AVP, AI COE Leader (Hybrid)

Overview Selective Insurance is excited to announce that we are looking for an AVP who will lead our brand-new AI Center of Excellence (COE), responsible for operationalizing Selective's enterprise AI strategy by proactively identifying enterprise AI needs, researching and monitoring AI innovation, accelerating adoption across business units, and directing the design, execution and delivery of reusable AI capabilities that advance Selective's strategic and business objectives. This position will manage a cross-functional team of AI architects and engineers, as well as a network of formal dotted-line relationships with Forward Deployed AI Leads and legal and regulatory contacts. This role also manages COE engagement with business units through Forward Deployed AI Leads embedded in each business unit and provides senior-level engagement with business unit executive leadership on strategic alignment, portfolio priorities, and escalation resolution. Serves as the primary relationship owner between the COE and IT application delivery and enterprise governance bodies, ensuring AI investments are aligned to organizational priorities, measured for business impact, and governed according to risk and regulatory requirements. Responsibilities Leads operationalization of the enterprise AI program under the direction of the SVP, Enterprise Strategy & Execution, including setting priorities, coordinating cross-functional AI activity, and reporting on portfolio status, value realization, and risk. Responsible for the daily leadership of the AI COE team across strategy, engineering, governance, and enablement functions. Directs the research, design, engineering, and delivery of reusable enterprise AI capabilities, including retrieval-augmented generation infrastructure, AI agent orchestration frameworks, core insurance system integration layers, enterprise knowledge pipelines, and evaluation frameworks, ensuring production readiness, security, and alignment to enterprise AI reference architecture. Monitors the external market for AI innovation and available technology. Proactively identifies enterprise-level AI capability needs and patterns by analyzing business unit demand, emerging technology opportunities, and cross-BU commonalities — not solely relying on intake submissions. Owns the enterprise AI portfolio by operating standardized intake and evaluation processes, aggregating portfolio status and value realization data from Forward Deployed AI Leads and other sources, and maintaining a comprehensive portfolio dashboard. Establishes performance indicators and measurement methodologies, designs controlled rollout approaches, and produces evidence-based recommendations to scale, refine, pause, sequence, or retire AI initiatives. Prepares decision-support materials for the AI Steering Committee and executive leadership. Manages the COE's engagement with business units through a team of Forward-Deployed AI Leads embedded within each business unit. Provides senior-level engagement with business unit VPs and Product Owners on strategic alignment, portfolio priorities, and the resolution of escalations. Coaches and supports Forward Deployed AI Leads in shaping use cases, managing business unit relationships, and driving adoption. Manages the collaborative relationship with IT and Application Development to ensure clear ownership boundaries, coordinate on agent framework decisions and API development for core insurance systems, and resolve technical direction or resource contention issues. Coordinates AI governance in partnership with the AI & Model Governance Committee, Legal, and Compliance, ensuring AI deployments comply with the Written Artificial Intelligence System Program, meet regulatory requirements, and maintain appropriate audit trails, human oversight controls, and guardrails for AI agent actions. Oversees enterprise AI enablement and adoption, including engineering upskilling, role-based business training, and change management initiatives that build effective human-AI collaboration in core insurance workflows. Provides strategic direction for the GenAI Alliance and AI Champions network, with Forward Deployed AI Leads serving as the day-to-day leaders of business unit AI Champions cohorts. Incorporates feedback from Forward Deployed AI Leads on training effectiveness, gaps, and business-unit-specific needs to continuously improve enterprise enablement programs. Trains, supervises, assigns work to, evaluates, and is responsible for hiring and retention of COE staff, including Forward Deployed AI Leads embedded in business units and centrally based AI architects and engineers. Manages a network of formal dotted-line relationships with data organization liaisons, application development partners, and legal and regulatory contacts. Manages AI vendor and partner relationships, evaluating vendor-driven opportunities against COE criteria, overseeing external AI engineering partners, ensuring knowledge transfer to internal teams, and coordinating vendor engagement with procurement, legal, and IT. Qualifications Knowledge and Requirements Knowledge of artificial intelligence and machine learning concepts, architectures, and platforms relevant to enterprise insurance operations, including large language models, retrieval-augmented generation, AI agent design patterns, and model evaluation. Knowledge of property and casualty insurance operations, including underwriting, pricing, claims handling, and regulatory compliance. Ability to plan, manage, and report on a portfolio of concurrent AI initiatives with competing priorities, constrained resources, and cross-functional dependencies. Ability to lead enterprise change management for AI adoption, including stakeholder engagement, communication strategy, behavioral reinforcement, and measurement of adoption and organizational readiness. Understanding of enterprise data strategy, data quality, metadata management, and the relationship between data foundations and AI capability, including structured data, unstructured content, and enterprise knowledge access. Ability to build and manage cross-functional teams across technical, governance, and business-facing disciplines, including managing through influence via dotted-line and matrixed relationships. Education and Experience College degree preferred in Computer Science, Business, or related field. Minimum of ten years of progressive experience in technology, data, analytics, or AI roles, with at least five years in a leadership capacity managing cross-functional teams and enterprise-scale programs. Minimum of three years of experience in property and casualty insurance, financial services, or a closely related regulated industry. Experience leading AI, machine learning, or advanced analytics programs with hands‑on involvement in production AI deployments is preferred. Total Rewards Selective Insurance offers a total rewards package that includes a competitive base salary, incentive plan eligibility at all levels, and a wide array of benefits designed to help you and your family stay healthy, achieve your financial goals, and balance the demands of your work and personal life. These benefits include comprehensive health care plans, retirement savings plan with company match, discounted Employee Stock Purchase Program, tuition assistance and reimbursement programs, and 20 days of paid time off. Additional details about our total rewards package can be found by visiting our benefits page. The actual base salary is based on geographic location, and the range is representative of salaries for this role throughout Selective's footprint. Additional considerations include relevant education, qualifications, experience, skills, performance, and business needs. Pay Range USD 184,000.00 - USD 249,000.00 /Yr. Additional Information Selective is an Equal Employment Opportunity employer. That means we respect and value every individual’s unique opinions, beliefs, abilities, and perspectives. We are committed to promoting a welcoming culture that celebrates diverse talent, individual identity, different points of view and experiences – and empowers employees to contribute new ideas that support our continued and growing success. Building a highly engaged team is one of our core strategic imperatives, which we believe is enhanced by diversity, equity, and inclusion. We expect and encourage all employees and all of our business partners to embrace, practice, and monitor the attitudes, values, and goals of acceptance; address biases; and foster diversity of viewpoints and opinions. For Massachusetts Applicants It is unlawful in Massachusetts to require or administer a lie detector test as a condition of employment or continued employment. An employer who violates this law shall be subject to criminal penalties and civil liability. #J-18808-Ljbffr Selective Insurance Company of America