Senior Vice President, AI Strategy & Enablement

Senior Vice President, AI Strategy & Enablement – Jarrard About Jarrard, Inc. Jarrard, Inc. Jarrard Inc. is a U.S. Top 10 strategic communications consulting firm focused exclusively on healthcare and the unique opportunities and challenges inherent in this sector. Founded in 2006, the firm has worked with more than 1,800 clients across 48 states and has led communications and political strategy on $75+ billion in announced M&A and partnership transactions. Jarrard partners with leaders across the spectrum of healthcare in high stakes moments of growth, innovation, change, and reputational/public affairs challenges. This array of specialized services is tailored to support leaders in the most impactful parts of the ecosystem that are essential in transforming U.S. healthcare for the better. In 2020, Jarrard Inc. joined Chartis, one of the nation’s leading healthcare advisory firms, and operates as a division under an independent brand. Chartis is a comprehensive advisory firm dedicated to transforming healthcare. With an unparalleled depth of expertise in strategic, clinical, financial, and digital transformation Chartis helps leading academic medical centers, hospitals and health systems, integrated delivery networks, children's hospitals, physician enterprises, payers, and healthcare service organizations achieve transformative results. Across both Jarrard and Chartis, we are fortunate to have extraordinarily talented people working in our firm – all brought together around our unifying mission “to improve healthcare”, a shared dedication to our core values, and the emphasis we place on creating an environment that enriches the experiences of our clients, our colleagues and our communities. Jarrard has offices in Nashville, TN and as part of Chartis has offices in Chicago, IL, New York, NY, Washington D.C., and Boston, MA. Remote work is allowed. For more information, visit jarrardinc.com and chartis.com. Role Overview Jarrard is seeking a Senior Vice President to lead the firm’s artificial intelligence strategy, education, and education of AI-enabled solutions and products. This role will shape how Jarrard and its clients thoughtfully, responsibly, and effectively leverage AI in a rapidly evolving landscape. This role is expected to not only define strategy but to drive the hands-on development, testing and scaling of AI-enabled solutions in partnership with senior leadership and technical resources. Like other Senior Vice President roles at Jarrard, this position combines internal leadership, client service, and business development responsibilities. The SVP, AI Strategy & Enablement will serve as a firm-wide resource and trusted advisor—educating colleagues, advising senior client leaders, and translating emerging AI capabilities into practical, high-impact applications aligned with Jarrard’s values and client needs. A core focus of this role is ensuring that Jarrard’s intellectual capital—its methodologies, analyses, and strategic approaches—is translated into scalable, repeatable, AI-enabled tools, frameworks, and offerings that enhance both client impact and internal efficiency. This individual will work closely with Jarrard senior leaders and the broader Chartis AI ecosystem while ensuring Jarrard’s specific needs and opportunities are effectively represented and advanced. The ideal candidate brings experience moving AI from concept to production, identifying use cases, co-building prototypes, piloting solutions and scaling successful implementations. Responsibilities Firm-Wide AI Leadership & Enablement Serve as Jarrard’s internal leader on artificial intelligence, monitoring developments in AI technologies, tools, regulation, and best practices relevant to healthcare and professional services. Maintain a practical, working understanding of how modern AI systems are constructed and deployed, including large language models, retrieval-based approaches, and orchestration layers. Design and lead ongoing education and training to build AI fluency across the firm, tailored to varying levels of technical sophistication. Partner with firm leadership to define Jarrard’s point of view on AI adoption, governance, ethics, and risk management, while ensuring that guidance is practical and enables responsible use rather than limiting innovation. Establish internal guidelines, workflows, and best practices for AI-enabled work. Collaborate with practice leaders to identify opportunities where AI can enhance efficiency, insight, and impact, and help teams adopt new tools and approaches in a consistent and effective manner. Participate as a Jarrard representative on the Chartis-wide AI Institute committee and work collaboratively with AI peers across lines of business. Client Advisory & Service Delivery Advise healthcare executives, boards, and communications/marketing teams on AI strategy, readiness, use cases, and organizational implications. Serve as a trusted counselor on innovation, transformation, and disruption, helping clients navigate both the opportunities and risks associated with AI. Partner with engagement teams to lead or directly support the design and delivery of AI-enabled solutions within client engagements, including prototyping tools, configuring workflows and guiding implementation. Translate complex technical concepts into clear, actionable guidance for non-technical audiences, while also engaging credibly with more technical stakeholders when needed. Provide informed guidance on the selection and application of AI tools and approaches, including distinguishing between foundational model capabilities, orchestration layers, and workflow-based solutions, and advising on when each is appropriate. Lead the identification, development, and scaling of AI-enabled tools and approaches that can be embedded into Jarrard’s client services, ensuring they are practical, usable, and aligned with client needs. AI-Enabled Products, Tools & Capability Development Identify opportunities to convert Jarrard’s existing intellectual capital—frameworks, methodologies, and analytical approaches—into repeatable, scalable, AI-enabled tools and solutions. Evaluate existing tools and capabilities across Jarrard and Chartis, and determine where to adopt, adapt, or enhance solutions to maximize impact and avoid duplication of effort. Assess solutions with a clear understanding of the underlying architecture (e.g., model-based vs. orchestration layer vs. workflow automation) and ensure appropriate alignment with business needs. Serve as a connector across teams and initiatives to ensure that successful approaches are shared and scaled rather than remaining isolated. Define requirements for new tools and capabilities and partner with technical, data, and product resources (internal and external) to design, develop, and implement solutions. Ensure that outputs are not one-off analyses but are structured for reuse across engagements and teams. Promote a product-oriented mindset within Jarrard, encouraging the development of reusable assets that enhance both efficiency and differentiation. Co-own the lifecycle of AI-enabled solutions from ideation and requirements definition through prototyping, user testing, iteration and scaled deployment. Comfort working hands-on with modern AI tooling (e.g., prompt engineering, evaluation of LLM outputs, working with APIs, etc.) even if not serving as a full-time engineer. Demonstrated ability to bring at least one AI-enabled product, tool or workflow into real world use (internal or client-facing). Business Development & Thought Leadership Contribute to business development efforts, including pitch strategy, proposal development, and client presentations, with a focus on AI-enabled differentiation. Identify opportunities with existing and prospective clients where AI-related advisory services and solutions can add value. Develop intellectual capital, frameworks, and thought leadership related to AI in communications, reputation, and healthcare transformation. Translate AI capabilities into tangible, sellable offerings and solutions that drive measurable client value and revenue growth. Represent Jarrard externally through speaking engagements, client forums, and industry conversations, helping clients understand both the opportunities and limitations of emerging AI capabilities. People Leadership & Firm Contribution Demonstrate and support Jarrard’s mission, vision, and values. Mentor and develop colleagues, building confidence and capability in AI-enabled work across the firm. Support recruiting, onboarding, and development of talent related to AI and emerging capabilities. Contribute to broader firm leadership initiatives and help foster a culture of innovation, collaboration, and continuous learning. This leader is expected to operate in a highly collaborative, hands-on manner, particularly in early stages of solution development. Qualifications and Desired Skills Bachelor’s degree is required Significant senior-level leadership experience advising executives on complex strategic issues within consulting, professional services, or a related environment Demonstrated expertise in artificial intelligence, machine learning, and/or advanced analytics, with the ability to assess when different approaches are appropriate based on the problem and data Strong, hands-on understanding of modern AI tools and architectures (including large language models), including how solutions are constructed using models, retrieval methods (e.g., RAG), and orchestration/workflow layers Ability to evaluate AI products and platforms with a clear understanding of underlying capabilities versus interface or orchestration layers, and to determine their appropriateness for specific use cases Demonstrated experience building, deploying and scaling AI-enabled solutions or products in a real-world environment (not solely advisory or conceptual work) Ability to independently prototype AI solutions using modern tools (e.g., LLM, APIs, automation platforms) to validate ideas quickly Experience working across both structured and unstructured data, and applying analytical approaches to real-world, often ambiguous problems Proven ability to translate complex technical concepts into clear, actionable insights for a range of audiences Experience collaborating with technical, data, or product teams to develop and implement tools, solutions, or capabilities Product-oriented mindset, with a track record of defining, building and iterating on solutions based on user feedback and real-world usage Comfort operating in ambiguous environments, rapidly testing ideas, and iterating without fully defined requirements or perfect data Strong communication, collaboration, and stakeholder management skills Experience within industry or applied environments (e.g., healthcare organizations, technology companies or innovation teams), ideally combined with consulting or advisory experience Salary range: $215,000 – $295,000, plus may be eligible for an annual discretionary bonus. The salary range for this role takes into account the wide range of factors that are considered in making compensation decisions including, but not limited to, skills, experience, training, licensure and certifications, practice area, and other business and organizational needs. In addition, Jarrard offers several benefits including medical, dental, vision, HSA, FSA, disability insurance, life insurance, 401(k) match, paid time off, wellness stipend, and additional voluntary benefits. At Jarrard and Chartis, we pride ourselves on having a diverse workforce. We value and celebrate the uniqueness of individuals and the different perspectives the provide. We offer equal opportunity employment regardless of race, color, religion, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, national origin, genetics, disability status, age, marital status, or protected veteran status.