IT - AI Platform Manager

Established in 1919 and traded on the NYSE, Standard Motor Products, Inc. (SMP) is a leading independent manufacturer and distributor of premium automotive replacement parts utilized in the maintenance, repair, and service of vehicles in the automotive aftermarket. Additionally, SMP provides customized solutions for vehicle control and thermal management products in diversified end markets represented by its Engineered Solutions segment. Globally, SMP employs over 6,000 employees across nearly 40 manufacturing, distribution, and engineering facilities and offices located in North America, Europe and Asia.

SMP sells its products primarily to automotive aftermarket retailers, program distribution groups, warehouse distributors, original equipment manufacturers, and original equipment service part operations in the United States, Canada, Europe, Asia, Mexico, and other Latin American countries.

The Manager of Artificial Intelligence owns Standard Motor Products' AI capability end to end: the strategy, the portfolio, the people who deliver it, and the governance that keeps it safe and aligned to business priorities. The role sets direction for how AI is applied across the enterprise, decides which initiatives are funded and sequenced, assigns and reviews the work of engineers and analysts contributing to those initiatives, and is accountable to senior leadership for the outcomes.

It is a working management role: the manager retains enough technical depth to make architecture calls, evaluate a solution's readiness, and challenge a design, while spending the majority of their time directing others rather than building personally.

Direct the day-to-day work of the analysts, engineers, and contributors assigned to AI initiatives, including task assignment, prioritization, and review of deliverables before they reach business stakeholders. Set expectations for documentation quality, time tracking, and project hygiene, and coach team members on writing for an executive audience. Identify capability gaps, make the case for additional resources, and develop the technical and communication skills the team needs as the AI portfolio grows.

Own the enterprise AI portfolio from intake through delivery. Decide which requests become funded initiatives, sequence them against available capacity, and ensure every effort is captured, assigned, and visible in the department's project and time tracking system rather than run informally. Manage timelines and dependencies across concurrent projects, escrow risks early, and keep leadership and external partners informed of where each initiative stands.

Set the architectural direction for AI solutions, including embedding and vector search design, cloud AI resource strategy, API-based delivery to consuming teams, and where AI-derived data should be hosted so that transactional systems are not put iew and approve functional and technical requirements before they go to business owners, arbitrate design disagreements between teams, and hold the line on what is production-ready versus what remains a proof of concept.

Define and maintain the company's AI governance framework, including how governance responsibilities are divided, which areas are prioritized each year, and how they are measured. Establish standards for data access, credential handling, and acceptable use of AI tools, and ensure initiatives comply with information security requirements. Serve as the decision point when a proposed AI use case raises data, security, or reputational concerns.

Brief the executive team on AI strategy, progress, and risk in business terms, and build the training and advisory programs that raise AI fluency across leadership. Own the adoption strategy for enterprise AI and collaboration tooling, including how much change the organization absorbs at once, what supporting communications go out, and how business groups are structured for information sharing. Sponsor the communications, prompt libraries, and enablement materials the organization uses.

Manage relationships with AI platform vendors and partners, including capability evaluations, licensing decisions, and the commitments that come with them. Represent the company in industry associations and peer councils, align shared priorities with counterparts at other organizations, and bring external developments back into the company's own roadmap.

Initiative

Directed the image embedding and similarity search effort, secured cross-team data access, and set the hosting decision with web and database engineering so catalog traffic stays off transactional systems.

Management accountability

Commissioned the development environment for programmatic field translation and…