AI Business Transformation Manager

Title: Manager, AI & Business Transformation - Lead AI Adoption Across a Growing Food Producer

Reports to: IT Director

Location: San Marcos, CA

Industry: Specialty Produce

Location: On-site, San Marcos, CA

Relocation Package: Provided

Compensation: Highly competitive salary + STI

No Sponsorship Candidates

Ideal Candidate

A business analyst and project manager with ERP experience who has already helped roll out AI or automation tools inside a real business. You start with the process, not the tool. Food, agriculture, manufacturing or distribution experience is a plus.

Position Overview

Our client, a leading grower of premium specialty produce, is investing heavily in AI-driven transformation and needs an on-site leader to make that investment pay off. This role owns the AI program from the business side. You’ll sit with Operations, Sales, Accounting and Production, find where AI and automation will deliver, and run the projects that get it done. You’ll also own KPI definitions and governed reporting, and keep every initiative grounded in the ERP.

Lead Responsibilities

• Own the AI roadmap and project portfolio, prioritizing by business value, cost and timeline
• Run business analysis for AI use cases: map processes, quantify manual effort, define requirements and success metrics
• Serve as project manager of record from discovery through rollout and adoption
• Manage outside AI consultants and implementation partners to scope, budget and timeline
• Lead the AI-driven demand planning initiative and support AI-assisted order intake and customer service automation
• Drive adoption of enterprise AI tools through training, use case development and utilization tracking
• Define KPIs and move teams from manual spreadsheets to governed Power BI reporting
• Partner with the ERP administrator on configuration, integration and master data quality
• Maintain AI governance covering responsible use, data privacy and vendor risk
• Report AI program results to executive leadership

Desired Skills and Experience

• 5+ years as a business analyst, systems analyst or project manager in an ERP environment (NetSuite, SAP, Dynamics, Oracle or similar)
• 1+ years leading or contributing to AI, machine learning or intelligent automation initiatives; enterprise generative AI rollout experience strongly preferred
• Proven record managing cross-functional projects and outside vendors or consultants
• Power BI or equivalent, plus experience with a data warehouse or data lake
• SQL for data validation and advanced Excel; Python a plus
• NetSuite experience a plus
• Food production, agriculture, manufacturing or distribution background a significant plus
• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent experience; PMP or CBAP a plus

Travel

Minimal. This is an on-site role in San Marcos, CA, with regular time in the greenhouse, on the production floor and in the warehouse.