AI COE - Strategic Partnerships & Execution

As a Director of Strategic Partnerships and Execution in the AI Center of Excellence, you’ll play a pivotal leadership  role in in accelerating  Edelman Financial Engines’ AI Transformation. This role serves as a central liaison between the AI Center of Excellence (COE), business stakeholders, technology teams, and enterprise governance functions including Legal, Compliance, Information Security, Risk, Privacy, and Procurement ensuring consistency in delivery of AI Tools and Education across all platforms. This role is responsible for identifying opportunities, developing business cases, aligning stakeholders, and orchestrating cross-functional execution from concept through implementation for all of our AI-powered capabilities. You will help translate vision into action by driving partnerships, managing key strategic initiatives, and ensuring teams are equipped with the tools, education, and frameworks needed to embrace an AI-first future.

We are seeking a highly collaborative and influential leader with a proven track record of building strong relationships across complex organizations and external partnerships. The ideal candidate excels at navigating ambiguity, balancing strategic thinking with operational execution, and bringing diverse stakeholders together around a shared vision.

If you are energized by the opportunity to shape the future of AI, thrive in fast-paced and evolving environments, and have a passion for driving organizational change through partnership, execution, and innovation, we invite you to join us in helping define the next chapter of AI at Edelman Financial Engines.

Responsibilities:

• Strategic Partnerships & Stakeholder Management
  • Serve as a primary liaison between the AI Center of Excellence and key enterprise partners, including Legal, Compliance, Information Security, Risk Management, Privacy, Procurement, Technology, Operations, and business leadership.
  • Build and maintain strong cross-functional relationships to support the successful delivery of AI and technology initiatives.
• External Partnerships & Vendor Management
  •  Manage relationships with strategic technology and AI partners to ensure alignment with organizational priorities and business objectives.
  • Coordinate vendor onboarding, evaluation, and engagement activities in partnership with Procurement, Legal, Compliance, and Technology teams.
  • Establish performance expectations and monitor progress against commitments, deliverables, and service levels.
• Execution & Delivery Management
  • Develop and enhance processes that improve coordination, governance, and execution across the AI COE ecosystem.
  • Establish metrics and reporting to measure partnership effectiveness, initiative progress, and business outcomes.
  • Identify opportunities to streamline stakeholder engagement, approval processes, and operational workflows.
  • Coordinate cross-functional workstreams to ensure successful implementation and business readiness.

Requirements:

• Bachelor’s degree required
• 10+ years of experience spanning product, technology, or data
• Proven track record of leading large-scale, cross-functional transformations with measurable business impact.
• Experience deploying AI/ML solutions in regulated environments (financial services strongly preferred).
• Strong understanding of AI/ML ecosystems, LLMs, data platforms, and orchestration layers.
• Track record of balancing innovation, risk, and regulatory compliance.
• Experience working with cross functional teams
• Ability to operate across product, engineering, data, and business domains.
• Deep systems thinking and ability to manage complex, interdependent ecosystems.
• Ability to drive alignment, accountability, and adoption across teams
• Experience with vendor management and vendor lifecycle