Director of Product Development (AI/ML)
This role is with an Irish company who are a leading global SaaS platform combining advanced AI into their solution which focuses on quality management, coaching and learning for their industry segment, they help hundreds of customers worldwide to be operationally efficient to better enable them to deliver a super customer experience. The company has received funding and is ready for their next growth phase, they are looking for an experienced and visionary technical leader to join their executive team and play a key role in driving technology strategy, AI innovation, and engineering. This role reports to the CEO (a nice guy) and will lead a team of 24 across engineering with some senior managers reporting to the role, so a leader of managers. You will be instrumental in shaping their technology, innovation, engineering culture, and long-term strategic direction. This role works with a product team and customer success team and will have some customer facing responsibilities so requires a commercially saavy product engineering leader
Responsibilities
* Work closely with the leadership team at executive level to contribute to medium and long-term business and technical strategy centred around AI and ML
* Translate business goals into actionable technology and AI/ML strategies that support company growth objectives
* Define and communicate the overall technical vision and architecture for the platform.
* Guide strategic technology decisions and ensure alignment between technical capabilities and business objectives.
* Develop and execute a comprehensive AI/ML strategy aligned with the product roadmap.
* Identify emerging technologies and research areas that could benefit the platform and guide implementation of AI solutions
* Recruitment, training, performance management and professional development with a focus on fostering excellence and innovation.
* Build and mentor high-performing engineering and AI teams.
* Foster a culture of innovation, collaboration and continuous improvement.
* Manage the development teams to meet product roadmap goals.
* Establish and lead R&D initiatives, balancing exploratory research with practical applications.
* Ensure high availability, scalability and performance of all systems.
* Develop and maintain technology budgets.
* Ensure security of all information systems and data.
* Maintain all appropriate certifications and ensure adherence to government regulations and guidelines. Establish robust practices for AI ethics, data privacy and model governance.
* Partner with Product Management to identify opportunities for innovation and AI-driven features.
* Communicate technology needs, strategy and complex technical concepts to senior leadership and business stakeholders.
YOU
* BSc in Computer Science, Software Engineering or related technical discipline
* Certification in AI / Machine Learning desirable
* 10+ years of software engineering experience, including 3+ years in senior leadership roles in product engineering / development
* Proven track record of leading and scaling engineering teams in a high-growth SaaS environment
* Demonstrated success in strategic planning and execution of technology and AI roadmaps in particular – a must have
* Experience delivering AI-powered solutions in production environments
* Strong understanding of cloud platforms, distributed systems and modern software architectures – cloud first with strong experience in AWS and containerised deployment strategies
* Good understanding of machine learning and AI techniques, including modern NLP approaches and large language models
* Experience with generative AI, retrieval-augmented generation and vector databases
* Familiarity with MLOps practices, model deployment and monitoring in production environments
* Strategic thinking with the ability to translate business objectives into technical strategy
* Excellent communication and presentation skills, with ability to convey complex technical concepts to non-technical stakeholders
* Strong change management capabilities with experience leading organisational transformation
* Budget management experience including technology investment planning and vendor relationships
* Adaptability, curiosity and a user-focused mindset
* Nice to Have -- Experience with data security, compliance frameworks and maintaining certifications such as ISO27001 & SOC 2
Remuneration
* Competitive salary €k & bonus
* Participation in the Executive ESOP
* Company pension contribution
* Hybrid working with modern offices located in Dublin city – 2 days in office or more (team is distributed)
* 25 paid holidays annually
* Subsidised gym membership
* Webdoctor online GP service access
* Taxsaver tickets & Cycle to Work schemes
* Enhanced maternity, paternity and sick leave pay