Director, AI and Analytics

Job Summary

Are you a hands-on AI leader who is passionate about building innovative solutions, developing technical talent, and transforming how financial services organizations leverage artificial intelligence?

At UFCU, we are reimagining the future of financial services through technology, data, and innovation. As a growing credit union with an ambitious vision for the future, we are seeking a Director, AI & Analytics to help shape and deliver our enterprise AI strategy, build advanced machine learning capabilities, and translate emerging technologies into meaningful outcomes for our members and our business.

This is a highly technical leadership role requiring advanced expertise in AI and machine learning, demonstrated experience designing, developing, and deploying production-ready AI solutions, and the ability to lead and develop high-performing technical teams. The Director will remain actively involved in technical architecture, solution development, and complex problem-solving while providing strategic direction and leadership to the team.

In partnership with the VP, Data & AI and business leaders across the enterprise, this leader will drive the AI and analytics roadmap, establish technical standards, and deliver scalable, production-ready solutions. The ideal candidate combines advanced expertise in machine learning and applied AI with strong business acumen, strategic leadership, and a passion for developing people.

This is an opportunity to build, innovate, and make a lasting impact within a growing, purpose-driven financial institution committed to empowering its members to achieve financial success and build brighter futures.

This is an exempt position reporting to the VP, Data & AI and leading UFCU’s AI & Analytics team.

Experience

Minimum Requirements

• Minimum: Master’s degree in Computer Science, Machine Learning, Artificial Intelligence, Data Science, Statistics, Applied Mathematics, Operations Research, Econometrics, or a closely related quantitative discipline. Preferred: PhD in one of these or a related quantitative discipline, with demonstrated experience applying advanced AI/ML techniques to real-world business problems.
• Minimum of ten (10) years of progressive experience in applied artificial intelligence, machine learning, data science, or advanced predictive analytics, including significant hands-on experience designing, developing, validating, and deploying machine learning models and AI solutions into production environments.
• Minimum of five (5) years of progressive people leadership experience, including demonstrated success leading, coaching, and developing technical teams in machine learning, AI, data science, or advanced analytics.
• Demonstrated hands-on experience developing and deploying predictive machine learning models and AI solutions that address complex financial services business challenges, such as lending decision support, credit risk assessment, fraud detection, member segmentation, personalization, and recommendation systems. Proven ability to translate business problems into scalable, measurable AI/ML solutions.
• Experience in managing multiple teams across AI, data science & Analytics delivery.
• Demonstrated experience developing and delivering AI/ML solutions within financial services, including credit unions, banking, fintech, consumer lending, payments, or other financial technology businesses. Understanding of regulated financial environments, model governance, data privacy, and responsible AI practices.
• Extensive experience in modern data science platforms – Databricks preferred.
• Must be bondable

Preferred Requirements

• PhD in Computer Science, Machine Learning, Artificial Intelligence, Data Science, Statistics, Operations Research, or a closely related quantitative discipline preferred, particularly with demonstrated experience applying advanced machine learning techniques to real-world business problems.
• Seven (7) or more years of progressive technical leadership experience, including experience leading multiple teams or cross-functional initiatives across AI, machine learning, data science, and advanced analytics.
• 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

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
• Lead model development efforts including feature engineering, model selection, hyperparameter tuning, validation, and performance optimization.
• Build and review Python-based machine learning solutions leveraging frameworks such as MLflow, PyTorch, TensorFlow, Scikit-learn, LangChain, and related AI technologies.
• Drive implementation of LLM, RAG, agentic AI, and conversational AI solutions while establishing governance and responsible AI practices.
• Conduct architecture reviews, code reviews, and technical mentoring to ensure production-quality AI solutions.

Serve as the technical escalation point for complex machine learning, model performance, and AI platform challenges.

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 hold 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
• Demonstrated history of personally developing and deploying machine learning models in enterprise production environments.
• 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

• Extensive experience developing, deploying, and scaling machine learning and AI solutions using modern cloud-based data and ML platforms. Strong knowledge of the Databricks Lakehouse architecture, Spark/PySpark, Delta Lake, MLflow, and Unity Catalog is highly preferred.
• 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

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.

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 work at UFCU Plaza in Austin, Texas a minimum of 2 days each week.
• 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.

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