Senior Director, AI Lifecycle Management

Position Purpose:

Leads enterprise AI use case intake, portfolio lifecycle management, and governance process flow/operations (not policy creation) for Centene, serving as the single front door and system of record for AI from idea through production and eventual decommissioning. Owns the end-to-end AI lifecycle workflow aligned to Centene's seven-stage AI lifecycle — plan and design, data collection, build, testing and validation, integration and E2E testing, operations and monitoring, and measurement and real-world value. Accountable for the AI Portfolio Management platform, the enterprise use case and AI Inventory, Agent Registry, risk tiering evaluation, governance review coordination and evidence management, the AI control tower dashboard, and enterprise ROI collection and reporting. Partners closely with Enterprise AI Governance, Compliance, Security, Legal, Finance, and platform and delivery teams to ensure every AI system — internally built, citizen-developed, or vendor-supplied — is registered, risk-tiered, reviewed against applicable control standards, and tracked through retirement. Leads a team of managers and individual contributors and advises senior leadership on AI portfolio health, investment prioritization, and realized value.

Key Details:

Centene is going through our biggest transformation in our history to become the market leader, and AI is the key tool to enable the transformation. This is an exciting opportunity to use AI to transform a Fortune 20 company, and to change healthcare for the better! This is a remote role within the United States, requiring business travel 2-3 times per quarter. Candidates must be authorized to work in the U.S. without the need for employment-based visa sponsorship now or in the future. Sponsorship and future sponsorship are not available for this opportunity, including employment-based visa types H-1B, L-1, O-1, H-1B1, F-1, J-1, OPT, or CPT.

• Provides strategic and operational leadership for enterprise AI intake, lifecycle management, portfolio governance operations, and value measurement. Owns the supporting platform and system of record, defines the operating process and service levels, builds and manages a multi-level team, and is accountable for portfolio transparency, control adherence, and demonstrated business value across all AI systems in the enterprise.
• Owns the enterprise AI intake process as the single front door for all AI use cases — internal, citizen-developed, and vendor-supplied — including submission, triage, duplicate detection, platform and harness routing, and the defined set of intake dispositions.
• Defines and operates the end-to-end AI lifecycle workflow mapped to Centene's seven-stage AI lifecycle, including stage gates, required artifacts, approval checkpoints, and criteria for advancing, pausing, or closing a use case.
• Owns the AI Portfolio Management platform as the single system of record and orchestration spine for the AI portfolio, including product roadmap, phased capability delivery, vendor relationship, agent registry, and integration strategy with adjacent platforms rather than parallel workflows.
• Administers risk tiering and data readiness triage in partnership with Enterprise AI Governance, applying the enterprise risk model consistently across use cases and routing to the required review and approval paths.
• Coordinates governance review and approval against applicable AI control standards — including pre-intake, pre-deployment, and post-deployment controls — and maintains the centralized governance records and evidence repository supporting audit, regulator, and state Medicaid requirements.
• Owns the enterprise use case, AI Inventory, and Agent Registry as the authoritative source for AI systems and agents, including ownership metadata, risk tier, lifecycle state, data dependencies, and lineage to the AI systems each agent powers; drives automated discovery and reconciliation against the registry.
• Leads use case valuation review and coordinates enterprise prioritization, partnering with business sponsors, finance, and portfolio leadership to assess business value, readiness, cost, and reuse potential before organizational resources are committed.
• Establishes and operates the AI control tower dashboard, delivering enterprise-level visibility into portfolio status, pipeline volume and cycle time, risk distribution, control adherence, usage, and cost.
• Owns enterprise ROI and value measurement for AI — defining the benefit framework and baselines, collecting realized value from production use cases, validating claims with business and Finance partners, and publishing results to leadership and governance forums.
• Directs the decommissioning discipline for AI systems and agents, including retirement criteria, credential revocation, integration removal, registry retirement, and record retention.
• Drives automation of the lifecycle — replacing manual intake, re-keyed data, and disconnected reviews with integrated workflow, automated risk scoring, multi-stage approvals, notifications and escalations, and enterprise integrations — and is accountable for cycle-time and service-level improvement across the front door.
• Establishes and publishes process documentation, roles and responsibilities, service levels, and requestor-facing guidance so business and technology partners understand what is required at each gate and how long each step takes.
• Serves as the primary operational interface to Enterprise AI Governance, Compliance, Security, Legal, Procurement, and BTS portfolio leadership on AI lifecycle matters, escalating exceptions and contested risk determinations through defined channels.
• Recruits, develops, and leads a team of managers and senior individual contributors; sets performance expectations, builds succession depth, and establishes a culture of disciplined, evidence-based portfolio operations.
• Performs other duties as assigned.
• Complies with all policies and standards.

Education/Experience:

• Requires a Bachelor's degree and 10+ years of related experience, including prior management experience.
• Or equivalent experience acquired through accomplishments of applicable knowledge, duties, scope and skill reflective of the level of this position.

Preferred:

• Proven AI lifecycle management experience.
• Experience implementing and optimizing enterprise frictionless workflows and process.
• Strong track record of building relationships and implementing governance processes.

Pay Range: $171,900.00 - $326,900.00 per year

At Centene, we connect people to the care they need to live healthier lives — and the work you do here makes that impact real every day.

You’ll take on meaningful challenges that directly support individuals, families, and communities, building your skills while making healthcare more accessible and effective. It’s work with a purpose you can see, backed by a team committed to improving lives well beyond the workday.

Centene offers a comprehensive benefits package including: competitive pay, health insurance, 401K and stock purchase plans, tuition reimbursement, paid time off plus holidays, and a flexible approach to work with remote, hybrid, field or office work schedules. Actual pay will be adjusted based on an individual's skills, experience, education, and other job-related factors permitted by law, including full-time or part-time status. Total compensation may also include additional forms of incentives. Benefits may be subject to program eligibility.

Centene is an equal opportunity employer that is committed to diversity, and values the ways in which we are different. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, veteran status, or other characteristic protected by applicable law.

Qualified applicants with arrest or conviction records will be considered in accordance with the LA County Ordinance and the California Fair Chance Act