Senior Director - Machine Learning and AI - Denver

About Auror

At Auror, we’re empowering the retail industry to tackle theft and Organised Retail Crime, a $150 Billion problem globally. It’s high volume crime that’s increasingly organised in nature and is putting people, retailers, and communities at risk every day.

Founded in New Zealand 12 years ago, we’re working with some of the best and largest retailers in the world across the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and the UK.

Auror is connecting people and intelligence to reduce crime. We’re using technology for good.

In partnership with our leading retail partners, we need people with the passion, determination, and innovation required to overcome one of the world's largest problems. If you’re looking to make a difference with and for the people dedicated to stopping crime, for good, then we want you on our team.

We're also embracing the potential of AI to supercharge our impact, whether that's enhancing the way we detect trends, support our customers, or improve internal workflows. As a company, we're committed to responsibly incorporating AI into how we work and what we build, and we encourage all Aurors to be curious about how AI can elevate their work, regardless of role or function.

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Location:

This role works closely with our Product and Engineering teams, who are based in New Zealand. To enable strong collaboration, we will prioritise candidates who are open to relocating to New Zealand. Auror will provide relocation support. We review every application carefully and encourage you to apply, even if relocation is something you’re still considering.}

As the Senior Director - Machine Learning and AI, you are the driving force for how Auror harnesses ML and AI to accelerate our mission of reducing retail crime. This role goes beyond model development, it’s about visionary leadership, product innovation, and shaping how responsible AI unlocks transformative value for our customers, our business, and the communities we serve that help us achieve our mission of 50 in 5.

You will lead our Data Science organisation and partner closely with Product, Engineering, Customer, and our Executive Team to define how AI becomes a core strategic lever for Auror. You’ll push the boundaries of what’s possible today while shaping the horizon for tomorrow, identifying new opportunities, new product verticals, and new ways AI can strengthen our impact.

• Define and deliver Auror’s 3 year AI & ML strategy, ensuring it strengthens customer value, business growth, and our position as the global leader in responsible AI for retail crime intelligence.
• Partner with the CPO and Mission Control to shape strategic investment in AI, bringing deep expertise and pragmatic decision-making to the table.
• Set a clear vision for how ML/AI accelerates our mission today, while scanning the horizon for what comes next, this includes new technologies, new product directions, and new opportunities for impact.

• Lead the roadmap for embedding AI into our platform in ways that drive measurable outcomes, this includes revenue growth, customer retention, competitive differentiation, and meaningful crime-prevention outcomes.
• Drive ML/AI powered product innovation, working with Product to shape future product verticals and AI enabled features.
• Oversee research and development across machine learning, generative AI, predictive modelling, computer vision, natural language processing, and emerging techniques.
• Identify and integrate new data sources, models, and AI capabilities that unlock business and customer value.

• Establish and uphold clear guardrails for responsible AI, this includes model lifecycle management, ethical AI, fairness, transparency, and privacy.
• Monitor and manage AI-related risks (bias, compliance, data quality), while ensuring we move fast responsibly and maintain customer trust.
• Partner with Security, Privacy, and Compliance to ensure AI systems meet the highest standards.

• Champion AI adoption across Auror by building organisational confidence, raising literacy, and role-modelling best practice.
• Act as a thought leader, internally…