Director Machine Learning Jobs in Rochester Hills, MI

In this role, you will lead the strategic integration of several key functions-including data strategy, business intelligence, reporting, and customer experience analytics-into a unified, global team comprising both internal employees and external partners. Operating as a proactive service function, your organization will work in partnership with FCSD's business line leaders to directly support and accelerate their business results. This role is not about maintaining legacy processes or acting as a reactive "data vendor" that extracts raw files and distributes spreadsheets. Instead, you are tasked with architecting a modern, AI-first insights engine. You will build a highly proactive team that pushes our business leaders on their strategic thinking, challenges status-quo assumptions with deep, diagnostic and predictive analytics, and unlocks the critical insights needed to drive our business transformation.

Required Skills and Capabilities

• Transformational Leadership & Vision: Exceptional capability to lead global, cross-functional teams through change, while maintaining a high-performing service identity.

• AI-First Technical Vision: A forward-looking leader with a strong conceptual grasp of generative AI, large language models, automated machine learning, next-generation visualization platforms, and modern cloud data ecosystems. Must keep pace with new innovation and leverage the latest tooling and agents to rapidly prototype solutions and prove value before scaling.

• Proactive Advisory & Influence: A track record of acting as a consultative partner rather than a transactional service provider; someone who can leverage data to challenge senior executive thinking and constructively shape business outcomes.

• Collaborative Relationship Builder: Strong interpersonal skills with a proven track record of partnering across corporate skill teams, technology partners, and external organizations.

• Resource Orchestration: Ability to manage complex, blended teams (internal and external vendors) and design high-performing operating models during organizational change.

• Action & output oriented. Hands on keys builder that can roll up their sleeves alongside engineering teams. 

• Education: Bachelor's degree in Business Analytics, Data Science, Statistics, Economics, Engineering, Mathematics, Business, or a related field.

• Experience:

  • Minimum of 10 years of progressive experience in business analytics, data strategy, business intelligence, or customer insights.

  • Minimum of 5 years of experience leading and developing global, multi-tiered, or cross-functional teams of 20+ professionals (including direct employees and vendors).

  • Experience leading a technology-focused team through transformation 

• Technical & Platform Familiarity: Deep conceptual knowledge of modern cloud environments (e.g., Google Cloud Platform), automated BI semantic layers, advanced analytics workflows, and AI agents with experience successfully migrating legacy reporting into modernized platforms.

• Advanced Degree: Master's degree in Data Science, Mathematics, Engineering, or an MBA with an analytical focus.

• Automotive or Aftersales Experience: Prior experience in dealership operations, automotive parts and service, or aftersales business dynamics.

• Modern Methodology Certifications: Certified in modern, agile data product management, continuous delivery frameworks, or Lean methodologies.

1. Future-State Operating Model & Resource Integration

• Design the Future Organization: Integrate diverse reporting and data/analytics teams into a global structure of 30+ professionals.

• Orchestrate the Employee-Vendor Ecosystem: Efficiently manage a blended team of internal talent and external vendors. Ensure our partners effectively "run the railroads" so that internal teams can focus on high-value strategy and proactive insight generation.

• Lead Cultural and Skill Transformation: Have a mindset of proactive, strategic advisory partner to FCSD business leaders, enabling the team to work seamlessly in modern, cloud-native, and AI-first environments.

2. Proactive Business Intelligence, Insights & Service Delivery

• Support Business Line Results: Position the Data Analytics and Business Intelligence team as a premier service function, collaborating intimately with FCSD business line leaders to drive EBIT expansion and better operational execution.

• Challenge the Status Quo: Shift the division away from, manual spreadsheet-sharing toward dynamic, predictive business intelligence. Empower your team to synthesize complex datasets and deliver sharp, actionable insights that proactively shape future business strategies.

• Establish Dynamic Enterprise KPIs: Oversee the development and automation of next-generation performance metrics, utilizing AI-driven visualization to track and predict customer pay service, leads, wholesale, parts supply & logistic, network performance.

• Own the Semantic Layer and Metric Governance: Reinforce centralized Business Rules to eliminate conflicting data across business units, ensuring a single version of truth.

3. Integrated Customer & Dealer Data Strategy

• Consolidate Dealer & CX Data: Evolve the customer and dealer lifecycle by bringing Dealer Management System (DMS) datasets and Customer Experience (CX) survey metrics into a single, unified data strategy. 
• Synthesize Voice of Customer (VoC) and industry data: Build cohesive feedback loops that make customer and dealer sentiment and industry benchmark insights highly visible and actionable from executive leadership to the dealership floor.
• Continue Leadership in Data Integration: Define the long-term vision for dealer-partner data sharing, integration, and security, ensuring high-integrity, compliant pipelines feed the team's advanced analytics engines.

4. AI-First Analytics & Modern Tech Stack Evolution

• Establish an AI-First Culture: Leverage AI to automate routine reporting, accelerate insight generation, and perform diagnostic modeling at scale.

• Partner with Central Ford Tech teams: Collaborate closely with Ford's centralized data science and Enterprise Technology organizations to transition FCSD's data assets from legacy environments into modern, cloud-native architectures