Sr. Director, IT - AI Innovation and Services
$212k - $336k USD
Elastic, the Search AI Company, enables everyone to find the answers they need in real time, using all their data, at scale — unleashing the potential of businesses and people. The Elastic Search AI Platform, used by more than 50% of the Fortune 500, brings together the precision of search and the intelligence of AI to enable everyone to accelerate the results that matter. By taking advantage of all structured and unstructured data — securing and protecting private information more effectively — Elastic’s complete, cloud-based solutions for search, security, and observability help organizations deliver on the promise of AI.
What is The Role
Elastic is seeking a visionary and experienced Senior IT Director focused on AI Innovation to lead our enterprise-wide AI strategy and technology deployment at Elastic. Reporting directly to the CIO, this high-impact leadership role will be instrumental in shaping and executing our internal AI strategy and elevating business processes by designing innovative AI-driven solutions to increase productivity, reduce operational overhead, and unlock new value.
The ideal candidate brings a strong background in hands-on engineering, technical depth, architectural judgement, business analysis, deep knowledge of emerging AI technologies and a proven ability to translate strategy into scalable, secure, and measurable services that are used across the company daily.
Ready to influence AI services and lead critical change in a rapidly scaling, publicly traded SaaS environment? This role is where technical expertise meets business velocity!
What You Will Be Doing
- Design future-state workflows inside the company, using Generative and Agentic AI aligned with business goals, productivity outcomes and user needs.
- Design and pilot these solutions and scale successful initiatives.
- Conduct deep business process analyses across departments to identify areas for automation, augmentation, or reimagination via AI.
- Prioritize high-ROI opportunities for AI integration, with a focus on reducing repetitive manual tasks and improving business delivery.
- Deliver measurable improvements in productivity, operational cost reduction, and process velocity.
- Design and execute a company-wide change management strategy for AI adoption, including training, communication, and stakeholder alignment.
- Lead a global cross-functional team that includes product managers, architects and engineers
- Proven ability to lead multidisciplinary teams from ideation through to successful execution.
What You Bring
- 15+ years of software engineering experience with 8+ years in leadership role
- 10+ years of consistent achievement in driving engineering, business transformation, strategic advisory, and innovation.
- Practical experience leading AI, Generative AI, and Agentic AI initiatives aimed at modernizing business functions.
- Strong technical expertise in agentic AI, workflow automation, orchestration frameworks, and evaluation techniques.
- Experience designing systems that minimize hallucinations and enforce safe, predictable AI behavior.
- Hands-on experience with cloud-native AI infrastructure, inference optimization, system wide automation and cost-aware system design.
- Ability to translate complex AI concepts into practical, mission-ready product capabilities.
- Strong communication skills and the ability to collaborate effectively across technical and non-technical teams.
- Apply AI and LLMs to reduce costs, improve process efficiency, and modernize legacy operations.
- Build and lead a team of AI/ML engineers to develop scalable, production-ready solutions.
- Experience working with enterprise-level systems and other large-scale data platforms.
- Exceptional communication, facilitation, and narrative-building capabilities tailored for both technical and business-oriented audiences.
Compensation for this role is in the form of base salary. This role does not have a variable compensation component.
The typical starting salary range for new hires in this role is listed below. In select locations (including Seattle WA, Los Angeles CA, the San Francisco Bay Area CA, and the New York City Metro Area), an alternate range may apply as specified below.
These ranges represent the lowest to highest salary we reasonably and in good faith believe we would pay for this role at the time of this posting. We may ultimately pay more or less than the posted range, and the ranges may be modified in the future.
An employee's position within the salary range will be based on several factors including, but not limited to, relevant education, qualifications, certifications, experience, skills, geographic location, performance, and business or organizational needs.
Elastic believes that employees should have the opportunity to share in the value that we create together for our shareholders. Therefore, in addition to cash compensation, this role is currently eligible to participate in Elastic's stock program. Our total rewards package also includes a company-matched 401k with dollar-for-dollar matching up to 6% of eligible earnings, along with a range of other benefits offered with a holistic emphasis on employee well-being.
The typical starting salary range for this role is:
$212,100—$335,600 USD
The typical starting salary range for this role in the select locations listed above is:
$254,900—$403,200 USD
Additional Information - We Take Care of Our People
As a distributed company, diversity drives our identity. Whether you’re looking to launch a new career or grow an existing one, Elastic is the type of company where you can balance great work with great life. Your age is only a number. It doesn’t matter if you’re just out of college or your children are; we need you for what you can do.
We strive to have parity of benefits across regions and while regulations differ from place to place, we believe taking care of our people is the right thing to do.
- Competitive pay based on the work you do here and not your previous salary
- Health coverage for you and your family in many locations
- Ability to craft your calendar with flexible locations and schedules for many roles
- Generous number of vacation days each year
- Increase your impact - We match up to $2000 (or local currency equivalent) for financial donations and service
- Up to 40 hours each year to use toward volunteer projects you love
- Embracing parenthood with minimum of 16 weeks of parental leave
Different people approach problems differently. We need that. Elastic is an equal opportunity employer and is committed to creating an inclusive culture that celebrates different perspectives, experiences, and backgrounds. Qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, ethnicity, color, religion, sex, pregnancy, sexual orientation, gender perception or identity, national origin, age, marital status, protected veteran status, disability status, or any other basis protected by federal, state or local law, ordinance or regulation.
We welcome individuals with disabilities and strive to create an accessible and inclusive experience for all individuals. To request an accommodation during the application or the recruiting process, please email candidate_accessibility@elastic.co. We will reply to your request within 24 business hours of submission.
Applicants have rights under Federal Employment Laws, view posters linked below: Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) Poster; Pay Transparency Nondiscrimination Provision Poster; Employee Polygraph Protection Act (EPPA) Poster and Know Your Rights (Poster)
Elasticsearch develops and distributes technology and information that is subject to U.S. and other countries’ export controls and licensing requirements for individuals who are located in or are nationals of the following sanctioned countries and regions: Belarus, Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Syria, or Russia, including the Ukrainian territories annexed by Russia (The Crimea region of Ukraine, The Donetsk People's Republic (DNR), The Luhansk People's Republic (LNR), Kherson or Zaporizhzhia). If you are located in or are a national of one of the listed countries or regions, an export license may be required as a condition of your employment in this role. Please note that national origin and/or nationality do not affect eligibility for employment with Elastic.
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