Associate Director, AI Innovation Lab Experience Lead

Who We Are At Kyndryl, we design, build, manage and modernize the mission‑critical technology systems that the world depends on every day. We constantly push ourselves to build a more equitable, inclusive world for our employees, customers and communities. The Role Kyndryl is hiring an Associate Director, AI and Innovation Lab Experience Lead . This full‑time, office‑based position will operate out of the Dallas, TX Innovation lab. Candidates must be located in the Dallas metro area or willing to move to Dallas, TX. This role will be responsible for customer engagement, commercial and pipeline growth, delivery operations, and professional development. Key Responsibilities 1. Customer Engagement & Experience Delivery C‑Suite Facilitation: Lead and personally facilitate rapid innovation sessions, workshops, and immersive AI experiences with senior customer stakeholders, including C‑suite and functional leaders. Translate complex AI concepts into clear, actionable strategic agendas. Relationship Management: Build and sustain trusted relationships with customer stakeholders across engagements, acting as a credible and knowledgeable advisor throughout the innovation journey. Experience Quality: Ensure every customer‑facing session meets the highest standards of preparation, delivery, and follow‑up. Take personal accountability for customer satisfaction scores and NPS outcomes. Engagement Continuity: Manage the end‑to‑end flow of individual customer engagements, from pre‑qualification through to post‑delivery debrief, ensuring a seamless and differentiated experience. Customer Feedback: Own the collection and analysis of post‑engagement satisfaction data, ensuring timely responses and surfacing insights to inform continuous improvement. 2. Commercial & Pipeline Contribution Opportunity Development: Support pre‑sales engagements by positioning the AI Innovation Lab as a catalyst for pipeline creation, aligning Lab experiences to specific customer challenges and priority outcomes. Engagement Scoping: Assist with scoping and proposal development for Lab engagements, ensuring viability and a clear pathway to downstream implementation opportunities. Pipeline Reporting: Provide timely and accurate data on customer engagement activity, pipeline influence, and Lab utilisation to support management information requirements. 3. Delivery Operations & Quality Squad Coordination: Work alongside the AI Innovation Lab Squads (Engineers, Designers, and SMEs) to co‑coordinate effective session preparation and delivery, ensuring the right capabilities are deployed for each customer context. Asset Reuse: Actively contribute to and draw from the library of catalogued customer experience assets, promoting consistent quality and efficient delivery across engagements. Qualification Support: Support the Director in applying acceptance criteria to incoming GTM opportunities, ensuring Lab capacity is prioritised toward the highest‑value engagements. Tool & Process Adoption: Champion the use of established methodologies, frameworks, and tools within the AI Innovation Lab Method, and contribute ideas for ongoing process improvement. 4. Thought Leadership & Professional Development External Eminence: Develop and share thought leadership on AI trends and innovation strategy, contributing to Kyndryl’s profile in the market and your own professional brand. Continuous Development: Actively pursue personal development in AI, facilitation, and advisory skills. Contribute to a team culture of curiosity, innovation, and mutual support. Peer Collaboration: Work collaboratively with peer Senior Managers and early professional team members, sharing knowledge and supporting broader team capability growth in partnership with the Director. Expected Outcomes Customer Satisfaction (NPS): Achieve targeted satisfaction scores across all engagements. Lab Utilisation (Experience): Achieve utilisation rates by effectively integrating the AI Innovation Lab into customer sales cycles. Pipeline Contribution: Support the creation and advancement of qualified sales opportunities through Lab‑led customer engagement and pre‑sales activity. Engagement Quality: Deliver consistently high‑quality customer experiences, evidenced by positive client references and repeat engagement. Weekly Reporting: Provide accurate and timely data to the Director of AI Lab Operations covering engagement activity, pipeline influence, and forward demand. Who You Are You’re good at what you do and possess the required experience to prove it. You have a growth mindset; keen to drive your own personal and professional development, and to support others in theirs. You take your work seriously and prioritise customer impact. Most importantly, you understand that successful teams trust and enjoy each other and are naturally inclusive in how you work with others. Essential Requirements 8+ years of proven experience facilitating senior‑level workshops, innovation sessions, or strategic advisory engagements, ideally in a technology or professional services environment. Strong commercial awareness with the ability to contribute meaningfully to pre‑sales, scoping, and opportunity development conversations. Confident and credible communicator with experience engaging C‑suite and senior business stakeholders. Solid understanding of AI and emerging technology trends, with the ability to translate technical concepts into business value narratives. Highly organised with the ability to manage multiple concurrent customer engagements to a high standard. Desired Experience Experience working within or alongside an innovation lab, design thinking practice, or rapid prototyping environment. Familiarity with AI frameworks, tools, or methodologies used in enterprise transformation contexts. Exposure to go‑to‑market strategy, sales enablement, or business development in a consulting or technology company. The compensation range for this position in the US is $143,640 to $273,000 based on a full‑time schedule. Your actual compensation may vary depending on your geography, job‑related skills, and experience. Applications will be accepted on a rolling basis. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, or status as a protected veteran. Get Referred! If you know someone that works at Kyndryl, when asked “How Did You Hear About Us” during the application process, select “Employee Referral” and enter your contact's Kyndryl email address. #J-18808-Ljbffr Ultimate.ai