Director, AI Centre of Excellence

Worker Type:
Employee Job Post End Date: 11/04/2026

Reporting to the Vice-President, Business Transformation, the Director, AI Centre of Excellence is the enterprise operational leader responsible for advancing and scaling Cenovus’s AI capability. The Director leads the AI Centre of Excellence at the centre of Cenovus’s Hub and Spoke operating model. Building on the strong foundation already established, this role translates enterprise priorities into an AI program that delivers measurable business value and helps Cenovus leverage AI effectively s role will act as a change leader who understands AI and knows how to turn emerging technology into practical business outcomes while building the teams, operating models and foundation required to sustain them.

The role will be adept at operating in ambiguity, making prioritization decisions under competing demands, and influencing executives, technical teams and business leaders toward a common outcome. This is an opportunity to shape how Cenovus uses AI across the enterprise, scale its impact consistently and responsibly, and help position the company for sustained competitive advantage. Success in this role means delivering measurable business value through AI, enabling business areas to become increasingly self‑sufficient, and establishing confidence that AI is being used responsibly across Cenovus.

• Lead the AI Centre of Excellence, including a multidisciplinary team of AI, delivery and business enablement professionals.
• Lead the next phase of Cenovus’s Hub and Spoke operating model, enabling business areas to develop their own AI capabilities while using common enterprise services, standards and components.
• Own the enterprise AI strategy, roadmap and portfolio, including intake, prioritization, capacity allocation, delivery oversight and executive reporting.
• Partner with the business to identify, characterize and capture value from AI initiatives.
• Build enterprise AI capability through spoke enablement, communities of practice, reusable delivery approaches and the consistent scaling of proven solutions.
• Partner with D&IT and other enabling functions to establish sustainable governance, standards, operating practices and delivery models that enable responsible AI adoption at scale.
• Influence and align executives, business leaders, enabling functions, external partners and the Board of Directors around enterprise AI priorities and outcomes.
• Lead enterprise AI prioritization and trade‑off decisions across value, risk, governance, adoption and capacity constraints.

• Legally authorized to work in Canada.
• Bachelor’s degree in business administration, engineering, computer science, data science, information systems or another relevant discipline. Equivalent combination of education and directly applicable experience may be considered.
• Minimum 20 years of industry experience, with 10 years of progressive leadership experience demonstrating increasing organizational scope and accountability to senior stakeholders.
• Minimum 5 years of experience working at the intersection of technology and business outcomes.
• Demonstrated experience leading complex, cross‑functional enterprise programs involving executive stakeholders and teams outside the candidate’s direct authority.
• Strong knowledge of enterprise AI technologies, vendors and emerging trends.
• Sufficient AI literacy to evaluate proposals, challenge assumptions and lead informed decisions.
• No specific AI or technical certification is required.
• Working knowledge of responsible AI, risk‑based governance, human oversight, transparency, model evaluation and model lifecycle management.
• Demonstrated change leadership and organizational transformation capability, including…