Director, AI Innovation

Your work days are brighter here.

At Workday, it all began with a conversation over breakfast. When our founders met at a sunny California diner, they came up with an idea to revolutionize the enterprise software market. And when we began to rise, one thing that really set us apart was our culture. A culture which was driven by our value of putting our people first. And ever since, the happiness, development, and contribution of every Workmate is central to who we are. Our Workmates believe a healthy employee-centric, collaborative culture is the essential mix of ingredients for success in business. That's why we look after our people, communities and the planet while still being profitable. Feel encouraged to shine, however that manifests: you don't need to hide who you are. You can feel the energy and the passion, it's what makes us unique. Inspired to make a brighter work day for all and transform with us to the next stage of our growth journey? Bring your brightest version of you and have a brighter work day here.

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About the Team

The Finance AI (FinAI) Innovation Center at Workday is a team of experts—data scientists, engineers, and program managers—who operate with a startup attitude. Our goal is to create significant value for the CFO organization. We go beyond simple efficiency gains to build innovative AI solutions that reinvent finance processes and improve strategic decision-making.

About the Role

As Director of AI Innovation & Research, Finance, you will lead our team to build and deliver impactful AI solutions. You will own the technical strategy, execution, and delivery of these solutions from start to finish. A key part of your role is to collaborate with Workday Product Management, using your deep finance knowledge and our internal AI innovations to craft future products.
 

Primary Responsibilities

• Be a senior authority in finance functions like Accounting, FP&A, and Treasury. Use your deep understanding of their challenges to identify AI opportunities.

• Define and drive the AI roadmap for our team, ensuring it aligns with business goals.

• Translate sophisticated finance needs into clear, actionable AI/ML problems and technical specifications.

• Provide technology leadership and architectural guidance to the team, leading all aspects of the design and implementation of scalable AI solutions.

• Mentor and guide a team of AI/ML professionals, encouraging a culture of technical excellence and innovation.

• Own end-to-end delivery of AI projects. Ensure solutions are robust, secure, and deliver real impact to finance operations.

• Champion our AI solutions internally and externally, clearly presenting their business value and capabilities to stakeholders and leadership.

• Quantify the benefits of AI initiatives (e.g., efficiency gains, improved accuracy) with data-driven analysis and return on investment assessments.

About You

You are an entrepreneurial leader with a dual passion for redefining finance and deep technical expertise in AI. You are driven to find and solve sophisticated problems. You can dive into intricate technical challenges while empowering your team to deliver outstanding results. You can articulate complex financial and technical ideas to anyone, from engineers to executives.

Primary Skill Sets

• Deep Finance Expertise: Exceptional knowledge of core finance functions, especially within a SaaS business model.

• AI/ML Technical Leadership: Proven ability to define and drive the technical vision for complex AI/ML systems and lead a team in building and deploying production-grade solutions.

• Critical Thinking: The ability to identify strategic opportunities for AI to transform finance and develop clear, actionable plans.

• Communication Skills: Outstanding ability to clearly and persuasively connect with both technical and non-technical audiences.

• AI/ML Expertise: Extensive knowledge of various machine learning and deep learning algorithms, including model selection, training, evaluation, and deployment.

• Technical Program Management: Proven experience managing the full lifecycle of large-scale AI/ML programs.

• Executive influence: ability to present to C-level, shape org-wide AI strategy in Finance.

• Proven experience in a people leadership role in a fast-paced, innovative environment, preferably a SaaS company.

• Experience: 10+ years of leadership experience in data science or machine learning initiatives with a blend of technical expertise and significant exposure to finance/accounting. Startup or technology consulting experience, particularly in the field of AI, is a strong plus.

Our Approach to Flexible Work
 

With Flex Work, we're combining the best of both worlds: in-person time and remote. Our approach enables our teams to deepen connections, maintain a strong community, and do their best work. We know that flexibility can take shape in many ways, so rather than a number of required days in-office each week, we simply spend at least half (50%) of our time each quarter in the office or in the field with our customers, prospects, and partners (depending on role). This means you'll have the freedom to create a flexible schedule that caters to your business, team, and personal needs, while being intentional to make the most of time spent together. Those in our remote "home office" roles also have the opportunity to come together in our offices for important moments that matter.

Are you being referred to one of our roles? If so, ask your connection at Workday about our Employee Referral process

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