Sr. Director, AI Leader & Discovery Specialist

**Who we are:** Sequoia Financial Group is a growing Registered Investment Advisor (RIA), headquartered in Northeast Ohio, offering financial planning and wealth management services. At Sequoia, we exist with a singular purpose: to enrich lives. Our values define how we behave and guide us through the pursuit of our purpose to enrich lives. At Sequoia, our core values are: - **Integrity.** We act in the best interests of others by providing an honest, consistent experience for our clients and team. - **Passion**. We pursue our full potential, seeking to continually enhance and evolve our ability to serve our clients and team. - **Teamwork.** We subordinate our egos to work together for the benefit of our clients. Our promise to team members is that you will grow with us. From experienced advisors to new college grads to transitioning principals, every team member will find Sequoia a place to refine their professional mission, move into new opportunities, go deeper, and lead further. We are built to help you build a career here as a long-term contributor in our work to enrich lives for generations. ***Work Authorization & Sponsorship:*** ***Applicants must be legally authorized to work in the United States on a full-time basis without requiring employer sponsorship to commence or continue employment at any point in time. Unfortunately, we are unable to provide any form of sponsorship.*** **Position Summary:** The Applied AI Leader and AI Discovery Specialist serves as the operational leader of the Applied AI Team and the organization's AI Discovery function, filling a dual-role player-coach. This position currently leads a team of five: the AI Solutions Lead, AI Delivery Manager, Agentic AI Delivery Manager, Agentic Transition Lead, and Agentic Discovery Lead. This role reports directly to the Head of AI and Data and is accountable for the health of the delivery pipeline, team development, and continuous scouting for transformation opportunities across Sequoia. Direct Manager: Head of AI and Data. Operating Committee oversight and quarterly reviews. Monthly strategic alignment with CTO and Head of AI and Data. Primary business stakeholder engagement: Operating Committee (OC) members and their direct reports. **Key Responsibilities:** **Applied AI Team Operations** Lead the Applied AI Team as a whole. Set technical and operational standards. Conduct regular team meetings. Hire, onboard, and develop the team. Remove blockers and escalate decisions. Maintain team morale. **AI Opportunity Discovery** Own and communicate the decision tree that sizes opportunities (small/medium/large/XL) and determines approval authority. Monitor active work across the organization to identify when peer-to-peer AI usage (skills, agents, tools) crosses the institutionalization threshold and requires formal governance review. **Pipeline Management** Maintain the active pipeline at various stages. Prioritize new opportunities against available capacity. Make go/no-go decisions. Communicate pipeline status to the Head of AI and Data quarterly. #### Adoption Architecture Design and enforce adoption mechanisms that embed AI solutions into mandatory workflows (not optional overlays). Co-own adoption KPIs with business unit leaders; clarify behavioral accountability and workflow enforcement before deployment. Escalate to OC if structural adoption barriers emerge during MVP or Product phase. **Team Coaching** Coach the AI Delivery Manager and AI Solutions Lead on business communication and escalation. Mentor Agentic team leaders. Conduct quarterly performance reviews. Identify development and external training opportunities. **Stakeholder and Executive Engagement** "Primary stakeholder engagement: Operating Committee (OC) members and their direct reports (business unit leaders, function heads). Conduct quarterly discovery review meetings with each OC leader to align AI initiatives with their strategic KPIs. Secondary engagement: Management Committee (MC) for…