Job Title: Director of Generative Artificial Intelligence & ML Innovation – Lending Transformation

Duration: Full-time with Idexcel

Location: Herndon, VA

Role Summary:

The Director of AI/ML Innovation will lead the design, development, and implementation of AI-driven solutions to enhance underwriting, financial analysis, and loan origination processes. This leader will play a critical role in developing advanced workflows, automation capabilities, and data-driven insights to meet the needs of modern lending institutions. You will work closely with cross-functional teams, including product, engineering, and compliance, to build and deploy scalable AI/ML solutions.

Key Responsibilities:

• AI Strategy and Vision: Define and execute a comprehensive AI/ML strategy to transform lending workflows, underwriting processes, and financial analysis capabilities.
• Product Innovation: Identify opportunities for GenAI-based innovations to enhance borrower assessments, decision-making processes, and workflow automation.
• Data-Driven Insights: Leverage machine learning to analyze large volumes of financial and operational data to improve credit underwriting, detect risks, and ensure compliance.
• Workflow Optimization: Develop intelligent automation solutions to streamline multi-step lending processes, policies, and rules-based workflows for both commercial and consumer loans.
• Regulatory Compliance: Build AI solutions that ensure compliance with lending regulations and support dynamic policy enforcement across institutions.
• Cross-Functional Leadership: Collaborate with engineering, product, data science, and compliance teams to align AI/ML initiatives with business goals.
• AI Governance and Ethics: Establish frameworks for responsible AI development and ensure adherence to AI governance principles, ensuring fair and unbiased decision-making.
• Team Leadership: Recruit, develop, and lead a high-performing team of AI/ML specialists, data scientists, and engineers.
• Performance Metrics: Define and track KPIs to measure the impact of AI solutions on underwriting accuracy, operational efficiency, and borrower experience.

REQUIRED SKILLS:

• 12+ years of professional experience
• Technical Expertise: Deep understanding of AI/ML frameworks (e.g., TensorFlow, PyTorch, scikit-learn) and experience with GenAI models (e.g., LLMs, GPT-based models).
• 6+ years of management and leadership experience
• Experience hiring and building new teams from the ground up
• Experience leading large data and technical teams, including Data/ML Ops Engineering, Solution Architects, and Business Intelligence Engineers
• Previous hands-on experience building large-scale AI and ML models and workflows and monitoring them
• Strong knowledge of machine learning algorithms, statistical models, and data science tools
• Proven experience in leading AI/ML teams and implementing successful projects
• AWS Cloud platform experience is mandatory
• Data Expertise: Strong background in data engineering and working with structured and unstructured financial data.
• Leadership Skills: Proven ability to lead cross-functional teams and manage AI/ML product development in complex environments.
• Innovation Mindset: Ability to identify emerging AI trends and leverage them to reimagine business processes.
• Proven experience leading machine learning projects from inception to prototype, with a demonstrated ability to meet deadlines and manage project teams.
• Proven track record of working on LLM-based projects, including prompt optimization and fine-tuning for real-world use cases.
• Experience applying traditional machine learning methods to solve business and analytical problems

RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Oversee the design, development, testing, and deployment of automation and AI/ML operations that support data products for use in advanced analytics, data science, and AI initiatives.
• Build a new team from the ground up.
• Provide mentorship and guidance to team members to ensure professional development and growth.
• Hire and retain top data engineering talent, set performance expectations, conduct regular assessment