "associates keep asking the same question" into a real backlog, a real business case, and a shipped feature, and building the value models that prove it was worth doing. Longer-term, you'll help design what the combination of AI agents across HR should actually look like - not a pile of disconnected bots, but a coherent future experience. Since this work currently sits partly with our Tech Product team, part of your job is partnering closely with them to figure out where HR's product ownership begins and ends.
- AI Knowledge Engineering: Make the Bot Actually Know Things
- An AI tool is only as good as what it knows. You'll own how HR knowledge gets structured, governed, and fed into our chatbot and AI systems - so when an associate asks a question, they get a real answer, not a hallucinated one. You'll run the audits, find the gaps, and consolidate the five different versions of "the truth" floating around HR into one that's actually true.
- Process Optimization: Simplify Before You Automate
- Every manual process that exists because "that's how we've always done it" is a target - but at Albertsons, that target is complicated. Collective bargaining agreements across dozens of markets mean policy and practice can vary widely from one location to the next, and that complexity cascades straight into the back-end processes built to support it. Part of this job is partnering with Labor Relations and market HR teams to find standard, simpler ways to frame policy and practice in the first place - so the processes behind them can actually be simplified, streamlined, or automated instead of just patched. Sometimes the right answer is automation. Sometimes it's eliminating a step entirely. You'll figure out which, then build it and prove it in hours saved, not vibes.
- Project & Change Management: Run the PMO That Makes HR's Big Bets Land
- This isn't just a PMO for this team's own initiatives - it's a PMO in service of HR broadly. You'll run disciplined, lightweight project management across medium-to-large HR initiatives, including work well outside AI, knowledge, or process - anything HR leadership needs sequenced, resourced, and actually delivered. And you'll own the change management that makes adoption real instead of theoretical, whether that's for your own team's work or someone else's initiative that needs a safe pair of hands. Good ideas die from bad execution more often than bad ideas. You're the reason that doesn't happen.
How We'll Know You're Crushing It:We're not going to grade you on how busy you looked. We're going to look at:
- Did AI tool accuracy and adoption actually go up, quarter over quarter?
- Did a manual process get measurably faster, cheaper, or simply disappear - and stay that way?
- Did the initiative ship on time, or did it die in indecision purgatory?
Value here shows up in a lot of different currencies - money saved, hours given back, and process-level speed are all part of the story, but so is what happens downstream for associates. If the work of this team helps stores hire faster, get new associates productive sooner, or meaningfully cuts unwanted attrition, that's the story we'll be measuring and shouting from the housetops.
Who You Are:- You're probably not a "traditional HR" person, and that's fine - some of the best people for this role come from consulting, tech product, PMO/transformation offices, or operations, not classic HR. What matters more than your job title history is this:
- You've run a PMO, transformation office, or continuous improvement function - you know how to structure work, manage risk, and get cross-functional people to actually deliver (typically 7 plus years, with at least 2 leading people).
- You've owned a product or process roadmap end-to-end - not just written requirements but watched something ship and measured whether it actually worked.
- You're allergic to busy work, yours and everyone else's. If you see a manual process, your instinct is "why does this still exist," not "how do I do it faster."
- You obsess over the end user, not just the output. Before something ships, you want to know: is this what the associate or HR user actually needed, or just what we assumed they needed? You'd rather delay a launch than ship something that technically works but nobody actually wants to use.
- You can operate in ambiguity without spiraling. This team is being built, not inherited. Some days you're defining the process; other days you're the one running it.
- You lead people, but you're not above the work. You'll manage a small team, but this is still a get-your-hands-dirty role - you'll be in the requirements doc and the stakeholder meeting in the same week.
We also provide a variety of benefits including:- Competitive wages paid weekly
- Access to up to 50% of your earned wages before payday, via our partnership with Stream
- Associate discounts
- Health and financial well-being benefits for eligible associates (Medical, Dental, 401k and more!)
- Time off (vacation, holidays, sick pay). For eligibility requirements please visit myACI Benefits
- Leaders invested in your training, career growth and development
- An inclusive work environment with talented colleagues who reflect the communities we serve
Our Values - Click below to view video: ACI Values
A copy of the full job description can be made available to you.
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Disclaimer
The above statements are intended to describe the general nature of work performed by the employees assigned to this job and are not the official job description for the position. All employees must comply with Company, Division, and Store policies and applicable laws. The responsibilities, duties, and skills of personnel may vary within store and/or from store to store and the official job description will be provided during the application process.
