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About the Role

Vector is seeking a Director, AI Engineering Portfolio & Operations to serve as the operating leader for the AI Engineering team. This role will ensure the AI Engineering team effectively delivers within a complex, multi-stakeholder environment by managing portfolio, capacity, resources, finances, governance, reporting, intake, delivery rhythms, and cross-functional coordination. The successful candidate will bring senior operating discipline to an innovative AI engineering environment, building scalable processes to prioritize a research-to-product portfolio and position the team for impact in supporting AI adoption across Canada.

Responsibilities

Own the AI Engineering portfolio management, intake, and prioritization processes, including portfolio reviews, planning cycles, roadmap reviews, OKR tracking, delivery updates, retrospectives, and board reporting cadences.
Establish and maintain a single, trusted view of active work, upcoming demand, owners, timelines, dependencies, risks, and funding sources.
Collaborate with senior leaders and their teams to assess new work against strategic fit, team capacity, funding, urgency, reuse potential, and organizational priority.
Create the operating process for research-to-product and project-to-product prioritization.
Set the operating routines of the AI Engineering team, executing on best practices for knowledge management and partnering with managers and scientists to implement scalable processes for technical program delivery.
Support workforce planning, hiring prioritization, role design, onboarding needs, and organizational scaling, including maintaining accurate budget forecasts.
Create governance practices that make work visible, decisions clear, dependencies managed, and risks escalated appropriately.
Evolve technology governance practices and processes to adapt to a fast-changing ecosystem with APIs, tokens, and software costs.
Support grant, sponsor-funded, or strategic investment planning by assessing financial implications, delivery capacity, and alignment to AI Engineering priorities.
Build and maintain dashboards or reporting mechanisms that provide visibility into portfolio health, delivery progress, capacity, budget, risks, adoption metrics, repo/community engagement, and operational outcomes.
Prepare timely, clear, and decision-ready reporting and narratives for senior leadership, Board members, funders, and other stakeholders.
Translate complex portfolio and operational information into decision-ready narratives for executive audiences.
Manage a team of technical program managers and product managers, providing coaching, accountability, and operating clarity while upgrading the structure, standards, and effectiveness of the program and product functions.
Build a culture of ownership, transparency, operational excellence, and pragmatic execution.
Other related duties as assigned.

Requirements

10+ years in technology operations, strategic planning, or delivery, ideally in AI, machine learning, research organizations, enterprise technology, or innovation environments.
Demonstrated ability to operate as a senior right hand to an executive or functional leader, with the judgment to make or facilitate clear tradeoff decisions in ambiguous, fast-moving environments.
Experience managing teams and raising the operating maturity of a program, product operations, or business operations function.
Strong financial and operational management skills, including budget tracking, forecasting, resource planning, and executive reporting.
Experience building portfolio management, intake, prioritization, capacity planning, and governance processes, particularly in organizations transitioning from bespoke delivery toward reusable products, platforms or assets.
Ability to work cross-functionally with technical leaders, finance, HR, marketing, operations, data, industry innovation, and senior leadership.
Excellent written and verbal communication skills, including ability to prepare senior leadership and board-level materials.
Strong organizational discipline without creating unnecessary overhead.
Familiarity with open-source, developer communities, technical content, or developer relations operating models is an asset.
Experience supporting grant-funded, sponsor-funded, public-sector, or multi-stakeholder initiatives is an asset.

Skills

AI
Machine learning
Portfolio management
Capacity planning
Resource allocation
Financial management
Governance
Reporting
Intake processes
Delivery rhythms
Cross-functional coordination
Strategic planning
Technology operations
Product operations
Business operations
Budget tracking
Forecasting
Executive reporting
Open-source
Developer communities
Technical content
Developer relations
Grant-funded initiatives
Sponsor-funded initiatives
Public-sector initiatives
Multi-stakeholder initiatives

Location

Remote

Work Type

Full-time

Experience Level

Director
10+ years

Education Level

Bachelor's degree in a relevant field required
Master's degree preferred

Salary/Compensations

$157,300 - $196,600 per year

Benefits

Vacation time
Floater days
GRRSP
Health Spending Account
Summer Hours program
Flexible work arrangements

About the Company

Vector believes AI powers possibility by advancing cutting-edge research and translating it into real-world impact through collaboration with research, industry, and government.
The Vector Institute is committed to fostering a diverse and inclusive culture that reflects its values.

Equal Opportunity

The Vector Institute welcomes applications from all qualified candidates, including those who are Indigenous, 2SLGBTQIA+, racialized persons/visible minorities, women, and people with disabilities.
If you require an accommodation at any stage of the recruitment or selection process, please contact hr@vectorinstitute.ai. The Vector Institute team will be happy to work with you to ensure your experience is as inclusive and accessible as possible.