Senior Director, Enterprise AI Strategy & Operating Model

Lumen is the trusted network for the AI‑powered world, connecting people, data, and applications through our expansive fiber network and connected ecosystem. We enable secure, high‑performance connectivity across cloud, edge, and AI workloads for enterprises, governments, and communities.

At Lumen, you'll work on infrastructure customers rely on today and build for what's next, where performance, security, and resilience matter.

This is a high accountability environment where bold ideas drive real innovation for our customers, partners, and industry. The work is challenging, expectations are clear, and trust is built into how we operate. If you're ready to take ownership, deliver meaningful impact, and help shape the future of AI‑ready connectivity, join us today.

** The Role*
* At Lumen, we are building the digital backbone for the AI economy. As we accelerate our AI ambitions, we are looking for an experienced enterprise leader who can turn fragmented efforts into a disciplined system for prioritizing, building, governing, and scaling AI. In this role, you will define how AI work gets done across Lumen by establishing the operating model, governance, standards, and execution discipline that move initiatives from idea to pilot to production and scale.

This is not a centralized AI delivery role. It is a high-impact leadership opportunity for a strategist and operator who can help teams across the company build AI consistently, responsibly, and with measurable business value.

** The Main Responsibilities*
* ** Define and evolve the enterprise AI operating model*
* + Define how AI opportunities are identified, prioritized, governed, built, scaled, and measured across the enterprise

+ Establish clear roles, decision rights, lifecycle stages, and accountability across functions

** Build and run the AI portfolio system*
* + Create a transparent enterprise view of AI initiatives, including value, ownership, stage, risks, and dependencies

+ Lead portfolio review mechanisms that support prioritization, investment decisions, and trade-offs

** Drive prioritization and decision discipline*
* + Partner with AI, engineering, finance, HR, and business leaders to focus resources on the highest-value work

+ Apply rigorous decision frameworks across feasibility, readiness, reuse, risk, and sequencing

** Establish governance-by-design*
* + Establish risk-based governance that enables speed within clear guardrails

+ Embed responsible AI practices into the delivery lifecycle rather than relying on post-hoc review

** Define AI standards and quality bar*
* + Set enterprise standards for LLMs, agents, evaluation, monitoring, reliability, and human oversight in partnership with engineering

+ Define a shared enterprise quality bar for AI performance, safety, and business impact

** Enable reuse and enterprise scale*
* + Drive a build-once, reuse-many approach through shared patterns, agents, workflows, APIs, and reference architectures

+ Reduce duplication and strengthen enterprise-wide AI capability

+ Design hybrid human-agent operating models (with HR)

+ Partner with HR to define how teams evolve from people-only models to people-plus-agent operating models

+ Clarify ownership, accountability, and decision-making in hybrid work environments

** Provide internal and external AI thought leadership*
* + Shape executive decision frameworks and the enterprise AI narrative

+ Translate AI strategy into clear, credible messaging for internal and external audiences

** Qualifications*
* + 10+ years of experience in AI, digital, or technology leadership

+ 5+ years leading complex, cross-functional AI initiatives across business, engineering, and data organizations

+ Deep expertise in modern AI, including LLMs, agents, evaluation, orchestration, monitoring, and production trade-offs

+ Proven ability to design scalable execution systems, including operating models, governance frameworks, technical standards, portfolio management, value tracking, and executive decision forums

+ Strong business and technical judgment across AI, engineering, product, and data

+ Ability to balance speed, quality, risk, reuse, and enterprise impact

+ Create clarity and momentum in…