Sr. Manager, AI Engagement and Delivery - Remote

Senior Manager AI Initiatives

The Senior Manager leads business engagement and delivery oversight for a portfolio of AI initiatives across assigned UNFI business units and functional areas. The role is accountable for turning business opportunities into clearly defined, prioritized, funded, executable, and ultimately delivered initiatives, from initial discovery and opportunity framing through business case development, project readiness, delivery oversight, adoption, and benefits realization.

The position serves as the primary AI portfolio partner for assigned business/functional areas, developing a deep understanding of their operations, strategic priorities, pain points, data, and performance drivers. The role maintains an integrated AI roadmap for those areas, proactively identifies opportunities, shapes use cases around measurable business outcomes, and coordinates the business, Technology, PMO, Finance, governance, and delivery resources required to move initiatives from idea to implementation.

This is a hands-on leadership role. The Senior Manager is expected to bring sufficient AI product and solutioning experience to lead rapid discovery exercises and, in partnership with Product & Engineering, create or guide lightweight prototypes and proof-of-concept solutions that help stakeholders understand what is possible, validate feasibility, sharpen scope, and make better investment decisions. The role is not expected to serve as the production engineering owner, but must be capable of working credibly with engineers, architects, data teams, and external developers throughout the solution lifecycle.

Job Responsibilities:

• Serve as the primary AI engagement and portfolio leader for assigned business units and functional areas, developing trusted relationships and a strong understanding of their strategies, processes, priorities, and performance drivers.
• Maintain an integrated AI opportunity pipeline and roadmap for assigned areas, balancing business value, feasibility, readiness, dependencies, investment needs, and delivery capacity.
• Lead opportunity discovery and use-case framing, translating business challenges into clear problem statements, target outcomes, functional scope, requirements, success measures, and phased delivery options.
• Help stakeholders determine whether opportunities are best addressed through AI, analytics, process redesign, automation, existing platform capabilities, or other technology solutions.
• Lead or participate in rapid prototypes and proof-of-concept exercises with business stakeholders and AI Product & Engineering to validate feasibility, demonstrate the art of the possible, and improve scope, estimates, and delivery direction.
• Own development of business cases in partnership with business sponsors, Finance, and other stakeholders, including baselines, value levers, assumptions, costs, risks, expected benefits, and measures of success.
• Prepare initiatives for formal delivery by aligning sponsorship, funding, scope, business requirements, dependencies, resource needs, governance, and stakeholder responsibilities.
• Partner with PMO to establish project plans, milestones, governance, risks, decisions, resource models, and reporting appropriate to each initiative.
• Remain accountable for the business outcome of assigned initiatives from discovery through implementation, adoption, and benefits realization.
• Partner with AI Product & Engineering throughout solution design, development, testing, deployment, and stabilization to ensure technical delivery remains aligned with the intended business need and functional scope.
• Coordinate business participation in requirements validation, demonstrations, user acceptance testing, process readiness, communications, training, adoption, and go-live decisions.
• Direct third-party partners from a business outcome, functional scope, stakeholder, and delivery perspective, while AI Product & Engineering provides technical direction and owns engineering standards, technical quality, deployment, production operations, and support readiness.
• Track portfolio progress, risks, decisions, dependencies, adoption, and expected value, providing clear updates and recommendations to business and Technology leadership.
• Lead and develop engagement leads, product owners, analysts, contingent resources, and delivery partners, establishing consistent practices for discovery, roadmap design, business cases, prototyping, project readiness, and value realization.
• Performs other duties as assigned.

Job Requirements:

Education/

Certifications:

• Bachelor's degree in business, technology, engineering, computer science, data science, information systems, operations, supply chain, finance, or a related field.

Experience:

• 10+ years of progressive experience across business functions, technology, finance, process transformation, analytics, automation, digital product management, or enterprise solution delivery.
• 5+ years of experience leading product owners, analysts, consultants, cross-functional teams,…