Strategic AI Operations Leader

 

We currently have a career opportunity for a Strategic AI Operations Leader to join our team.

 

The Strategic AI Operations Leader is responsible for transforming traditional support operations into an AI-enabled, scalable support model by integrating AI agents, automation, observability, and modern ITSM practices. This role defines and drives the future operating model for L1/L2 support, focusing on improving service availability, reducing costs, accelerating incident resolution, and enhancing customer experience.

 

It requires strong leadership in IT Command Center and production support, managed services transformation, and AI-driven service delivery, along with collaboration across global teams and involvement in client engagements and sales. The position is part of senior leadership and plays a key role in shaping the organization’s managed services strategy. 

 

Responsibilities

• Develop roadmaps, plans, and metrics that communicate the AI Agentic operational excellence vision/progress. Sets a high bar for results through continuous learning and a high degree of observability and automation, reducing manual operations across all layers.
• Partner with the Development and Operational teams to ensure the products are meeting observability, reliability, and performance goals.
• Promote the vision and drive organizational transformation through establishing/maintaining relationships with key stakeholders across the organization, including operations, and management
• Incident & Problem Management: Lead complex incident resolution using AI-supported triage and root cause analysis (RCA), implementing permanent fixes and preventing recurrence through automation.
• Technical Support: Perform advanced troubleshooting, system configuration, and monitoring using tools like Dynatrace, Splunk, Datadog, AppDynamics, Elastic, Alertsite, ELK, Solarwinds, CloudWatch.
• Team Leadership: Guide and mentor L2 engineers, ensuring adherence to SLAs, and coordinating with L1 and L3 teams.
• Documentation: Maintain AI-enhanced documentation and knowledge bases, enabling faster resolution, proactive monitoring, and continuous optimization of operations.
• Automation: Identify opportunities for automation and implement AI-assisted/agentic AI solutions to streamline production support tasks
• Drive a culture of curiosity and ensure teams to triage systematically to arrive at the root cause, and proactive monitoring
• Create and promote the culture of continuous learning implementing changes preventing recurrence and enabling actions for early detection and self-healing.

• Coach, mentor, and lead a high-performing team with direct and indirect responsibility to deliver on the objectives.

  
  

Qualifications

• 15+ years of experience in enterprise IT operations, managed services, NOC operations, or production support environments
• 5+ years leading enterprise-scale operational transformation initiatives
• Proven experience designing and modernizing:  
  • NOC and IT operations centers
  • Service management organizations
  • Production support operating models
• Demonstrated experience implementing AI, AIOps, automation, and intelligent operations within enterprise support environments
• Experience supporting large-scale enterprise environments with 24x7 operational requirements.
• Experience driving support model transformation, including AI augmentation and workforce optimization strategies
• Background in enterprise consulting or global systems integrators
• Strong understanding of:
  • ITIL frameworks, including Incident, Problem, Change, and Event Management
  • NOC and production support models across global delivery environments
  • Enterprise observability, monitoring, and telemetry-driven operations
  • AIOps platforms, event correlation, and intelligent incident management
  • AI/ML-enabled operational models, including LLMs, AI agents, and orchestration frameworks
  • Enterprise automation platforms and workflow orchestration
  • Operational analytics and data-driven decision making
  • Cloud and infrastructure operations across AWS, and hybrid environments
• Hands-on experience with enterprise tools and platforms, including:
  • Cloud Platforms: AWS
  • ITSM Platforms: ServiceNow or equivalent
  • Observability & Monitoring: Dynatrace, Splunk, Datadog, AppDynamics, Elastic
  • AIOps & Event Management: Moogsoft, BigPanda, and/or PagerDuty
  • AI & LLM Platforms: Azure OpenAI, OpenAI, Copilot frameworks
  • AI agent frameworks and orchestration platforms
  • Automation Tools: Ansible, Rundeck
  • Workflow orchestration and integration platforms
  • Enterprise knowledge management systems  
• Proficient in leveraging AI technologies to drive innovation, support strategic initiatives, and enable data-driven decision-making.
• Possesses a strong understanding of AI capabilities, limitations, and ethical considerations. 
• Must be open to client travel as needed.

 

Perficient, Inc. proudly provides equal employment opportunities (EEO) to all employees and applicants for employment without regard to race, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation, national origin, age, disability, genetic information, marital status, amnesty, or status as a protected veteran in accordance with applicable federal, state and local laws. Perficient, Inc. complies with applicable state and local laws governing nondiscrimination in employment in every location in which the company has facilities. This policy applies to all terms and conditions of employment, including, but not limited to, hiring, placement, promotion, termination, layoff, recall, transfer, leaves of absence, compensation, and training. Perficient, Inc. expressly prohibits any form of unlawful employee harassment based on race, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation, national origin, age, genetic information, disability, or covered veterans. Improper interference with the ability of Perficient, Inc. employees to perform their expected job duties is absolutely not tolerated.​

 

 

Disability Accommodations: Perficient is committed to providing a barrier-free employment process with reasonable accommodations for qualified individuals with disabilities and disabled veterans in our job application procedures. If you need assistance or accommodation due to a disability, please contact us.​

 

 

Applications will be accepted until the position is filled or the posting is removed.​

 

 

The salary range for this position takes into consideration a variety of factors, including but not limited to skill sets, level of experience, applicable office location, training, licensure and certifications, and other business and organizational needs. The new hire salary range displays the minimum and maximum salary targets for this position across all US locations, and the range has not been adjusted for any specific state differentials. It is not typical for a candidate to be hired at or near the top of the range for their role, and compensation decisions are dependent on the unique facts and circumstances regarding each candidate. A reasonable estimate of the current salary range for this position is $170,100 to $202,730. Please note that the salary range posted reflects the base salary only and does not include benefits or any potential variable compensation programs. Information regarding the benefits available for this position are in our benefits overview.

 

#LI-JS1

About UsPerficient is the global AI and technology consulting firm disrupting the traditional consulting model. Powered by our 7,000+ advisors, engineers, and designers, Perficient implements AI-first solutions that break conventions and deliver outcomes that matter. Proudly serving clients that represent the world’s most innovative brands, and in collaboration with our powerful technology partner ecosystem, we bring deep industry expertise and data-driven design to redefine how businesses run and succeed. Perficient is different. For real. Learn more at perficient.com. About the TeamOur Intelligent Automation experts help our clients bridge how work is performed today and how they want to work tomorrow, by leveraging DPA, RPA, and AI to align all aspects of the client’s operations. We partner with some of the most recognized brands in the business with equally matched partnerships. Together, we bring visions to life and drive value and efficiency through process improvement and technology integration.