Director, AI and Analytics

Job Summary

The Director, AI & Analytics is a collaborative & technical partner that seeks opportunities to learn and engage across the enterprise. The Director, AI & Analytics will lead, architect, and deliver UFCU’s portfolio of strategic, operational, and transformational AI solutions, impacting data usage, AI adoption, and predictive analytics impact across the enterprise. This role is a "player-coach" leadership role that requires a rare combination of business influence and deep technical proficiency. This leader will partner across the organization to deliver innovative and data driven solutions and to turn member insights into competitive advantages.

This position is an exempt role, reports to the VP, Data & AI and leads the AI & Analytics team. Additionally, this position is based in Austin, Texas. Candidates must be able to work on-site in Austin at least two days per week as part of UFCU’s hybrid work model, with additional in-office time as business needs require.

About UFCU

Our Credit Union was founded in 1936 and has grown to serve members throughout Texas and beyond. At UFCU, we are more than just a financial institution, and our people are more than just employees. We are dedicated to our purpose of empowering our Members to achieve financial success and build brighter futures.

In pursuit of our aspiration that UFCU is loved by millions of Members and built to thrive for generations, we are guided by our values:

• Purposefully Member-Obsessed: We are driven by a profound sense of empathy to deeply understand our Members’ needs and preferences, what brighter futures means to them, and the obstacles in their way. We act in our Members’ best interests, forever seeking to empower their financial success.
• Possibilities Reimagined: We are inspired to courageously experiment, learn, and iterate in pursuit of positive impact for our Members, UFCU, and coworkers. We challenge assumptions, embrace diverse perspectives, and make use of data and insights.
• Performance Excellence Rooted in Unwavering Integrity: We do the right thing, always. We champion teamwork, accountability, continuous improvement, and celebrate successful outcomes of others, fostering an inclusive environment of excellence and collaboration.

Essential Functions

Data and Analytics

• Portfolio Execution: Lead the end-to-end delivery of AI use cases, from "Next Best Conversation" models to operational efficiency engines, ensuring they move beyond "lab" experiments into resilient production environments
• Technical Sovereignty: Define the technical standards for AI delivery, influencing IT and Data Engineering teams on the evolution of the Databricks platform, Unity Catalog, and feature store requirements to ensure they meet the needs of modern data science
• Multi-Disciplinary Leadership: Manage and mentor teams across data science, machine learning engineering, and operational business analytics, fostering a culture of "Delivery over Perfection”
• Strategic Partnership: Serve as the primary "translator" between executive business goals and technical execution, ensuring the AI roadmap is prioritized based on business value and ROI. Partner with enterprise business function to manage operational, strategic and transformational AI & AI solutions
• Production Excellence: Establish CI/CD, MLOps, and monitoring standards for models within the Databricks environment to ensure long-term stability and accuracy
• Develop and execute the organization’s AI and analytics strategy in alignment with overall business goals

Team Leadership and Development

• Lead, inspire, motivate, and develop team members by providing guidance and training to attain departmental and individual development goals and support organizational needs
• Serve as a role model in transparent communication, two-way dialogue, and proactive communication to the team
• Build a successful team to operate according to UFCU guiding principles, providing guidance and resources and removing obstacles as needed.
• Provide team leadership based on servant leadership principles, caring for the whole person
• Plan, monitor, and appraise job results with an emphasis on coaching and developing employees to achieve desired performance results
• Help teams achieve their career goals. Ensure team members understand how to have an impact and are aware of that impact when they've made it

Strategic Business Partner

• Partner with executive leadership, business units, and technology stakeholders to identify high-impact opportunities for AI and analytics, translating business needs into actionable data and technology roadmaps
• Cultivate a positive, strong, lasting, and meaningful relationship and connection with others, working collaboratively with peers across the organization
• Facilitate joint brainstorming and team collaboration working closely with peers to aid in creating organizational goals and strategies
• Collaborate with departments across the business, supporting their needs to achieve desired operational results
• Collaborate with business partners to determine future needs and support necessary to achieve business unit strategy

Strategy Development/Strategic Planning

• Collaborate with senior leaders and actively participate in the organizational strategic planning process
• Develop AI & Analytics strategies in partnership with executive leadership to drive achievement of Credit Union and department goals
• Monitor and evaluate department progress toward stated goals and make adjustments as needed based on business and department needs
• Facilitate procurement of tools and resources necessary to achieve organizational and department strategic priorities

Budgetary Oversight/Expense Management

• Establish AI & Analytics annual budget with identification of planned expenses for new or enhanced programs and services
• Ensure effective control of results. Take action to guarantee achievement of departmental objectives that fall within designated budgets
• Monitor expenses on a monthly basis to evaluate versus budget. Take action to make adjustments as needed based on organizational and department priorities
• Collaborate with senior leaders on development of organizational annual budget in alignment with strategic objectives

Other

• Perform other duties as assigned.
• Adhere to all organizational policies, procedures, and business ethics codes
• Complete required regulatory training as assigned
• Maintain strict adherence and compliance to all laws, rules, regulations, policies, procedures, and internal controls specific to the role, including but not limited to the Bank Secrecy Act, Anti-Money Laundering, USA Patriot Act, OFAC, and Fair Lending regulations

Knowledge/Skills/Abilities

Team Building and Leadership

• Proven ability to create a high-performance climate through talent identification, recruitment, and retention
• Strong and demonstrable leadership skills with the ability to inspire and motivate others
• Proven ability to build a team of diverse talents that complement one another
• Proven ability to hold themselves to the highest standard of integrity and personal behavior

Building Relationships and Using Influence

• Exceptional interpersonal skills with the proven ability to influence senior level management and key stakeholders
• Strong ability to recognize nuances in others and leverage this understanding for a more influential impact on the team
• Effective communicator, listener, and presenter, with the ability to work with various levels of the organization
• Adept at maintaining effective relationships with internal departments external business and community partners, and others key stakeholders

Executing for Results

• Possess a proven delivery track record and exceptional service orientation
• Adept at translating the mission of the organization into actionable, quantitative plans
• Possess high levels of energy and persistence
• Rigorously holds oneself and others accountable for achieving high levels of individual and organizational performance

Business Acumen

• Seasoned tech and people leader with experience managing multi-disciplinary teams (data science, MLE, and analytics) to bring complex products to production
• Deep, hands-on experience with the Databricks ecosystem
• Expert knowledge of translating business goals to analytic objectives and demonstrated creative problem-solving ability
• Exceptional collaborative communication skills, to include written, verbal, interpersonal, and active listening
• Consistently able to evaluate decisions in terms of impact to the business
• Ability to articulate ideas to both technical and non-technical audiences
• Combination of technical knowledge, business acumen, and organizational leadership skills

Technical Skills

• Databricks Mastery: Extensive experience leading teams within the Databricks Lakehouse architecture
• Deep familiarity with Spark (PySpark), Delta Lake, Unity Catalog, and MLflow
• AI/ML Lifecycle: Deep understanding of the full ML lifecycle, including data engineering/wrangling, feature engineering, model training, deployment (real-time/batch), and model drift monitoring
• Proven ability to influence IT and Platform Engineering teams on infrastructure needs, such as cluster management, workspace security, and environment automation
• Modern Tech Stack: Proficiency in Python, SQL, and Git. Experience with automated testing, containerization, and orchestration tools in a cloud environment (Azure/AWS)

Core Competencies

• Delivering Member Obsession

• Seeks to understand customers
• Identifies customer service issues
• Drives member-focused practices
• Assures member satisfaction

• Delivering Performance Excellence

• Maintains focus
• Measures progress and outcome
• Ensures accountability

• Delivering Innovation

• Inspires curiosity
• Challenges current thinking
• Supports experimentation
• Advances ideas to the next stage

• Delivering Empowered Leadership
  • Develops direction
  • Builds team trust
  • Identifies opportunities to share responsibility
  • Informs the team
  • Supports the team

Experience

Minimum Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree, with a major in Data Science, Econometrics, Computer Science, Operations Research or relevant field or equivalent experience.

• Minimum of ten (10) years of related experience in Data Science, AI & Analytics.
• Minimum of seven (7) years of management and supervisory leadership experience developing and leading teams with direct reporting relationships.
• Extensive experience in modern data science platforms - Databricks preferred.

• Must be bondable

Preferred Requirements

• Master’s degree in Data Science, Econometrics, Computer Science, Operations Research
• Minimum of five (5) years of demonstrated strategic leadership experience
• Experience working in a Credit Union or financial services industry
• Experience in managing multiple teams across AI, data science & Analytics delivery
• Certifications, i.e. Databricks Machine Learning Professional OR Databricks Data Engineer Professional, Cloud Architect certification (Azure/AWS/GCP), or equivalent

Physical Demands

The physical demands described are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodation may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

Frequent

• While performing the duties of this job, the employee is regularly required to sit; use hands to finger, handle or feel; reach with hands and arms; and talk or hear.
• Specific vision abilities required by this job include close vision, distance vision, peripheral vision, and ability to adjust focus.
• Employee will make extensive use of the telephone and virtual communications requiring the ability to explain complex information effectively and accurately.

Work Environment

The work environment characteristics described are representative of those an employee encounters while performing the essential functions of this job.

• This position is required to frequently work at UFCU Plaza in Austin, Texas.
• This position may involve periodic stressful conditions.
• May occasionally require an adjusted work schedule, overtime, and evening/weekend hours.
• May occasionally involve public contact, requiring appropriate professional appearance.
• Frequent computer use at a workstation for multiple hours at a time.
• The noise level in the work environment is usually moderate.