AI & Data Strategy Lead – Retail Transformation

The AI & Data Strategy Lead serves as the connective bridge between executive leadership, business operations, and technical delivery teams in an enterprise-wide AI transformation. This role translates strategic priorities into data-driven initiatives, ensures that AI experiments are grounded in the right data, and delivers measurable business outcomes. You’ll partner directly with senior executives to define high-impact use cases, align the AI roadmap to business goals, and coordinate cross-functional teams across data, engineering, and analytics. Your north star: turn business questions into actionable, measurable AI initiatives that improve productivity, customer experience, and revenue performance. Key Responsibilities Strategy Translation & Executive Alignment • Partner with the Executive Leadership Team (ELT) to identify business challenges and convert them into clearly defined AI and data opportunities. • Build business cases for AI experiments, linking hypotheses to KPIs and measurable ROI. • Maintain alignment with organizational “AI Guardrails” and ethical data-use principles. • Support monthly leadership reviews by preparing data-driven insights, experiment outcomes, and recommendations. Data Discovery & Readiness • Map business processes (e.g., inventory, pricing, customer experience) to data sources across ERP, POS, CRM/CDP, and supply chain systems. • Lead data discovery, profiling, and quality assessments to ensure AI experiments use clean, connected data. • Define and maintain a data inventory and readiness scorecard for AI pilots. • Collaborate with the Data Foundations Squad to develop reusable data pipelines, schemas, and governance standards. Experiment & Insight Enablement • Work closely with AI “Skunk Works” teams to design short, 2-week AI pilots—clarifying success metrics, control groups, and measurement methodology. • Track experiment outcomes, interpret results, and provide actionable recommendations to leadership. • Build dashboards and KPI frameworks that connect AI outputs to operational or financial impact. Analytics, Reporting & Storytelling • Develop simple, executive-friendly visualizations (Power BI, Tableau, or Looker) showing experiment progress and AI value realization. • Communicate findings and trends in plain business language; tell the story of AI impact across departments. • Publish monthly AI Practice Impact Reports highlighting quick wins, learnings, and next steps. Tool Evaluation & Governance Support • Evaluate emerging AI, analytics, and data-integration tools; document learnings and make recommendations. • Ensure compliance with data-governance and model-governance standards set by the AI Practice. • Maintain repository of AI initiatives, tool trials, and results for reuse across teams. Key Deliverables • 1-page briefs for each AI experiment (hypothesis, data inputs, KPIs). • Updated enterprise data map and readiness dashboard. • Monthly executive KPI dashboards and AI value reports. • Documented lessons learned and recommendations from pilots. Qualifications • 5–10 years of experience in business analysis, data strategy, or applied data science, ideally within retail, grocery, or supply-chain sectors. • Strong analytical skills: proficiency in SQL, Python, and modern visualization tools (Power BI, Tableau, Looker). • Working knowledge of machine learning pipelines and cloud data platforms (AWS, GCP, Azure, or Snowflake). • Excellent communication and presentation skills — capable of simplifying complex data stories for executives. • Demonstrated success in cross-functional, Agile environments; able to work with both business and technical teams. • Understanding of data governance, privacy, and ethical AI principles. Location & Reporting • Based in or near Phoenix, AZ (preferred). • Reports to: Program Manager / Director of AI Practice & Transformation • Collaborates with: ELT Sponsors, Data Foundations Lead, Skunk Works Leads, and Engineering Excellence Lead. Success in the First 90 Days • Deliver a complete data-source map and readiness assessment for AI pilots. • Define measurable KPIs and success frameworks for the first three experiments. • Launch and report outcomes of at least one AI pilot with validated business impact. • Establish a repeatable reporting cadence with the ELT and AI Practice Director. Our Process • Schedule a 15-minute Video Call with someone from our Team • Interview with  the Advisory/Leadership team • 1 Proctored GQ (Q&A) & Slideware (Google Slide Presentation) Assessment • 30-45 min Final/Tech Video Interview • Receive Job Offer If you are interested in reaching out to us, please apply and our team will contact you within the hour.