Senior Manager of AI Strategy & Implementation

Role Description

The Senior Manager of AI Strategy & Implementation is embedded within a single, assigned business area of the Alzheimer’s Association, where they own the success of AI initiatives from concept through sustained adoption. Reporting to the Sr. Director of AI + Digital Transformation, this role sits in the room as a peer alongside IT and external AI vendors—co-managing delivery, keeping projects on track, and ensuring solutions actually work for the people who will use them every day.

But delivery is only half the job. Because this person lives inside their business area—working with leaders and frontline staff alike—they are uniquely positioned to see where AI should go next. They identify new opportunities, build the case, and advocate for the projects that will have the greatest mission impact. Once approved, they make those projects land, measure the results, and tell the story.

Responsibilities

• AI Project Delivery: Own the end-to-end success of AI initiatives within the assigned business area. Sit alongside IT and vendor partners as a peer, co-managing delivery—not handing off requirements and waiting for results. Translate business needs into clear requirements, track milestones, surface blockers, and ensure solutions map to real workflows and real users. Own the transition from project delivery to sustained operations.
• Opportunity Identification & Advocacy: Proactively engage leaders and frontline staff to assess operational challenges, inefficiencies, and unmet needs across the assigned business area. Identify where AI can deliver measurable value. Evaluate potential use cases for feasibility, impact, and alignment with organizational priorities. Build lightweight business cases—including estimated ROI, resource needs, and implementation approach—and present recommendations to the Sr. Director and AI Steering Committee.
• Business Area Expertise: Develop deep knowledge of the assigned business area’s operations, goals, and challenges. Build trust with leaders and staff as a credible partner who understands their work—not as an outsider pushing technology. Serve as the first point of contact for AI-related questions, ideas, and concerns within the business area.
• Success Measurement & Storytelling: Define clear success criteria for each AI initiative at the outset and track results through delivery and post-launch. Capture and communicate outcomes—time saved, errors reduced, capacity unlocked—as concrete success stories that build internal momentum and leadership confidence. Prepare impact updates for the AI Steering Committee and C-suite.
• Budget & Resource Coordination: Develop and maintain budget projections for AI projects within the assigned area, including vendor costs, internal resource allocation, and consulting engagements. Ensure cost transparency—who is paying for what—and support the Sr. Director in building the financial case for continued or expanded AI investment.
• Vendor & IT Partnership: Work as a peer alongside IT and external AI vendor teams throughout the project lifecycle. Coordinate vendor scopes of work, deliverables, and timelines. Ensure vendor and IT activity is integrated with business area needs and workflows—not running in parallel or in isolation.
• AI Governance Support: Help maintain and socialize AI governance policies, acceptable use guidelines, and data standards within the assigned business area. Support the AI Steering Committee with meeting preparation, materials, and action-item tracking. Stay current on AI tools, trends, and best practices relevant to nonprofit and health/research sectors.
• Other duties as assigned

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration, Project Management, Organizational Development, or a related field
• 5–7 years of experience managing cross-functional projects or initiatives in a large, matrixed organization—ideally work that required coordinating across business, technology, and external partners
• Demonstrated ability to learn a business area deeply and earn trust as a credible partner to both leaders and frontline staff
• Experience building business cases, including ROI estimates, resource requirements, and implementation plans
• Strong project management skills with a track record of driving initiatives from scoping through delivery and measuring results
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to operate credibly in a vendor working session, a department discovery meeting, and an executive readout
• Comfort working with technology teams and AI tools without being a developer—able to hold your own in technical conversations and translate between business and technology
• Master’s degree in Business Administration, Project Management, Organizational Development, or a related field
• Experience with contact center operations, technologies, or workforce optimization
• Hands-on familiarity with general AI platforms and/or AI tools purpose-built for voice, conversational AI, or virtual agent experiences
• Experience managing external vendor or consulting engagements (SOWs, deliverables, escalations)
• PMP, Agile/Scrum, or equivalent project management certification
• Prior experience in the nonprofit sector, particularly in healthcare, research, or large-scale mission-driven organizations
• Budget management and financial reporting experience
• Familiarity with AI governance frameworks and responsible AI practices

Requirements

• Business Immersion: Ability to learn an unfamiliar business area quickly, understand its operations and pain points, and earn credibility with the people who do the work
• Execution & Follow-Through: Disciplined project driver who keeps complex, multi-party initiatives moving with clear accountability, timelines, and documentation
• Opportunity Instinct: Sees where AI can help before being asked, and builds a compelling, data-informed case for pursuing it
• Stakeholder Navigation: Skilled at building trust and maintaining productive relationships across business leaders, frontline staff, IT, and external partners in a collaborative, tenure-heavy culture
• Technical Fluency: Comfortable navigating enterprise AI platforms, evaluating vendor proposals, and participating as a peer in technical working sessions without being a developer
• Ability to work at a computer for extended periods
• Occasional evening or weekend availability for cross-functional coordination across time zones
• Travel up to 15% for vendor meetings, national summits, or site visits
• Ability to facilitate working sessions and stakeholder meetings for groups of varying sizes, both virtual and in-person

Benefits

• Comprehensive benefits package, including medical, dental, vision, flex accounts, short and long-term disability, life insurance, long term care insurance, tuition reimbursement, generous Paid Time Off, 12 annual holidays and Paid Family Leave
• Annual Cultural & Heritage Day and Volunteer Day of their choosing
• Gold standard 401(k) retirement plan
• Full time employees (37.5 hours/week) will enjoy an annual School Visitation Day and an Elder Care Facility Day of their choosing