Director of Strategic Partnerships
•Probablygenetic· 3h
🏷️ Data Science⏰ Full-time👔 Executive💰 $160k-210k🇺🇸 San Francisco, USA
3h ago
Andela·about 6 hours ago
Andela is transforming from a talent marketplace into an AI services leader, building a differentiated position at the intersection of elite technical talent and cutting-edge AI solutions. We're growing our revenue exponentially through a blended model of optimized staffing, solutions delivery, and platform innovation. Our AI Solutions business is a strategic growth area with ambitious scaling plans and a mandate to redefine how enterprises build and deploy production AI systems.
We're seeking a Head of AI Solutions Delivery to build and lead the operational backbone of our rapidly scaling AI Solutions (outcome-oriented) business. This is a pivotal role for someone who thrives at the intersection of rigorous process discipline and entrepreneurial agility; someone who can establish world-class delivery standards while simultaneously adapting to the dynamic realities of a net-new, high-growth business.
You’ll be responsible for ensuring every customer engagement delivers exceptional outcomes: high CSAT, healthy margins, and demonstrable quality. You’ll do this through intelligent systems, scalable processes, and a culture of continuous improvement. The role requires someone who can be the “adult in the room” and the innovative voice pushing boundaries at the same time.
The Head of AI Solutions Delivery is a peer to the Head of AI Solutions, who leads our AI Solutions Managers and AI Solutions Architects (our Forward-Deployed Engineering function). Together, these two functions form the operating backbone of AI Solutions: AI Solutions builds the technical solution and embeds with the client. Delivery builds the program management muscle, methodology, and operational systems that make those engagements predictable, profitable, and scalable.
This role inherits Andela’s existing AI Solutions delivery team and is responsible for scaling it with a new generation of program managers who combine traditional PM rigor with technical and industry fluency. The expectation is straightforward: program managers in this function understand the AI technology they ship and the industries their clients operate in. Generic PM skills are table stakes, not the differentiator.
Exceptional Leadership:
As an Andelan, you’ll serve as a role model for the rest of the company. Think about the feedback your peers typically give you. If it usually sounds like the below, we want to hear from you.
Low ego, low drama: You share credit, take blame. You like being wrong because it means someone else had an even better idea.
One team mentality: You break silos across teams. You put the company and mission first above your team alone.
Great listener, hungry for feedback: You’re always seeking to improve – our product, our business, yourself. You solicit diverse opinions and deeply listen.
Owner, not renter: You see a problem, you fix it or find someone who will. The buck stops with you.
Team-player: You roll up your sleeves and get scrappy. You do this by proactively collaborating with your team while actively engaging in important details that matter.
Business problem solver: You’re not just a functional expert; you consistently get praise for approaching your function through the lens of solving business problems.
Build Delivery Excellence Infrastructure
Design and implement delivery frameworks, methodologies, and governance structures that scale AI Solutions revenue by several orders of magnitude over the next 24 months
Establish clear SOPs, AI-specific quality gates (eval frameworks, model performance thresholds, hallucination controls), and risk management protocols while maintaining flexibility for client-specific needs
Create metrics, dashboards, and reporting systems that provide real-time visibility into delivery health, margin performance, and customer satisfaction
Co-develop delivery playbooks for common AI Solution patterns (agentic systems, RAG implementations, eval pipelines, model fine-tuning engagements, multi-agent orchestration, and industry-specific AI use cases) that accelerate delivery while maintaining quality
Drive Operational Performance
Own CSAT, margin, and quality metrics across all AI Solutions and custom development engagements
Implement early warning systems to identify at-risk projects and orchestrate rapid intervention
Conduct regular business reviews with delivery teams to ensure adherence to financial targets and scope management
Establish post-mortem and lessons-learned processes that systematically improve delivery capabilities
Scale Through Process Innovation
Partner with AI Solutions, Sales, and Customer Success leadership to define outcome-based delivery models and fixed-fee engagement structures, and to ensure tight handoffs between Solutions Architects (FDEs) and delivery program managers on every engagement
Build resource management and capacity planning systems that optimize utilization while preventing burnout
Create staffing models and talent frameworks that match client needs with appropriate skill profiles
Deploy agentic and AI-native tooling (e.g. Claude Code, MCP integrations, multi-agent workflows) inside the delivery function itself to compress reporting, status, and program management overhead by orders of magnitude
Enable Teams and Manage Risk
Provide coaching, mentorship, and capability development to delivery managers and project leads
Establish escalation protocols and governance structures for high-stakes client situations, and operationalize Andela’s enterprise compliance posture (SOC 2, ISO 27001, ISO 42001) within delivery
Balance risk management with calculated risk-taking to accelerate learning and market differentiation
Foster a culture of transparency, accountability, and continuous improvement across delivery teams
Drive Strategic Partnerships
Serve as an Executive / Senior Sponsor for strategic enterprise engagements, partnering directly with client executives to shape delivery strategy, mitigate risk, and drive long-term partnership growth.
Collaborate with Sales, Customer Success, and Product teams to ensure seamless handoffs and integrated customer experience
Partner with Talent Fulfillment Operations to ensure availability of properly skilled resources for AI Solutions and custom development engagements
Work with Finance to refine margin models, pricing strategies, and financial forecasting for delivery operations, and implement new system(s) to automate reporting
Required Experience
10+ years in delivery management, professional services, or consulting operations, with at least 5 years in leadership roles
Proven track record building and scaling delivery organizations in high-growth technology companies ($100M+ in managed revenue, 30+ concurrent projects)
Deep expertise in process design, project governance, and operational excellence methodologies, with the technical fluency to engage credibly on AI-specific delivery patterns (evals, model deployment, MLOps, agentic systems)
Demonstrated success managing complex, outcome-based engagements with Fortune 500 clients
Strong financial acumen with experience managing P&L, margin optimization, and resource economics
Experience in AI/ML solutions delivery or adjacent emerging technology domains (cloud transformation, data engineering, etc.)
Required Capabilities
Systems Builder: You’ve built delivery frameworks from scratch, bring intellectual rigor to ambiguous problems, and know when to enforce standards versus when to flex. Deep experience with outcome-based or fixed-fee delivery models.
Metrics-Driven: You live in data, build dashboards others actually use, and can spot patterns before they become problems
Risk Calibrated: You anticipate failure modes and build mitigation strategies, while also running experiments and failing fast in service of learning. You know which risks to take and which to escalate
Change Leader: You can drive adoption of new processes in organizations that may resist structure
Talent Developer: You invest in growing future leaders and treat team-building with the same craft as system-building
Preferred Experience
Experience in professional services or consulting firms (Big 4, MBB, boutique AI consultancies, Hyperscalers)
Background in AI/ML product development or solutions delivery
Experience working in startup or scale-up environments with rapid organizational change
Technical background or ability to engage credibly with senior engineering leaders
The diffusion gap is the defining bottleneck of this AI cycle. Enterprises have the models. They don’t have the operational muscle to put them into production at scale. Andela is one of the few companies positioned to close that gap, with partnerships across AI Labs, Hyperscalers and strategy consulting firms, and a global Talent Network that competitors can’t replicate.
What we don’t yet have, at the scale we need it, is the operational engine that turns those advantages into predictable enterprise outcomes. That’s the work. Every framework you build, every playbook you ship, every program manager you develop will directly compound how fast Andela can deliver against this opportunity.
If you're energized by the challenge of bringing structure to ambiguity, building systems that empower rather than constrain, and scaling a business where the playbook is still being written, this role is for you.
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