About the position

Bealls, Inc. is seeking a hands-on, technically deep VP of AI Integration & Optimization to design, operationalize, and scale the company’s enterprise AI strategy. This role is built for a true builder-leader, someone who pairs real-world AI/ML engineering expertise with the executive presence to influence SVP and C-suite stakeholders and drive adoption across a multi-billion-dollar retail organization. As Bealls’ AI pioneer, this leader will implement the company’s AI operating model, deliver high-impact use cases in the first year, and enhance the governance, evaluation, and adoption frameworks needed to convert experimentation into measurable business outcomes. The role begins highly hands-on, combining individual contribution with leadership—and evolves into building and leading a dedicated AI team as organizational maturity scales. Partnering across Enterprise retail environment, the VP will embed AI capabilities into the fabric of the business, accelerating decision-making, efficiency, and growth. We are seeking a technically strong, execution-focused AI leader to: Bring to life the enterprise AI strategy. Evolve AI governance, evaluation, adoption, and activation frameworks. Deliver measurable, high-ROI AI use cases in year one. Guide senior leaders and cross-functional teams in leveraging AI responsibly and effectively.

Responsibilities

• Advance the unified AI intake, scoring, evaluation, and prioritization model.
• Refine Bealls’ enterprise AI Roadmap.
• Deliver 3–5 scalable AI use cases (e.g., forecasting, service optimization, pricing, inventory).
• Evolve and implement AI governance, risk, and compliance frameworks.
• Create evaluation frameworks for LLM and ML performance, including safety and bias controls.
• Establish dashboards and KPI tracking for AI adoption, productivity, and value realization.
• Educate within the communities of practice and provide hands-on functional training programs.
• Optimize the AI operating engine (AI Council, business value reviews, adoption loops).
• Partner with SVPs and functional VPs to translate strategy into applied AI use cases.
• Drive enterprise-wide change enablement and adoption.
• Lead cross-functional alignment with Security, Legal, Procurement, Data, and Technology.
• Evaluate vendors, platforms, and partnerships with an emphasis on responsible AI.
• Build and scale an AI team as organizational readiness expands.

Requirements

• 10+ years in AI/ML, Data Science, or advanced analytics roles.
• Proven ability to build and scale AI systems with hands-on engineering expertise.
• Demonstrated ability to debug, evaluate, and optimize LLMs and ML models.
• Experience deploying AI use cases in operational environments (not just POCs).
• Strong understanding of AI governance, explainability, risk frameworks, and model monitoring.
• Ability to influence cross-functional senior leadership without direct authority.
• Comfort operating as a one-person AI function initially.
• Experience in consumer-facing industries (retail, CPG, travel, hospitality, logistics, e-commerce).

Nice-to-haves

• Experience with agentic AI systems and emerging AI technologies.
• Hands-on experience with MLOps, vector databases, retrieval systems, and evaluation pipelines.
• Background integrating AI into legacy environments while transitioning to modern architecture.
• Bachelor’s or advance degree in AI, computer science, data science, engineering, or related fields.
• Experience building AI literacy and enablement programs.

Benefits

• We provide weekly pay and comprehensive benefits, health and wellness perks, including paid time off and retirement saving plans because associate well-being is a priority.
• We offer corporate associates the flexibility of hybrid work schedules, with variations by department.