AI Lead

Responsible AI Lead

The Responsible AI Lead will establish and operationalize the enterprise's approach to Responsible AI and AI governance and deployment across internally built and third-party AI solutions. This role will help ensure AI is deployed safely, ethically, and effectively enterprise-wide by creating the frameworks, processes, and organizational alignment needed to support enterprise adoption. This role helps establish a framework to turn "Responsible AI" into a business accelerator.

This is an exempt level role and reports to the VP Data & AI.

Our Credit Union was founded in 1936 and has grown to serve members throughout Texas and beyond. At UFCU, we are more than just a financial institution, and our people are more than just employees. We are dedicated to our purpose of empowering our Members to achieve financial success and build brighter futures.

In pursuit of our aspiration that UFCU is loved by millions of Members and built to thrive for generations, we are guided by our values:

• Purposefully Member-Obsessed:
  We are driven by a profound sense of empathy to deeply understand our Members' needs and preferences, what brighter futures means to them, and the obstacles in their way. We act in our Members' best interests, forever seeking to empower their financial success.
• Possibilities Reimagined:
  We are inspired to courageously experiment, learn, and iterate in pursuit of positive impact for our Members, UFCU, and coworkers. We challenge assumptions, embrace diverse perspectives, and make use of data and insights.
• Performance Excellence Rooted in Unwavering Integrity:
  We do the right thing, always. We champion teamwork, accountability, continuous improvement, and celebrate successful outcomes of others, fostering an inclusive environment of excellence and collaboration.

Essential Functions

• Own and operationalize the enterprise AI Risk Management and Responsible AI framework across the full AI lifecycle (intake, design, build/buy, testing/validation, deployment, monitoring, change management, and retirement) for both internally developed and third-party AI solutions
• Maintain an "always current" governance posture by monitoring evolving laws, regulations, supervisory expectations, and standards (e.g., EU AI Act and other emerging guidance), translating updates into internal policy, controls, procedures, and playbooks
• Define and enforce enterprise decision rights for AI adoption (ownership, accountability, approval thresholds, and escalation paths), ensuring consistent governance across business lines and functions
• Embed AI governance into existing delivery and operational processes (e.g., vendor management, model risk/validation, SDLC, change management, incident management, privacy/security reviews) so governance is executed through operating rhythms, not standalone compliance activity
• Establish and run AI risk assessment, audits, and impact analysis processes to identify, document, and mitigate ethical, regulatory, operational, and reputational risks (including fairness, transparency, privacy, explainability, data lineage/quality, and lifecycle oversight)
• Provide enterprise visibility and reporting on AI inventory, risk posture, control effectiveness, performance and drift, operational stability, issues/incidents, and remediation progress delivering actionable insights and recommendations to senior leadership and governance forums
• Partner cross-functionally (Business, IT, Data, Risk, Compliance, Legal, Security, HR) to ensure AI solutions are designed and operated responsibly, with clear requirements, controls, and accountability for outcomes
• Evaluate AI use cases and vendor solutions for readiness (governance, risk, control maturity, implementation feasibility, monitoring capability, documentation quality) and provide go/no-go and risk acceptance recommendations
• In partnership with the People Team, enable responsible adoption through guidance and education by creating practical standards, templates, training, and "how-to" support that helps teams implement controls correctly and efficiently

Other

• Adheres to all company policies, procedures, and business ethics codes
• Completes required regulatory training as assigned
• Maintains strict adherence to and compliance with all laws, rules, regulations, and internal controls specific to the role, including but not limited to Bank Secrecy Act, Anti-Money Laundering, USA Patriot Act, OFAC and Fair Lending regulations

Knowledge/Skills/Abilities

• Enterprise Responsible AI / AI risk management expertise: demonstrated experience designing and implementing Responsible AI, AI governance, and/or data/model governance frameworks in complex organizations
• Strong command of risk and controls for AI across build and buy: ability to assess and manage risks spanning data privacy, security, bias/fairness, transparency/explainability, third-party risk, auditability, model performance, drift, and operational resilience
• Regulatory and standards awareness with translation to practice: proven…