Director Technology and Innovation

Description

The Director Technology and Innovation reports to the Chief Information Officer and is responsible for advancing the firm’s use of emerging technology, data, analytics, automation, and artificial intelligence. The Director partners with business, practice, and technology leaders to translate needs into a prioritized portfolio of practical, scalable solutions that improve project delivery, operational performance, employee experience, and client value. This role guides initiatives from discovery and business-case development through pilot, implementation, adoption, governance, and value measurement.

The Director also helps strengthen the firm’s data and AI capabilities by coordinating internal resources, external partners, standards, and responsible-use practices.

• Develop and maintain a technology advancement roadmap aligned with business priorities, practice needs, client expectations, and the CIO’s technology direction.
• Identify and assess emerging technologies and use cases based on business value, feasibility, risk, scalability, and organizational readiness.
• Prepare business cases, recommendations, success measures, and portfolio updates for review by the CIO and other decision-makers.
• Monitor AEC and broader technology trends and recommend focused opportunities for evaluation or investment.

• Provide program leadership for data, analytics, automation, machine learning, generative AI, and related digital initiatives in partnership with technical and business stakeholders.
• Coordinate with data, security, infrastructure, application, and architecture resources to define solution requirements and delivery plans.
• Guide initiatives from discovery and proof of concept through pilot, deployment, operational handoff, measurement, and continuous improvement.
• Promote reusable, supportable solutions that align with the firm’s enterprise architecture and technology standards.

• Build relationships with architecture, engineering, planning, project management, and market leaders to understand workflow challenges and technology opportunities.
• Translate practice needs into clear product, data, integration, adoption, and change-management requirements.
• Advance practical use cases such as knowledge and project archive search, pre-design analysis, code and compliance research, product and material intelligence, project-status reporting, drawing and specification support, and administrative automation.
• Ensure proposed solutions support professional judgment, quality standards, contractual commitments, client requirements, and risk-management practices.

• Manage a structured intake and prioritization process for technology, data, and AI opportunities.
• Coordinate initiative plans, dependencies, risks, budgets, resources, adoption activities, and measures of success.
• Partner with business owners to define expected outcomes, monitor adoption and performance, and document realized value.
• Provide clear progress reporting and recommendations to the CIO, sponsors, and governance groups.

• Partner with Information Technology, Legal, and business stakeholders to implement governance for emerging technology, data, and AI.
• Help establish and apply standards for data quality, ownership, stewardship, access, retention, privacy, model oversight, acceptable use, and human review.
• Coordinate governance for employee-enabled AI tools, including evaluation, procurement, access, integration, data use, security, and ongoing oversight.
• Support protection of firm intellectual property, project information, client information, and institutional knowledge.