AI Transformation Portfolio Manager Director

Vertex’s Data, Technology and Engineering (DTE) organization is seeking a Director, AI Portfolio Management to join the Project Management and Strategic Operations (PMSO) team. PMSO is responsible for streamlining and simplifying the work of Vertex’s data and technology teams and supporting the successful deployment of new technologies across the global enterprise.

This role reports to the Senior Director, Project Management and Strategic Operations and partners closely with the Chief Technology Officer (CTO) to oversee a portfolio of AI-driven initiatives supporting Vertex’s ambition of a tech-enabled workforce.

The role requires leadership across portfolio planning, financial management, governance, and oversight of program, project, and change management. The portfolio is organized around AI-driven initiatives prioritized by value, achievability, and risk to business, with implementation supported through waves, sprint plans, timelines, investment planning, and executive review processes.

This role will also help ensure AI-driven initiatives are delivered with appropriate oversight across responsible AI, data privacy, cybersecurity, and AI lifecycle management considerations, in alignment with enterprise governance and operational requirements.

• Lead the portfolio management of AI-driven workforce transformation initiatives across DTE and partner functions.
• Maintain portfolio roadmaps, ensuring alignment with strategic priorities, resource needs, and capacity planning.
• Develop and manage governance processes to ensure alignment to business requirements, executive sponsorship, and strategic priorities.
• Support prioritization, sequencing, and delivery of initiatives based on value to enterprise, total expected value, annual savings, achievability, risk to business, implementation timeline, investment need, current budget, and cost to complete.
• Partner with stakeholders to oversee initiative execution through waves, sprint plans, MVP timing, and execution timelines.
• Prepare materials for regular portfolio reviews and presentations to executive leadership, and help facilitate strategy and portfolio review meetings with senior leaders.
• Communicate portfolio status, risks, issues, and decisions to DTE leadership and the Senior Director, Project Management and Strategic Operations.
• Influence cross-functional stakeholders to support sound decision-making and proactive risk and issue mitigation across the portfolio.
• Manage portfolio financials, including budget planning, forecasting, accruals, investment tracking, value realization, and cost-to-complete visibility.
• Lead, coach, and support project and program managers to ensure excellence in delivery across AI and technology implementations.
• Support adoption of AI-enabled capabilities and end-to-end process implementation across functions to expand workforce capacity and enable growth without proportional headcount expansion.
• Coordinate across initiatives involving enterprise workflow orchestration, natural language interfaces, governed enterprise data, live data integration, and AI agents.
• Partner with stakeholders to support initiatives involving governed enterprise data catalogs, semantic layers, queryable enterprise data, and enterprise AI data platforms.
• Support initiatives with regulatory and compliance dimensions, including health authority guidance, country-specific requirements, structured data exchange, and GxP validation considerations where applicable.
• Engage with external vendors, platform providers, and implementation partners as needed to support delivery, reduce vendor reliance where appropriate, and manage vendor-related dependencies and risks.
• Support the responsible and effective deployment of AI-driven initiatives…