{"id":118300,"url":"https://alion.io/job/covista-director-applied-ai","title":"Director- Applied AI","company":{"id":7522,"name":"Covista","domain":"covista.com","url":"https://alion.io/company/covista","size_band":"1001-5000","is_staffing_agency":false,"employer_type":"direct","is_intermediary":false,"listed_via":null,"ats_vendor":"SmartRecruiters","truth_index":{"grade":"A","score":88,"open_postings":14,"ghost_share":0,"stale_share":0.5,"repost_share":0,"time_to_fill_p50_days":35,"computed_at":"2026-10-26T05:57:25Z"}},"role":"Leadership","role_family":"Leadership","seniority":"head","employment_type":"full_time","work_mode":"hybrid","remote_scope":null,"remote_scope_basis":null,"remote_working_hours":null,"hiring_geo_confidence":"structured","locations":["Lisle, United States"],"countries":["US"],"hiring_countries":[],"hiring_countries_total":0,"salary":{"min":100171,"max":181034,"currency":"USD","period":"year","gross":null,"usd_annual":181034},"salary_estimate":null,"experience_years_min":10,"visa_sponsorship":false,"relocation_package":false,"has_equity":false,"technologies":[{"name":"AI Agents","optional":false},{"name":"Anthropic","optional":false},{"name":"AWS","optional":false},{"name":"Azure","optional":false},{"name":"GCP","optional":false},{"name":"Google ADK","optional":false},{"name":"HIPAA","optional":false},{"name":"LLM","optional":false},{"name":"LLM Evaluation","optional":false},{"name":"Model Context Protocol","optional":false},{"name":"OpenAI","optional":false},{"name":"Scrum","optional":false},{"name":"Vertex AI","optional":false}],"status":"live","first_seen_at":"2026-08-24T18:43:12Z","employer_posted_date":"2026-08-24","last_verified_at":"2026-10-26T12:20:46Z","board_verified":true,"closed_at":null,"days_open":62,"trust":{"level":"ok","repost_count":null,"flags":[],"days_open":62},"description":"Covista is America's largest healthcare educator, serving more than 97,000 students and supported by a community of 385,000 alumni across five accredited institutions. Through personalized, tech-enabled education powered by 10,000 faculty and colleagues, Covista expands access to healthcare careers and addresses the U.S. healthcare workforce shortage at scale. Covista is the parent company of American University of the Caribbean School of Medicine, Chamberlain University, Ross University School of Medicine, Ross University School of Veterinary Medicine and Walden University.\nOur colleagues come from a wide range of backgrounds, business, academia, healthcare, government and nonprofits, and are part of a culture where doing exceptional work and making a meaningful difference for students and society aren't separate goals-they're one and the same. This means creating an environment where colleagues can develop new skills, build careers that match their ambitions and see the tangible impact of their work on healthcare education and workforce development. Colleagues who deliver results and embrace new tools to work smarter are valued for their contributions. But what makes working at Covista distinctive is our impact. Our faculty and colleagues don't just support healthcare education-they shape it. This isn't abstract purpose work. It's solving real problems for real people in real communities while advancing careers.\nWe operate on a hybrid schedule with four in-office days per week (Monday-Thursday). This approach enhances creativity, innovation, communication, and relationship-building, fostering a dynamic and collaborative work environment.\nFor more information, visit covista.com and follow us on LinkedIn, Instagram and YouTube.\nThe Director, Applied AI leads Covista's Applied AI team within Enterprise Data & Insights (EDI) - the single team that designs, builds, and operates Covista's agentic AI capability across all four school brands. This role owns three delivery PODs: No/Low/Medium-Code Agents, High-Code/Full-Code Agents, and Robotic Process Automation.\nAs the accountable owner of Applied AI's portfolio, Responsible-AI posture, and partner ecosystem, you will build out a fully staffed FTE core (Principal AI/Agent Architect, Responsible AI/Risk & Safety Lead, AI Evaluation Engineer), govern platform architecture and vendor delivery, and ensure every agent shipped is safe, evaluated, and measurably valuable to the business.\nStrategic Leadership & Portfolio Ownership\nOwn and evolve the Applied AI strategy across all three delivery PODs, ensuring alignment with EDI's broader data & AI roadmap and Covista's enterprise architecture principles. \nServe as the single accountable leader for the full spectrum of automation and agentic AI work - from deterministic RPA bots to full agentic systems. \nRepresent Applied AI in EDI leadership forums, partnering closely with the Sr Directors of Data Science, Data Engineering, and Data Reporting & Analytics. \nPlatform Architecture & Technology Oversight\nPartner with the Principal AI/Agent Architect to set and enforce the reference architecture: Vertex AI Agent Engine patterns, the Agent Development Kit (ADK), the MCP tool catalog, and model-routing rules across Anthropic, Google, OpenAI, and Microsoft models. \nEnsure every new agent design is reviewed against reference architecture before entering the backlog, across all three PODs. \nDrive standardization and modernization of the platform, emphasizing scalability, reusability, and reduced technical debt. \nResponsible AI & Governance\nOwn overall accountability for Responsible-AI posture, with the Responsible AI/Risk & Safety Lead operating a dotted line into the Covista AI Governance Board. \nEnsure risk tiering; FERPA/HIPAA/GLBA review gates, red-team coordination, model cards, and bias evaluation are applied consistently to every agent and automation before release. \nRequire eval-case authorship as a contractual deliverable on every Applied AI build statement of work - no eval, no production. \nDelivery, Partner & Vendor Management\nManage delivery partner relationships (AheadRace, SoftServe, Stefanini) including SOW governance, two-vendor resilience planning for critical roles, and quarterly partner scorecards. \nRoute every partner engagement above $250K/year to the Covista Enterprise Architecture Review Board prior to contract signature. \nOwn intake and prioritization across the Applied AI backlog, ensuring efficient allocation of FTE and contract capacity. \nEvaluation & Quality Oversight\nHold the AI Evaluation Engineer accountable for a durable eval harness - offline golden datasets, regression suites, LLM-as-judge scoring, human-review queues, and online quality monitoring. \nTreat evaluation data as protected Covista IP that stays inside the organization, never delegated wholesale to a delivery partner. \nPeople Leadership & Team Building\nLead and mentor the current Applied AI core team (Technical Lead, Product Owner, Scrum Master, AI Engineer) plus the RPA POD (RPA Architect & Product Owner and RPA developers). \nExecute the FY27 conservative-MVP hiring plan: Principal AI/Agent Architect, Responsible AI/Risk & Safety Lead, and AI Evaluation Engineer, and prepare the FY28 roadmap hires pending demonstrated value. \nCultivate a high-performing, inclusive culture with a focus on continuous improvement, technical excellence, and safe experimentation. \nCross-Functional Collaboration\nMaintain a clear routing boundary with CVSA AI Solutions (full-code AI products) and the chatbot/aggregation team, ensuring work reaches the right team the first time. \nPartner with business sponsors across Covista's school brands to translate demand into a prioritized, governed agent backlog. \nPerforms other duties as assigned.\nComplies with all policies and standards.\n Bachelor's Degree Computer Science, Data Science, Artificial Intelligence, Engineering, or related field. Required\nMaster's Degree MS in Computer Science/AI, or MBA. Preferred\nCloud/AI certification (e.g., Google Cloud Professional ML Engineer, AWS/Azure AI Engineer Associate). Preferred.\nTen (10) plus years experience in enterprise technology leadership roles. \nFive (5)plus years experience leading AI/ML, data, or platform engineering teams, including management of outsourced/SOW-based delivery partners. \nExperience in higher education, healthcare, or other complex, regulated, matrixed environments. \nExperience with agentic AI platforms (Vertex AI Agent Engine, ADK, MCP) and Responsible-AI/model-risk governance. \nDeep expertise in agentic AI architectures and enterprise AI platforms - Vertex AI Agent Engine, the Agent Development Kit (ADK), the Model Context Protocol (MCP), and multi-model orchestration across Anthropic, Google, OpenAI, and Microsoft. \nProven track record building, scaling, and retaining high-performing AI/ML or platform engineering teams. \nExperience implementing Responsible-AI governance: risk tiering, model cards, bias evaluation, red-teaming, and regulatory review gates (e.g., FERPA, HIPAA, GLBA). \nStrong vendor and partner management skills, including SOW governance, architecture review boards, and delivery of scorecards. \nStrategic financial acumen - budget ownership, compensation planning, and build-vs-buy-vs-partner decision-making. \nStrong stakeholder management skills with the ability to work across business and technology domains. \nDemonstrated leadership abilities and excellent written and oral communication skills. \nHighly organized and able to manage multiple concurrent initiatives and cross-functional teams simultaneously. \n In support of the pay transparency laws enacted across the country, the expected salary range for this position is between $100,171.61 and $181,034.70. Actual pay will be adjusted based on job-related factors permitted by law, such as experience and training; geographic location; licensure and certifications; market factors; departmental budgets; and responsibility. Our Talent Acquisition Team will be happy to answer any questions you may have, and we look forward to learning more about your salary requirements. The position qualifies for the below benefits.\nCovista offers a robust suite of benefits including:\nHealth, dental, vision, life and disability insurance\n401k Retirement Program + 6% employer match\nParticipation in Covista’s Flexible Time Off (FTO) Policy\n12 Paid HolidaysFor more information related to our benefits please visit:\nhttps://careers.covista.com/benefits\nYou are also eligible to participate in an annual incentive program, subject to the rules governing the program, whereby an award, if any, depends on various factors, including, without limitation, individual and organizational performance.\n\nEqual Opportunity - Minority / Female / Disability / V / Gender Identity / Sexual Orientation","description_format":"text","description_chars":8848,"description_truncated":false,"requirements":{"experience_years_min":10,"management_years_min":null,"team_size_min":null,"manages_managers":false,"education":{"level":"bachelor","optional":false},"security_clearance":false,"languages":[{"language":"English","level":"All levels","optional":false}]},"benefits":["401k plan","Flexible time off"],"hiring_locations":[{"name":"United States","iso":"US","kind":"country"}],"hiring_excludes":[],"relocation_offered":false,"industries":["Higher Education","Continuing Education","Medical Education & Training"],"lifecycle":[{"event":"open","at":"2026-08-24T18:43:12Z"}],"visa":[{"country":"US","licensed_sponsor":true,"evidence":"H-1B filings in 12 months: 3","filings_12m":3,"filings_prev_12m":0,"green_card_filings_12m":0,"median_offered_wage_usd":122500,"route":null,"cap_exempt":false,"checked_at":"2026-10-15T11:24:14+00:00","sources":["US Department of Labor: LCA disclosure data (H-1B, H-1B1, E-3)"],"filings_for_role_12m":0}],"liveness":{"score":18,"band":"cold","label":"Long shot","p_open":1,"p_active":0.512,"p_room":0.36,"age_days":62,"expected_fill_days":35,"reasons":["conf:2","stale_co","velocity","win:tail","crowd:brand"],"computed_at":"2026-10-26T05:57:25Z"},"pay":{"stated_usd_annual":181034,"is_top_pay":false},"html_url":"https://alion.io/job/covista-director-applied-ai","json_url":"https://alion.io/job/covista-director-applied-ai.json","meta":{"generated_at":"2026-10-26T12:42:23Z","cache_seconds":300,"methodology":"https://alion.io/methodology","terms":"https://alion.io/terms","contact":"https://alion.io/contact","api":"https://alion.io/developers","about":"Alion is a live layer of people, companies and AI agents: who they are, whether they are real and active right now, what they do and how to work with them, readable by people and by agents and paid per call.","catalog":"https://alion.io/catalog.json","usage":{"tier":"crawler_verified","counted_by":"address","units_charged":1,"used_today":17443,"day_limit":null,"remaining_today":null,"minute_limit":300,"resets_at":"2026-10-27T00:00:00Z"}},"offers":[{"id":"company.slices","title":"One company in depth, by slice","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.02,"usd":0.002,"plus_per_slice":{"credits":0.05,"usd":0.005}},"unit":"per company, plus each slice with data","note":"the employer in depth","call":{"mcp_tool":"get_company","arguments":{"id":7522},"rest":"https://alion.io/mcp/rest/get_company?id=7522"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.slices&for=job%2Fcovista-director-applied-ai"},{"id":"market.stats","title":"A market slice: pay, demand and time to fill","status":"live","price":{"credits":1,"usd":0.1},"unit":"per slice","note":"pay, demand and time to fill for this role and place","call":{"mcp_tool":"market_stats"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=market.stats&for=job%2Fcovista-director-applied-ai"},{"id":"job.search","title":"Open jobs by role, technology, place, pay and visa","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.02,"usd":0.002},"unit":"per posting in a list","note":"similar open postings","call":{"mcp_tool":"search_jobs"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=job.search&for=job%2Fcovista-director-applied-ai"},{"id":"company.verify","title":"Is this company real and active right now","status":"pilot","price":null,"unit":"per company","request":{"url":"https://alion.io/catalog/request","method":"POST","body":"{\"offer\": \"company.verify\", \"for\": \"job/covista-director-applied-ai\", \"note\": \"what you need it for\"}"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.verify&for=job%2Fcovista-director-applied-ai"}]}