Corporate Vice President - Head of AI Center of Excellence

Location Designation: Hybrid - 3 days per week 

When you join New York Life, you’re joining a company that values career development, collaboration, innovation, and inclusiveness. We want employees to feel proud about being part of a company that is committed to doing the right thing. You’ll have the opportunity to grow your career while developing personally and professionally through various resources and programs. New York Life is a relationship-based company and appreciates how both virtual and in-person interactions support our culture.

The Head of AI Center of Excellence will play a pivotal role in leading and expanding our generative AI and advanced machine learning capabilities. Collaborating closely with the Head of ML Ops, this leader will be responsible for building a cutting-edge generative AI practice and associated assets. The ideal candidate will have substantial experience in developing and deploying generative AI and advanced machine learning solutions and will also possess the ability to attract top talent with similar skill sets.  

This role offers a unique opportunity to help shape the company’s vision of becoming a leader in generative AI within our industry, as emphasized by NYL’s CEO. 

In addition to generative AI, the role requires deep expertise in traditional statistical predictive modeling, as not every project will necessitate generative AI. The Head of AI Center of Excellence will report to the Chief Data Science Officer at New York Life. 

Key Responsibilities: 

• Lead the Generative AI Practice: Build and manage the generative AI practice within the AI Team, including developing use cases and managing stakeholders across various business units. This also involves talent acquisition and development, advocating for advanced problem-solving techniques, and ensuring proper infrastructure and tooling in collaboration with ML Ops and IT. 
• Collaborate Across the Organization: Work with analytics leaders’ company-wide to address complex problems, drive innovation, and enhance team structures and organization. 
• Stakeholder Management: Oversee the design and execution of AI solutions, ensuring successful deployment into full production while managing diverse stakeholders throughout the process. 
• Thought Leadership: Serve as a thought leader and consultant on AI at the enterprise level, providing strategic insights and guidance. 
• Support Corporate AI Initiatives: Contribute to AI workstreams and enterprise-wide initiatives, offering support to corporate functions. 
• Promote Organizational Effectiveness: Demonstrate strong storytelling and product branding skills, which are as crucial as technical leadership within a complex organization like NYL. 
• Advanced AI and ML Techniques: Utilize cutting-edge statistical, machine learning, and AI techniques to develop high-performing models and solutions that meet business objectives. Continuously test new methods and technologies for ongoing improvement. 
• Facilitate Model Production: Collaborate with technology and ML Ops teams to transition models into production and enhance MLOps practices. 
• Data Visualization and Tools: Employ visualization tools for model testing, results presentation, and data pattern analysis. Design metrics for model selection and performance monitoring. 
• Team Leadership: Build, manage, and retain a team of highly skilled data scientists. This includes goal setting, performance evaluation, resource allocation, career development, and recruitment. 
• Develop New Use Cases: Expl