Principal Artificial Intelligence; AI Product Manager - Hybrid; Newport News, VA

Position: Principal Artificial Intelligence (AI) Product Manager - Hybrid (Newport News, VA)
This job is with Ferguson, an inclusive employer and a member of my Gwork – the largest global platform for the LGBTQ+ business community. Please do not contact the recruiter directly.

Job Posting:
Since 1953, Ferguson has been a source of quality supplies for a variety of industries. Together We Build Better infrastructure, better homes and better businesses. We exist to make our customers' complex projects simple, successful, and sustainable. We proactively solve problems, adapt and grow to continuously serve our customers, communities and each other. Ferguson, a Fortune 500 company, is proud to provide best-in-class products, service and capabilities across the following industries:
Commercial/Mechanical, Facilities Supply, Fire and Fabrication, HVAC, Industrial, Residential Trade, Residential Building and Remodel, Waterworks and Residential Digital Commerce. Ferguson has approximately 36,000 associates across 1,700 locations. Ferguson is a community of proud associates who operate with the shared purpose of building something meaningful. You will build a career that you are proud of, at a company you can believe in.
Principal AI Product Manager  Ferguson is building its AI product capability from the ground up. This is the first dedicated product management hire on the AI team and is charged with finding the highest-value problems across a $30B distribution business, building AI products that solve them, and driving adoption of those products  Principal AI Product Manager reports to the VP of AI Enablement and operates with full ownership of the product lifecycle, from early discovery through scaled deployment and measured business impact.

This is not a backlog management role; it's a builder role. You will spend time in the field understanding how work actually happens, define what to build and what to say no to, ship fast, prove value, and use that momentum to unlock the next investment.

The right candidate has built products in high-growth or high-velocity environments where speed, ambiguity, and direct accountability for outcomes were the norm. You've shipped products that moved real business metrics, not just features that checked roadmap boxes. You know how to operate with a small team and make outsized impact. And you're energized by the idea of bringing that approach into a Fortune 500 company where the opportunity is enormous and the AI product function is yours to build.

Location:

This is a Hybrid role based out of our HQ location in Newport News, VA, in accordance with the our Flex schedule; 3 days office / 2 days remote.

Duties and Responsibilities:

Embed in Ferguson's operations - branches, field teams, sales offices, contractor job sites - to build a first-person understanding of how work happens and where AI can create step-change value.
Lead discovery through direct observation, customer interviews, workflow analysis, and data exploration, prioritizing observed behavior over reported behavior.
Map the full landscape of problems worth solving across the value chain, from supplier through sales, the branch, fulfillment, and service teams to project owner, engineer, contractor and end customer.
Build and maintain a living view of the opportunity set that evolves as you learn, not a static document that sits on a shelf.
Prioritize tenaciously based on business impact, technical feasibility, and organizational readiness - not business customer volume or executive visibility.
Make explicit trade-off decisions and communicate them clearly, so business customers understand not just what was chosen but why alternatives were deprioritized.
Reassess priorities continuously as new information surfaces, market conditions shift, and the team's understanding of the problem space deepens.
Build compelling, evidence-based narratives that make the problem real to engineering teams, executives, and business partners - connecting every initiative to measurable business outcomes.
Secure and maintain executive sponsorship by framing AI value in terms leadership cares about: revenue growth, customer experience, and associate productivity.
Navigate contending priorities across a sophisticated, matrixed…