AVP- AI Domain Lead

Job Title AVP, Head of AI Solutions

Division: Corp IT

Location: Hudson Yards, NYC

Reports To: VP, IT Platform Lead Americas

Who We Are: 

For more than a century, L’Oréal has devoted its energy, innovation, and scientific excellence solely to one business: Beauty. Our goal is to offer each and every person around the world the best of beauty in terms of quality, efficacy, safety, sincerity and responsibility to satisfy all beauty needs and desires in their infinite diversity. 

At L'Oréal, our IT teams design and build solutions to ensure high performance for all our business sectors by imagining new ways of doing things, from designing websites to building algorithms and predicting new trends. They can be found leading teams towards a more connected and digitalized future in IT retail, e-commerce, CRM, data, AI, cybersecurity, Cloud and E-Marketing. You never stop learning at L'Oréal IT because things change at the speed of light! Come join our dynamic team!

What You Will Do:

The Head of AI Solutions within the Beauty Tech organization is a visionary leader responsible for catalyzing and collaboratively driving L'Oréal Americas' AI strategy, and enabling its transformative impact and organizational change across all L'Oréal Americas business functions. In an era marked by profound technological revolution, AI is rapidly reshaping industries, and L'Oréal, building on its strong foundation in Digital and advanced technologies, recognizes its pivotal importance for future growth and innovation. This role is paramount in translating L'Oréal's strategic objectives into a compelling AI roadmap, leveraging Generative AI & Agentic technologies to unlock new avenues for growth, efficiency, and innovation. 

The successful candidate will possess exceptional business acumen, highly developed executive communication and influencing capabilities, a proven track record in leading large-scale digital/AI transformations, and the strategic foresight to advise and capitalize on AI-driven opportunities. This leader will cultivate strong technical credibility, effectively guiding and collaborating with a diverse team of Product Managers, AI engineers, ML Engineers, and Software engineers to ensure the strategic alignment and successful delivery of AI products. This leader will foster a culture of innovation and agile acceleration, partnering closely with CDMO, COO, CDAO, CHRO, Divisions, Learning & Development, other corporate functions, and Global teams to embed AI at the core of L'Oréal's future and strategically support this transformation. 

Responsibilities: 

• Catalyze and Champion the AI Strategy & Roadmap: Orchestrate the development and continuous evolution of a forward looking AI strategy and product development roadmap for L'Oréal, ensuring deep alignment with overall business objectives, growth initiatives, and L'Oréal's digital leadership. 
• Orchestrate AI-Powered Business Transformation & Change: Orchestrate the organizational transformation of L'Oréal Americas into an AI-enabled enterprise, identifying, incubating, and scaling high-impact ML/Gen AI use cases working closely with Digital, Sales, Supply Chain, Research & Innovation, and corporate functions that deliver significant advancements in growth, decision-making and efficiency, while actively managing the associated change processes and adoption. 
• Strategic Investment & Prioritization: Evaluate new opportunities for AI investments, applying a robust prioritization framework to facilitate the allocation of organizational budget and resources towards the highest priority and most impactful AI initiatives. 
• Global-Local AI Alignment & Acceleration: Adapt and lead the regional AI strategy, ensuring global alignment while addressing zonal specificities. Drive the "Tech Accelerator" aspect by fostering innovation, exploring bespoke solutions, identifying best-in-class off-the-shelf products, and orchestrating global rollouts. 
• Guide "Build vs. Buy" Decisions: Provide strategic guidance on core "Build, Buy, Partner" decisions for AI capabilities, clarifying areas for internal research, development, and strategic partnerships to accelerate AI adoption. 
• Ensure Responsible & Trustworthy AI: Oversee the establishment and integration of robust AI governance and solution quality control processes, embedding Responsible & Trustworthy AI practices throughout the entire AI lifecycle. 
• Stakeholder Engagement & Value Realization: Cultivate strong relationships with CDMO, COO, CDAO, Divisions, L&D, Beauty Tech, Global IT, and other corporate stakeholders to ensure alignment, measure ROI, drive adoption of AI capabilities, and strategically prioritize initiatives and releases. 
• Foster Technical Credibility & Collaboration: Build and maintain strong technical credibility to effectively guide, influence, and collaborate with Product Managers, AI engineers, Data Scientists, and Software engineers, ensuring strategic alignment and technical excellence. 
• Drive Innovation & Future-Proofing: Lead the exploration and adoption of state-of-the-art AI techniques, including Generative AI, agentic systems, ethical data integration, cost optimization, and regulatory compliance to future-proof L'Oréal's AI capabilities. 
• Talent & Team Leadership: Provide visionary leadership and mentorship to direct reports and extended team members, fostering a high-performance culture of innovation, collaboration, and continuous learning within the AI and Tech Accelerator ecosystem. 
• Strategic Communication & Reporting: Establish and maintain high-level communication and reporting channels with senior executive leadership and business stakeholders to ensure transparent progress, alignment on strategic goals, and effective management of the overall AI program, including progress on organizational change initiatives. 

What We Are Looking For:

Required Qualifications:

• Strategic Leadership Experience: Minimum of 10+ years of progressive leadership experience in AI strategy, digital transformation, and organizational change management roles within a complex, multinational organization. 
• Business Acumen & Impact: Proven track record of translating complex technical concepts into strategic business value, driving significant ROI, and delivering impactful outcomes. 
• Transformation & Innovation Leadership: Demonstrated experience leading large-scale AL/ML and importantly Gen AI transformations from strategic conception through to successful adoption, fostering innovation and new ways of working, with a strong emphasis on managing organizational change and driving user adoption. 
• Executive Stakeholder Management: Exceptional communication, influencing, and presentation skills with a consistent track record of building strong relationships and driving alignment with senior executive stakeholders (including C-level) 
• Technical Credibility (Strategic Level): Strong understanding of Generative AI/Agentic technologies and trends, marrying business acumen to relevant business applications and credible engagement with Product Managers, AI engineers, ML Engineers, and Software engineers. 
• People Leadership & Development: Experience in leading, mentoring, and developing high-performing teams, fostering a collaborative and innovative culture across diverse groups and potentially across geographies, and championing adaptability to change. 
• Program & Portfolio Management: Proven ability to manage complex technology portfolios, including strategic planning, budget management, vendor management, and contract negotiation. 
• Cross-Functional & Global Collaboration: Highly preferred - Experience operating in a highly cross-functional, multinational business environment, successfully navigating organizational complexities. 
• Industry Expertise:  Strong CPG/Retail background with a thorough understanding of how to apply innovative AI & Agentic solutions to business challenges with a clear sense of the value added. 
• Agility & Future Orientation: Ability to operate strategically in the short term while designing for future scalability, market shifts, and technological advancements, and to lead an organization through continuous evolution. 
• Educational Background: Preferred - Advanced degree (e.g., MBA, Masters in a relevant quantitative, business, or technology field) demonstrating strong analytical and strategic capabilities. 
• Global Mobility: Ability to travel to key global L'Oréal locations as required to foster collaboration and drive strategic initiatives. 

As an integral part of our culture at L’Oréal, wellness is at our core. We not only offer a generous Benefits Package (Medical, Dental, Vision, 401K), we also offer flexible time off, work from home days, and a pension plan! Additionally, you will have access to company perks such as Makeup, Skincare, and Fragrance! Employees receive a stipend for L'Oréal products as well as VIP Access to L’Oréal’s Internal Shop for Discounted Products, and other perks such as Monthly Mobile Allowance, discounted gym memberships, and ERGs.

Additional Benefits Information As Follows:

Salary Range: $147,100 - $213,300 (The actual compensation will depend on a variety of job-related factors which may include geographic location, work experience, education, and skill level)  

• Competitive Benefit Package (Medical, Dental, Vision, 401K, Pension Plan)  
• Hybrid Work Policy (3 Days in Office, 2 Days Work from Home)
• Flexible Time Off (Paid Company Holidays, Paid Vacation, Vacation Buy Program, Volunteer Time, Summer Fridays & More!)  
• Access to Company Perks (VIP Access to L’Oréal’s Internal Shop for Discounted Products, Monthly Mobile Allowance)  
• Learning & Development Opportunities (Unlimited Access to E-learnings, Lunch & Learn Sessions, Mentorship Programs, & More!)  
• Employee Resource Groups (Think Tanks and Innovation Squads)  
• Access to Mental Health & Wellness Programs   

Don’t meet every single requirement? At L'Oréal, we are dedicated to building a diverse, inclusive, and innovative workplace. If you’re excited about this role but your past experience doesn’t align perfectly with the qualifications listed in the job description, we encourage you to apply anyways! You may just be the right candidate for this or other roles!

We are an Equal Opportunity Employer and take pride in a diverse environment. We would love to find out more about you as a candidate and do not discriminate in recruitment, hiring, training, promotion, or other employment practices for reasons of race, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation, national origin, age, marital or veteran status, medical condition or disability, or any other legally protected status.

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