Director, Strategic Partner Solutions

Overview

Ahold Delhaize USA, a division of global food retailer Ahold Delhaize, is part of the U.S. family of brands, which includes five leading omnichannel grocery brands - Food Lion, Giant Food, The GIANT Company, Hannaford and Stop & Shop. Our associates support the brands with a wide range of services, including Finance, Legal, Sustainability, Commercial, Digital and E-commerce, Technology and more.

This position is a primary strategic driver and advisor on Ahold Delhaize's technology agenda on a small number of high‑value innovative bets and converting them into measurable business outcomes across ADUSA. This role aligns strategy, platforms, partners, and funding so that innovation in AI, data, automation, and collaboration directly impacts growth, margin expansion, shrink reduction, and better customer and associate experiences.

Our flexible/ hybrid work schedule includes 3 in-person days in our Chicago office and 2 remote days.
Applicants must be currently authorized to work in the United States on a full-time basis.

• Acts as principal advisor to translate technology vision into a clear, executable portfolio of initiatives, partners with technology leadership team on the Future Technology & Platforms Agenda (3-5 big bets) that underpins omnichannel growth, real‑time store and supply‑chain operations, and deeply personalized customer engagement. Immediate focus on:
• • Omnichannel and loyalty (e.g., 360° customer insight, marketing effectiveness and LTV, loyalty‑driven personalization).
  • Store and operations (e.g., real‑time store dashboards, sensor‑driven in‑store optimization, contactless checkout, inventory reliability).
• Shape and steward a focused set of enterprise platforms (AI & data, M365 collaboration, smart store and supply‑chain automation) as shared assets, not siloed tools.
• Ensure the data and AI foundation supports key grocery scenarios: real‑time store operations monitoring, supply‑chain and inventory sensing, 360° customer view and personalization, fraud and loss prevention, and smart connected store/IoT.
• Drive pilot completion by enforcing timely decisions to scale, pivot, or stop, with explicit value tracking in areas like sales uplift, margin, shrink, and NPS.
• Design and run quarterly technology strategy reviews and joint forums with Finance, Supply Chain, Digital, and Store Operations to prioritize the highest‑value scenarios (e.g., click & collect/BOPIS, online basket with offline fulfillment, MFC‑enabled delivery).
• Act as executive partner for key platform ecosystems (e.g., Microsoft and core cloud/AI partners), ensuring contracts, co‑innovation, and roadmaps reinforce Ahold Delhaize's long‑term leverage in data, security, and omnichannel capabilities.
• Curate a focused partner and startup ecosystem around priority grocery scenarios (e.g., fraud and loss anomaly detection, path‑to‑purchase attribution, post‑purchase engagement), with clear value, integration, and exit criteria.
• Champion secure, governed use of large‑scale data platforms by driving standards for data governance, RBAC, labeling, and auditability across POS, IoT, and loyalty data.
• Partner with security, risk, and compliance teams to address top challenges: secure hybrid connectivity between stores and cloud, PCI segmentation, real‑time data pipelines for operations and shrink, and safe integration of legacy retail applications.
• Craft and socialize a compelling narrative for how Ahold Delhaize's data and platforms enable omnichannel journeys end‑to‑end: discovery, path‑to‑purchase, click & collect, in‑store digital experience, delivery, and post‑purchase engagement.
• Convert contracts into outcomes:
  Tie Microsoft, cloud, data, and SaaS investments to a small set of P&L‑relevant scenarios (growth, margin, shrink, labor, working capital), each with clear value owners and KPIs.
• Prioritize adoption and reuse of already‑owned capabilities (M365, data, AI, security, automation) before approving new spending, increasing value per dollar and reducing duplicate point solutions across ADUSA.
• Engineer commercial leverage with vendors:
  Align roadmaps, co‑innovation, and funding with Ahold Delhaize's highest‑value use…