Senior Director, AI Strategy & Architecture

The SD, AI Strategy & Architecture leads the design, governance, and implementation of the People Function's AI ecosystem. This leader defines the technical architecture, governance models, and enterprise partnerships required to safely and effectively deploy next-generation AI capabilities across HR. The role is responsible for the People function's AI platform strategy, ensuring the systems, guardrails, and integrations needed to support a scalable, secure, and high-quality AI assistant ecosystem.

This leader partners closely with IT, Enterprise Architecture, Cybersecurity, Legal, Risk, and other enterprise teams to build an AI foundation that accelerates People transformation while protecting the organization from risk. The role requires strong technical fluency, deep architectural judgment, and the ability to negotiate and shape enterprise-level decisions.

AI Platform Strategy & Technical Architecture

• Lead the People function's AI platform strategy, including the architectural design of AI-enabled employee and leader experiences.

• Own platform selection and evaluation for the People AI assistant ecosystem (orchestration layers or agent communication protocol, RAG, agent frameworks, workflow engines).

• Define the modular AI architecture required for secure integrations with Workday, ServiceNow, intranet platforms, and other data sources.

• Establish standards for model usage, retrieval patterns, data access, versioning, logging, and system reliability.

Enterprise Alignment & Cross-Functional Leadership

• Serve as the People function's primary partner with IT, Enterprise Architecture, Cybersecurity, Legal and Risk for all AI-related technology and governance decisions.

• Negotiate and align on data access patterns, authorization models, and integration pathways.

• Represent the People function in enterprise-level AI forums, steering groups, and architecture reviews.

• Ensure the People function's AI strategy aligns to enterprise roadmaps while enabling innovative pilot opportunities.

AI Governance, Risk, & Safety

• Maintain the People function's AI governance framework, including compliance standards, auditability requirements, safety guardrails, and escalation pathways.

• Define guardrails for automated actions, system boundaries, fail-safes, and human-in-the-loop patterns.

• Partner with Legal and Cyber to assess and mitigate risk associated with new use cases and vendor capabilities.

• Establish monitoring mechanisms for reliability, performance, and ethical deployment.

Technical Enablement & Vendor Ecosystem Management

• Lead technical evaluation of AI vendors and platforms; establish architecture requirements for onboarding and implementation.

• Partner with Digital Experience and Enablement Architecture teams to ensure platforms adhere to design, workflow, and content standards.

• Define integration expectations, data flows, and technical constraints

• Oversee technical specialists and AI engineering resources supporting the platform.

Applied AI Enablement (Partnership Capacity)

• Partner with Experience Architecture on workflow logic, triage patterns, decision boundaries, and human-machine interaction standards.

• Support Workday/VNDLY, ServiceNow, and digital platform teams in AI-enablement opportunities, while ensuring integrity of system-of-record logic.

• Provide technical guidance and architectural oversight for AI-enabled processes and cross-system workflows.

Strategic Planning & AI Roadmap Leadership

• Build a multi-year AI roadmap for the People Function, including platform evolution, capability expansion, and integration milestones.

• Evaluate emerging technologies, enterprise AI investments, and new architectural patterns to inform strategic decision-making.

• Ensure the People function's AI ecosystem evolves toward greater automation, personalization, and employee experience quality.

• 20% travel required if not local to Milwaukee Headquarters.

• 10+ years in technical architecture, AI strategy, enterprise systems design, or related fields.

• 5+ years of people leadership

• Strong fluency in AI technologies, including orchestrators, workflow engines, retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), and agent frameworks.

• Demonstrated experience partnering with IT, Enterprise Architecture, Cybersecurity, and Legal on complex technology initiatives.

• Proven success designing and governing enterprise-scale digital or AI platforms.

• Ability to evaluate vendor capabilities, negotiate technical requirements, and lead platform selection.

• Strong systems-thinking skills with the ability to translate architectural complexity into clear, actionable strategies.

• Excellent leadership, communication, and influence skills in multi-stakeholder environments.

• Experience working within or adjacent to HR technology ecosystems (Workday, ServiceNow, intranet platforms) preferred.

• 20% travel required if not local to Milwaukee Headquarters.

#LI-Remote, #LI-Hybrid, #LI-Onsite

Compensation Range:

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We believe in fairness and transparency. It's why we share the salary range for most of our roles. However, final salaries are based on a number of factors, including the skills and experience of the candidate; the current market; location of the candidate; and other factors uncovered in the hiring process. The standard pay structure is listed but if you're living in California, New York City or other eligible location, geographic specific pay structures, compensation and benefits could be applicable, click here to learn more.

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The timeline for this job posting may be shortened or extended based on organizational needs.

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Northwestern Mutual is an equal opportunity employer who welcomes and encourages diversity in the workforce. We are committed to creating and maintaining an environment in which each employee can contribute creative ideas, seek challenges, assume leadership and continue to focus on meeting and exceeding business and personal objectives.

Compliance (NM) - Advanced, Architecture Expertise (NM) - Advanced, Cross Functional Partnering & Planning (NM) - Advanced, Learning Agility & Critical Thinking (NM) - Expert, Enterprise Architecture (NM) - Expert, Customer Centricity (NM) - Expert, Business Acumen (NM) - Advanced, Decision Making (NM) - Expert, Analytical Thinking (NM) - Expert, Technical Problem Solving (NM) - Expert, Technical Leadership (NM) - Expert, Stakeholder Relationship (NM) - Expert, Strategic Thinking (NM) - Expert, Adaptive Communication (NM) - Expert, Architecture & Technology Planning (NM) - Advanced

We're excited about the potential people bring to Northwestern Mutual. You can grow your career here while enjoying first-class perks, benefits, and our commitment to a culture of belonging.

• Flexible work schedules
• Concierge service
• Comprehensive benefits
• Employee resource groups