Principal AI Delivery Lead - IT Planning and Governance

Principal Artificial Intelligence (AI) Service Delivery Lead

The Principal Artificial Intelligence (AI) Service Delivery Lead serves as a strategic extension of the Chief Information Officer (CIO), translating Health First's AI vision into measurable clinical, operational, and financial outcomes across the Integrated Delivery Network (IDN). The Principal AI Service Delivery Lead proactively identifies high-value AI opportunities, champions their execution, and drives organizational adoption in a complex, regulated healthcare environment. The Principal AI Service Delivery Lead brings hands-on AI fluency, deep healthcare domain knowledge, and the executive presence to influence clinicians, operators, and senior leaders alike. The Principal AI Service Delivery Lead operates at the intersection of strategy and execution, this role shapes the enterprise AI roadmap, operationalizes responsible AI governance, and builds the internal capabilities and culture needed for Health First to lead in AI-enabled care delivery.

Primary Accountabilities

1. Acts as a strategic extension of the CIO, owning the enterprise AI roadmap and translating organizational priorities into a multi-year portfolio of initiatives with clear milestones, dependencies, investment requirements, and measurable clinical and operational outcomes.

2. Identifies and champions high-impact AI use cases across clinical, operational, and administrative domains, not simply managing inbound requests, but actively scanning for opportunities, building the case, and driving them from idea to implementation.

3. Establishes and operationalizes AI governance, including structured intake, prioritization frameworks, risk review, responsible AI standards (bias auditing, model monitoring, explainability), and executive decision-making processes suited to a regulated healthcare environment.

4. Drives cross-functional AI program execution across clinical, operational, financial, and technology teams, ensuring initiatives are delivered at scale with fidelity to strategic objectives, enterprise architecture standards, and patient safety requirements.

5. Develops program structures, operating cadences, and performance dashboards to monitor portfolio health, manage interdependencies, track value realization, and communicate risks and decisions to the CIO and senior leadership team.

6. Partners with clinical leaders, nursing, physician informaticists, and Epic teams to identify AI opportunities embedded in care delivery workflows understanding where AI can reduce burden, improve outcomes, or enhance safety at the point of care.

7. Leads organizational change management and clinical adoption strategies for AI initiatives, recognizing that earning clinician trust and driving behavior change are as critical as technical delivery, including communications, training, champion networks, and sustainment planning.

8. Oversees AI vendor and partner relationships with informed skepticism, evaluating vendor AI claims, negotiating contracts, managing implementation performance, and ensuring solutions meet clinical, regulatory, and enterprise standards before commitments are made.

9. Manages AI program financials, including business case development, funding recommendations, budget oversight, and benefit realization tracking, ensuring AI investments are tied to quantifiable outcomes in cost, quality, efficiency, or care delivery.

10. Anticipates, surfaces, and resolves program risks across organizational boundaries escalating proactively and maintaining delivery momentum while protecting patient safety, data integrity, and regulatory compliance.

11. Builds an enterprise AI community, cultivating champions, raising AI fluency, and advancing the organization's capability to leverage AI responsibly and at scale, including supporting the establishment of an AI Center of Excellence.

Work Experience

Minimum Qualifications

Education: Bachelor's degree in Information Technology, Computer Science, Healthcare Informatics, Business Administration, or a related field.

Work Experience:

o Eight (8) years of progressive experience leading complex, cross-functional technology or digital programs in healthcare or a highly regulated environment.

o Three (3) years of direct, hands-on experience delivering AI, machine learning, or generative AI initiatives from concept through production adoption.

Licensure: None

Certification:

o Project Management Professional (PMP), Program Management Professional (PgMP), or similar program/project leadership certification.

o Relevant certification in cloud, AI, data governance, or IT service management.

Work Experience in Lieu of Education: Associate's degree and an additional four (4) years of relevant experience

Skills/Knowledge/Abilities:

o Hands-on fluency with AI and Machine Learning (ML) concepts sufficient to evaluate model outputs, challenge vendor claims, assess build-vs-buy tradeoffs, and credibly engage data scientists, engineers, and clinical stakeholders including working knowledge of generative AI, Natural Language Processing (NLP), predictive analytics, and automation use cases in healthcare.

o Demonstrated success leading large, cross-functional programs with multiple stakeholders, competing priorities, and significant organizational impact.

o Strong understanding of healthcare regulatory, privacy, and security requirements including the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), Food and Drug Administration Software as a Medical Device (FDA SaMD), and Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) frameworks as they apply to AI-enabled clinical and operational workflows, with demonstrated ability to operationalize responsible AI principles.

o Experience building executive-level presentations, roadmaps, status updates, and decision materials.

o Excellent communication, facilitation, and influence skills, with the ability to translate complex technical topics into actionable business decisions.

o Strong financial and analytical skills, including business case development, portfolio prioritization, and benefit realization tracking.

o Ability to identify, assess, and manage risk in a complex, regulated environment.

Preferred Qualifications

Education: Master's degree in Information Technology, Computer Science, Healthcare Informatics, Business Administration, Public Health, or a related field.

Work Experience:

o Proven track record taking AI initiatives from idea through scaled clinical or operational adoption in a health system, IDN, or similarly complex regulated environment not just program management of vendor implementations.

o Experience operating as a strategic advisor or execution arm to a CTO, CMIO, or equivalent executive including presenting to boards or executive committees on AI strategy, investment, and outcomes.

o Experience with Microsoft Azure AI services, enterprise data platforms, or healthcare technology ecosystems such as Epic and interoperability standards.

o Experience founding or formally leading an AI Center of Excellence, AI governance council, or enterprise AI operating model building structure from the ground up rather than inheriting an established program.

Skills/Knowledge/Abilities:

o Executive presence and ability to influence decisions across senior leadership and diverse stakeholder groups.

o Strong portfolio management, governance design, and organizational change leadership capabilities.

o Ability to balance strategic planning with disciplined execution in a fast-evolving technology landscape.

Physical Requirements

Majority of time involves sitting or standing; occasional walking, bending, and stooping.

Long periods of computer time or at workstation.

Light work that may include lifting or moving objects up to 20 pounds with or without assistance.

May be exposed to inside environments with varied temperatures, air quality, lighting and/or low to moderate noise.

Communicating with others to exchange information.

Visual acuity and hand-eye coordination to perform tasks.

Workspace may vary from open to confined.

May require travel to various facilities within and beyond county perimeter; may require use of personal vehicle.

About Health First

At Health First, diversity and inclusion are essential for our continued growth and evolution. Working together, we strive to build and nurture a culture that recognizes, encourages, and respects the diverse voices of our associates. We know through experience that different ideas, perspectives, and backgrounds create a stronger and more collaborative work environment that delivers better results. As an organization, it fuels our innovation and connects us closer to our associates, customers, and the communities we serve.