Associate Director, Responsible AI Solutions

The application deadline is on Friday, October 9, 2026. Please submit both a resume and a cover letter to be considered. About The Opportunity The Ford Foundation’s Information Technology team seeks an Associate Director, Responsible AI Solutions. Reporting to the Chief Information and Technology Officer (CITO), the Associate Director leads the development and implementation of ethical, cutting-edge AI solutions that align with our mission. The Associate Director works closely with the CITO and senior leaders across the foundation in refining and implementing the foundation’s evolving AI strategy.

Partnering with staff at all levels and external vendors and consultants, the Associate Director will use their experience, deep systems knowledge and understanding of best practices around governance and policy development to design and scale AI solutions that foster a culture of responsible innovation balancing ethical principles with real world solutions to create significant impact.

How You Will Contribute As the Associate Director, Responsible AI Solutions, you will perform the following and/or similar activities:

• AI Portfolio Management: As the focal point for all AI initiatives within the IT team, manage a dedicated AI portfolio and consult with the cross-functional IT teams on their AI projects, fostering a cohesive approach to AI development and implementation.
• Develop and implement ethical AI solutions: Identify and translate complex business challenges into AI solutions. This involves assessing organizational needs, recommending ethical solutions, gathering requirements, designing and developing AI solutions, and deploying them into production environments within required budget and quality standards expectations. This includes defining project scope, gaining insight and agreement from others, allocating resources, managing timelines, and mitigating risks.
• AI Strategy: Collaborate with the CITO and senior leaders from cross-functional teams on refining the foundation’s AI strategy to ensure that the foundation’s AI systems, guidelines, processes, and procedures are aligned to the foundation’s mission and values and are being scaled throughout the entire foundation.
• Governance & policy development: Monitor evolving AI regulations and data privacy laws. As a key member of the AI Advisory Group, draft, implement, and maintain clear, accessible Responsible AI guidelines, safety policies, and use-case criteria for the whole foundation to follow. Ensures all AI- related activities, all relevant stakeholders are aware of and adhering to ethical guidelines and protecting organizational data. Promote responsible AI development and deployment within the organization across departments, while considering potential biases, fairness, and transparency in AI systems.
• AI Model evaluation and optimization: Continuously monitor and evaluate the effectiveness and performance of AI models, identifying areas for improvement and implementing optimization strategies to reduce our carbon footprint and enhance accuracy, efficiency, and scalability.
• Vendor & technology assessment: Remain up-to-date with emerging AI trends, technologies, and best practices. Research and recommend new AI tools and techniques to improve operational efficiency and drive innovation. Evaluate, propose and manage AI vendors and consultants to deliver strategic value within an approved budget.
• Education, culture & capacity building: Partner with People & Culture and other departments to build organization-wide AI literacy and upskilling, responsible prompt engineering, and ethical awareness. Cultivate a culture of responsible innovation across different teams, empowering non-technical staff to identify potential ethical risks early.
• Communicate effectively with stakeholders: Clearly and effectively communicate project solutions, requirements and updates, technical details, and AI concepts to technical and non-technical audiences, including senior management, business stakeholders, and team members. Translate complex technical information into clear business value for non-technical stakeholders.

What You Will Need

• 8+ years of related professional experience and a Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Computer Science, AI, Machine Learning, or a related field (or an equivalent combination of education and experience).
• Proficient in Python and AI frameworks (e.g., TensorFlow, PyTorch), with expertise in machine le…