Senior Director, Artificial Intelligence

Overview

Edmund Optics is seeking a Senior Director of Artificial Intelligence to lead the strategy, development, and deployment of AI initiatives across the organization. This role will define the enterprise AI roadmap, and build and mentor a high-performing team. This role will partner with the continuous improvement team to determine areas within the organization that can benefit the most from AI, as well as working with the analytics team on the development and rollout of AI-driven solutions for Edmund Optics. This role will partner with engineering, manufacturing, sales, and IT leadership to embed AI into core business processes. The ideal candidate combines deep technical expertise with strong business acumen and the ability to translate AI capabilities into measurable value for a global optics and photonics manufacturer.

Responsibilities

• Strategy & Vision: Define and drive the company-wide AI strategy, identifying high-impact opportunities across manufacturing, HR, quality control, supply chain, R&D, sales, and customer service.
• Leadership & Team Building: Recruit, develop, and lead a team of new to industry AI designers and project managers to implement major AI projects. Work with the analytics team to establish best practices for model development, deployment, and governance. Move towards a hub-and-spoke operating model, with a centralized team of specialists defining standards and practices while working closely with embedded teams across the business.
• Cross-Functional Partnership: Collaborate with continuous improvement and with major functional areas such as optical engineering, manufacturing operations, IT, and commercial teams to identify use cases for advancement (e.g., computer vision for defect detection, predictive maintenance, generative AI for design/quoting tools, customer-facing chat/support tools).
• Solution Delivery: Be accountable for the full lifecycle of AI projects — from proof of concept through production deployment and monitoring — ensuring scalability, reliability, and ROI.
• Data Infrastructure: Partner with IT, analytics, and cybersecurity to ensure the organization has the data pipelines, infrastructure, and governance needed to support AI initiatives.
• Innovation & Emerging Tech: Stay current on advances in AI (including large language models, computer vision, generative AI, agentic AI, and industrial AI applications) and assess applicability to optics manufacturing and photonics R&D.
• Responsible AI & Governance: Establish policies for data privacy, model risk, security, and ethical use of AI across the enterprise.
• Executive Communication: Report to senior leadership on AI initiative progress, business impact, budget, and risk; build the business case for continued AI investment.
• Vendor & Partnership Management: Evaluate and manage relationships with AI technology vendors, cloud providers, and external research partners.

Qualifications

To perform this position successfully, an individual must be able to perform each essential function satisfactorily. The requirements listed below are representative of the knowledge, skill and/or ability required. Reasonable Accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

Required Skills & Abilities

• Proven track record of deploying AI and/or ML solutions at scale in a manufacturing, industrial, or engineering-driven environment.
• Strong knowledge of machine learning, computer vision, agentic AI, and/or generative AI techniques and their practical business applications.
• Strong change management skills, especially implementing AI solutions in major functional areas of a large organization.
• Experience building and leading technical teams.
• Excellent communication skills with the ability to translate technical concepts for non-technical executive stakeholders.
• Experience managing budgets and demonstrating ROI on technology investments
• Comply with federal, state, and company policies, procedures, and regulations

Education/Experience

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Data Science, Engineering, or related field (Master's or PhD preferred).
• 5+ years of experience in AI, ML, data science, or related technical fields, with 5+ years in a leadership role adjacent to AI (computer science, engineering, data analytics or other related fields).

The following qualifications are preferred:

• Experience in optics, photonics, precision manufacturing, or a related technical industry.
• Experience with cloud AI or M