Senior Director, Artificial Intelligence

The Washington Post · DC-Washington-TWP Headquarters · $232,875–$388,125 (stated in the posting)

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Join the future of news

We’re on a mission to deliver riveting storytelling for all of America. At The Washington Post, you’ll help reinvent news. Our work is driven by a deep investigative spirit and enhanced by innovation to bring audiences closer to the stories that matter most.

About Our Team

The Washington Post is powered by the passion and talent of our people. It takes all of us to reinvent news. Beyond our award-winning News and Opinions teams, we work across many departments, including Brand & Events, Communications, Customer Care, Engineering & Product, Finance, Human Resources, Legal, Marketing & Advertising, Print Operations, and Sales.

Why This Role Matters

Artificial Intelligence is reshaping how news organizations create products, serve audiences, operate their businesses, and compete. The Washington Post is seeking a Senior Director, Artificial Intelligence Strategy & Transformation to help define and execute how AI is responsibly applied across the enterprise.

This role leads the development and execution of the company’s enterprise AI strategy in partnership with executive, editorial, product, technology, commercial, and corporate leaders. The Senior Director translates rapidly evolving AI capabilities into practical opportunities that strengthen journalism, accelerate product innovation, improve customer experiences, increase organizational effectiveness, and create measurable business value.

Serving as a senior enterprise subject-matter leader for AI strategy and responsible adoption, this role develops recommendations for the enterprise AI roadmap, coordinates priorities across functions, and leads cross-functional initiatives that convert AI investments into measurable outcomes. The role will help establish the standards, governance practices, evaluation frameworks, and operating models that enable teams across The Washington Post to adopt AI responsibly and at scale.

The Senior Director will also help determine where the company should build, buy, partner, or experiment, balancing technical capability, cost, scalability, data rights, security, accuracy, editorial integrity, and long-term strategic value.

What Motivates You

• You are energized by the opportunity to help shape how AI transforms journalism, products, customer experiences, and business operations.
• You enjoy translating emerging technologies into practical strategies and measurable business outcomes.
• You thrive in complex environments where success depends on influence, collaboration, and alignment across multiple functions.
• You are passionate about responsible AI and believe innovation should strengthen trust, accuracy, transparency, and organizational integrity.
• You are comfortable operating between technical teams and business leaders and can translate complex technical concepts into clear strategic choices.
• You enjoy developing frameworks, standards, and operating models that help organizations adopt new technologies consistently and responsibly.
• You are motivated by identifying high-value use cases and moving them from concept through evaluation, implementation, and measurable impact.
• You value experimentation, but you also bring discipline to investment decisions, governance, risk management, and performance measurement.
• You enjoy building organizational capability by increasing AI literacy, strengthening cross-functional collaboration, and helping teams adopt new tools effectively.
• You are comfortable working in areas where technology, business strategy, ethics, editorial standards, and regulation intersect.

How You'll Support the Mission

• Develop and recommend the enterprise AI strategy and multi-year roadmap in partnership with executive and functional leadership, translating organizational priorities into a coordinated portfolio of AI initiatives.
• Lead execution of the approved enterprise AI roadmap, establishing milestones, priorities, dependencies, governance practices, and performance measures that support measurable business outcomes.
• Identify and evaluate high-value AI opportunities across journalism, product development, advertising, subscriptions, customer experience, finance, HR, legal, and corporate operations.
• Develop business cases and investment recommendations for AI initiatives, including expected business impact, cost, scalability, technical feasibility, implementation risk, and return on investment.
• Coordinate the enterprise AI portfolio, working with functional leaders who retain accountability for their respective products, operations, budgets, and business outcomes.
• Lead cross-functional AI initiatives that improve productivity, decision-making, customer experiences, digital capabilities, commercial performance, and organizational effectiveness.
• Establish and operate an enterprise AI Center of Excellence or similar capability, providing reusable frameworks, technical guidance, evaluation practices, governance support, education, and implementation resources across the company.
• Develop responsible AI governance frameworks and operating standards in partnership with Legal, Editorial Standards, Information Security, Privacy, Technology, Product, and other governance functions.
• Create evaluation and quality frameworks for AI solutions, including standards for accuracy, reliability, bias, transparency, security, data use, and responsible deployment.
• Evaluate AI models, platforms, tools, and technology partners, providing recommendations regarding build-versus-buy decisions, third-party solutions, proprietary capabilities, scalability, latency, cost, data rights, and long-term strategic value.
• Partner with Product and Technology leaders to help translate emerging AI capabilities into scalable products, platforms, and customer experiences.
• Serve as a senior strategic advisor and subject-matter expert to leadership, translating technical developments, market trends, and emerging AI capabilities into business implications, opportunities, risks, and actionable recommendations.
• Support executive and Board discussions regarding AI by preparing strategic analysis, recommendations, risk assessments, market intelligence, investment cases, and progress reporting as requested by executive leadership.
• Build organizational AI capability and fluency through executive education, employee enablement, change management, communities of practice, and collaboration with functional leaders.
• Establish enterprise AI performance measures that track adoption, business impact, productivity, financial outcomes, quality, responsible-use standards, and organizational maturity.
• Monitor emerging AI technologies and market developments and assess their potential implications for journalism, media, advertising, subscriptions, technology, and The Washington Post’s competitive position.
• Represent The Washington Post in selected industry, academic, technology, and professional forums as an AI subject-matter expert in coordination with executive leadership and Communications.

The Skills and Experience You Bring

• Significant senior leadership experience developing and executing AI, technology, digital transformation, product, data, or innovation strategies within large or complex organizations.
• Demonstrated success leading complex, cross-functional transformation initiatives that delivered measurable business, financial, customer, or operational outcomes.
• Strong knowledge of Artificial Intelligence, Generative AI, Machine Learning, Large Language Models, retrieval-based systems, intelligent automation, predictive analytics, and emerging AI technologies.
• Strong understanding of the practical considerations involved in deploying AI at scale, including architecture, model selection, evaluation, data quality, integration, security, scalability, latency, and cost.
• Experience evaluating build-versus-buy decisions and working with both internally developed capabilities and third-party AI platforms or foundation models.
• Experience developing or implementing responsible AI governance, evaluation frameworks, model-risk practices, privacy controls, security standards, or related operating models.
• Demonstrated ability to translate complex technical concepts and emerging technology trends into clear business strategies, investment recommendations, and implementation priorities.
• Strong financial and business acumen, including experience developing business cases, evaluating technology investments, measuring ROI, and assessing business impact.
• Demonstrated ability to influence senior executives and cross-functional leaders in environments where authority is distributed across multiple functions.
• Experience leading multidisciplinary teams and complex initiatives through both direct management and influence.
• Strong change-management capability and experience driving adoption of new technologies, operating models, or ways of working across an organization.
• Excellent communication and presentation skills, with the ability to engage technical teams, business leaders, editorial stakeholders, and executive audiences.
• Strong judgment and comfort operating in areas involving ambiguity, emerging technology, organizational risk, and competing business priorities.
• Experience in media, publishing, digital content, consumer technology, information services, or another environment where accuracy, trust, and customer experience are critical is preferred.
• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Artificial Intelligence, Engineering, Data Science, Information Systems, Business, or a related field, or equivalent professional experience. An advanced degree is preferred but not required.
• Active engagement in the AI ecosystem through industry organizations, research, conferences, standards bodies, or professional communities is preferred.

Leadership Scope

• This role leads a specialized enterprise AI capability and may manage a combination of AI strategy, product, technical, program, governance, and transformation professionals.
• The Senior Director leads broadly through influence across Editorial, Product, Technology, Revenue, Finance, Legal, Human Resources, Security, Privacy, and other functions. The role is accountable for the quality and execution of the enterprise AI strategy, roadmap process, governance frameworks, and cross-functional AI programs, but does not replace the accountability of functional executives for their respective organizations, products, budgets, or business outcomes.
• Major enterprise AI investments, policies, portfolio priorities, and strategic decisions remain subject to the appropriate executive and governance approval processes.

Collaboration makes us stronger. That’s why our offices are designed with open layouts, modern technology, and easy access to transportation. With certain exceptions for newsgathering and business travel, we work on-site five days a week.

Compensation and Benefits

Wherever you are in your life or career, The Washington Post offers comprehensive and inclusive benefits for every step of your journey:

• Competitive medical, dental and vision coverage

• Company-paid pension and 401(k) match

• Three weeks of vacation and up to three weeks of paid sick leave

• Nine paid holidays and two personal days

• 20 weeks paid parental leave for any new parent

• Robust mental health resources

• Backup care and caregiver concierge services

• Gender affirming services

• Pet insurance

• Free Post digital subscription

• Leadership and career development programs

Benefits may vary based on the job, full-time or part-time schedule, location, and collectively bargained status.

The salary range for this position is:

The actual salary within this range will depend on individual skills, experience, and qualifications as they relate to specific job requirements. This position may be eligible for a bonus or incentive program, and a member of the Talent Acquisition team will discuss bonus payment terms and conditions during the interview process.

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