Director of AI & Emerging Technology, Global Business Development

This is a Full Time Job

The Director will operationalize SME’s emerging technology priorities by managing the end-to-end lifecycle for promising AI vendors and tools, from scouting and evaluation through pilots, rollout, and scaled adoption. Working alongside SME labels and external partners, this role will equip teams with new AI tools and skills while running creative and business R&D programs that explore emerging capabilities, surface insights, and reshape workflows.

What you'll do:

Vendor pipeline and evaluation
• Source and maintain a pipeline of AI companies, tools, and models that address creative and business priorities.
• Evaluate vendors using defined criteria and document findings to support decision-making.
• Build and maintain working relationships with existing and emerging AI vendors, staying close on product roadmaps, performance, and implementation needs.

Rollout and adoption
• Partner with internal teams to guide selected vendor engagements through contracting, security review, approvals, and launch logistics.
• Execute structured rollouts of approved AI tools across the organization, including stakeholder coordination, user communication, training workshops, onboarding materials, and case studies. Adjust plans based on adoption signals and measured impact.
• Serve as a go-to advisor on AI tools and maintain feedback loops with users, vendors, and stakeholders to communicate updates and best practices, help users get the most value, understand evolving needs, surface issues, and inform prioritization.
• Cultivate internal communities of AI-forward practitioners to develop case studies and support pilots that transform workflows.

R&D programs
• Lead day-to-day execution of R&D programs to accelerate innovation across content production, business operations, and consumer experiences.

Communication
• Develop executive briefings and reports to highlight progress, insights, and opportunities.

Who you are:
• Hands-on AI practitioner. You’re a power user of generative AI tools for content production and business workflows, strong in prompt engineering, conceptually grounded in how models are trained and fine-tuned, and ideally experienced with agentic workflows.
• Active in the AI landscape. You track new models, tools, and vendors as they emerge and quickly assess what's real versus overhyped. You test tools constantly and have well-formed views on which ones actually deliver.
• Proven execution operator. You've assessed startups or products, run pilots, managed scaled rollouts, and worked with partners to influence execution and product direction.
• Strong collaborator and capability-builder. Equally comfortable with a quick tactical question or a sustained partnership to help a team unlock new ways of working with AI, with the relationship-building and cross-functional skills to drive lasting impact.
• Structured but nimble operator. You bring real project management discipline (clear plans, owners, and follow-through) without becoming rigid as innovation work evolves. You deliver through trust and influence with cross-functional partners.
• Responsible innovation operator. You bring enterprise innovation and change management experience, including enablement (training, onboarding materials, and internal communities). You take projects from concept through adoption while recognizing when they touch governance, policy, or rights considerations, and you raise those questions early.
• Excellent communicator. You translate technical concepts and user feedback into compelling, actionable recommendations for leaders at every level.
• Industry experience. Experience in music, media, or entertainment is preferred.