Operations Innovation Manager Jobs in California

Are you looking to make an impactful difference in your work, yourself, and your community? Why settle for just a job when you can land a career? At ICW Group, we are hiring team members who are ready to use their skills, curiosity, and drive to be part of our journey as we strive to transform the insurance carrier space. We're proud to be in business for over 50 years, and its change agents like yourself that will help us continue to deliver our mission to create the best insurance experience possible.
Headquartered in San Diego with regional offices located throughout the United States, ICW Group has been named for the twelfth consecutive year in a row and for the 20th time overall as a Top 50 performing P&C organization offering the stability of a large, profitable and growing company combined with a focus on all things people. It's our team members who make us an employer of choice and the vibrant company we are today. We strive to make both our internal and external communities better everyday! Learn more about why you want to be here!
ABOUT ICW GROUP
ICW Group is a national, multi-line insurance carrier with an AM Best rating of 'A', approximately 1,300 employees, and headquarters in San Diego, California. ICW Group is executing an enterprise AI strategy that treats AI as core infrastructure: built on a single enterprise platform, governed by a single framework, and deployed under regulatory oversight from day one. As AI moves into underwriting, claims, and operational decisions, disciplined governance is what allows ICW to adopt AI quickly and defensibly.
ABOUT THE AI GOVERNANCE OFFICE
The AI Governance Management Office is ICW's standing execution and coordination function for artificial intelligence, sponsored by the SVP and Chief Digital and AI Officer. It serves the AI Governance Executive Committee (AIGEC) as its operational arm, turning AIGEC's policy, risk, and approval decisions into coordinated, well-governed delivery. The Office is the single operational home for AI intake, prioritization, coordination, enablement, and transparency.
The Office is also ICW's single coordination point for NAIC AI Systems Evaluation Tool response preparation. California, ICW's domiciliary state, is participating in the 2026 NAIC pilot, which creates an active compliance window for the organization's higher-risk AI systems in underwriting and claims.
PURPOSE OF THE JOB
The AI Governance Manager is an advanced professional individual contributor within the AI Governance Management Office, reporting to the Director of Cloud, AI, ML, and Enablement Platforms. This dedicated position works independently with limited oversight to administer, facilitate, and execute AI governance day to day: coordinating the governance committees, operating the intake-to-decision workflow, owning the AI Hub, and maintaining the governance artifacts and evidence that keep ICW audit-ready and regulator-ready.
Working closely with leadership and management at all levels, control functions, business owners, and external stakeholders, the AI Governance Manager makes governance practical and efficient so that teams move through it rather than around it. AIGEC and its subcommittees set policy, risk tolerance, and approvals; this role translates those decisions into consistent, well-documented execution, leads governance projects and processes, and provides guidance, coaching, and review of work products contributed by lower-level professionals and cross-functional partners.
ESSENTIAL DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES
Governance Operations and Lifecycle Management

• Coordinate and administer AIGEC and its AI Risk & Compliance and Third-Party AI Governance subcommittees: run the cadence (intake triage, risk review, forums), prepare review packs, and document decisions and action items to closure.

• Operate the intake-to-decision workflow -- apply the risk taxonomy (Tier 0 through Tier 4), move each use case through the lifecycle gates with required signoffs and triggered control-function reviews, resolve intake or escalation issues, and maintain the decision log, exception register, and escalation paths.

Policy, Standards, Controls, and Inventory

• Maintain the AI policy, standard, procedure, and control library with clear owners and review cadence, coordinate rollout of the policy suite (including the prohibited-use list), keep governance templates current, support control sufficiency testing for Tier 1 and Tier 2 systems, and recommend process and control enhancements that improve governance performance across the function.

• Administer the AI Systems Registry as the single audit-ready inventory of AI use cases, models, agents, and vendor AI, enforce the registry gate before build or deploy, guide business and technical owners through registry requirements, and coordinate model and system cards with lineage and classification for higher-risk systems.

AI Hub Ownership

• Own and operate the AI Hub on SharePoint as the enterprise's single front door for AI serving approximately 1,300 employees -- intake, approved tools, responsible-use guidance, governance materials, learning, and metrics -- managing the content lifecycle and running it as the interface between AIGEC and the workforce.

NAIC Regulatory Compliance Coordination

• Serve as the NAIC Response Coordinator, or lead significant portions of the response, for California DOI AI Systems Evaluation Tool inquiries, coordinate cross-functional evidence collection, maintain the artifacts serving Exhibits A through D (AI Systems Registry, model cards, AI Data Element Registry with Data Services, and the risk classification methodology), and track readiness and related policy updates as the pilot evolves.

Monitoring, Audit Readiness, and Reporting

• Operate the governance KPI and KRI dashboard and produce reporting for AIGEC and executive leadership, assemble audit-ready evidence packs for Tier 1 systems, run regulatory scanning (NIST AI RMF, NAIC, ISO/IEC 42001, state AI laws), and route material changes into policy and control updates with operational recommendations.

Training, Awareness, and Change Management

• Coordinate role-based AI governance training, attestation, and change-triggered learning, support the governance champion network and cultural-change activities, and provide guidance, coaching, and review of governance work products to reinforce clear ownership and consistent governance behavior.

SUPERVISORY RESPONSIBILITIES
This role does not have direct supervisory responsibilities.
EDUCATION AND EXPERIENCE

• Bachelor's degree in Business Administration, Information Technology, Risk Management, or related field, or equivalent experience.

• Minimum of ten years of experience in program or project management, governance, risk, or compliance operations within a technology, IT, or regulated environment.

• Demonstrated experience independently operating a governance, risk, or compliance program, including committee coordination, decision logging, evidence management, escalation management, and cross-functional process improvement.

• Experience with AI/ML programs, digital transformation, or technology transformation initiatives, or a strong record of ramping quickly on new governance domains.

• Advanced facilitation, stakeholder-management, and influencing skills, with the ability to navigate technical and business audiences at all levels of the organization, and influence practices, procedures, and policies at an operational level

• Proficiency with collaboration and tracking tools such as Jira, Confluence, Smartsheet, or equivalent, and experience with SharePoint content management.

• Excellent written and verbal communication, including the ability to produce executive-level packs, dashboards, regulatory response materials, and reporting.

• Extensive working understanding of governance frameworks and compliance requirements in regulated industries, including the impact of governance decisions on business, technology, risk, and control functions

• Experience in the insurance or financial services industry preferred.

• Familiarity with AI governance frameworks: NIST AI RMF, ISO/IEC 42001, the NAIC AI Model Bulletin, and the NAIC AI Systems Evaluation Tool (Exhibits A through D) preferred.

• Experience with NAIC regulatory requirements or Department of Insurance examination processes preferred.

• Familiarity with the AI and ML platforms in use at ICW (AWS Bedrock, Snowflake Cortex) and enterprise AI tools (Claude Enterprise, Microsoft 365 Copilot) preferred.

• Experience with SharePoint site design and enterprise portal management.

CERTIFICATES, LICENSES, REGISTRATIONS

• Risk, audit, or governance certification such as CRISC or CGEIT, or a project and program management certification such as PMP or PgMP, or SAFe / Lean Portfolio Management preferred.

KNOWLEDGE AND SKILLS

• Governance Discipline: Advanced ability to operate and improve governance processes, cadence, controls, and evidence, so decisions are defensible, repeatable, and scalable across the enterprise.

• Facilitation: Ability to run committees, reviews, and cross-functional decisions across diverse technical and business teams, and to influence operational practices, procedures, and policies within and outside the immediate job function.

• Detail Orientation: Meticulous attention to governance artifacts, compliance documentation, and registry data integrity.

• Communication: Ability to synthesize technical, business, and regulatory information into clear, actionable materials for business owners, control functions, vendors, and executive leadership.

• Ownership and Project Leadership: Self-directed execution across multiple concurrent governance workstreams in a fast-paced environment.

• Adaptability: Comfort with ambiguity and the ability to establish structure and process where none exists.

• Regulatory Awareness: Genuine interest in AI regulation and responsible AI, and in keeping ICW's posture current as expectations evolve.

PHYSICAL REQUIREMENTS
Office environment - no specific or unusual physical or environmental demands and employees are regularly required to sit, walk, stand, talk and hear.
WORK ENVIRONMENT
This position is based at ICW Group's Innovation Point campus in San Diego, CA. Occasional collaboration with remote team members and external partners via Microsoft Teams may be required. This position observes standard business hours with flexibility to support cross-time-zone engagements as needed.
This description is a general statement of essential job functions and responsibilities.
The position may include other duties as assigned.
We are currently not offering employment sponsorship for this opportunity.
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The current range for this position is
$139,874.00 - $250,377.40
This range is exclusive of fringe benefits and potential bonuses. If hired at ICW Group, your final base salary compensation will be determined by factors unique to each candidate, including experience, education and the location of the role and considers employees performing substantially similar work.
WHY JOIN ICW GROUP?

• Challenging work and the ability to make a difference
• You will have a voice and feel a sense of belonging
• We offer a competitive benefits package, with generous medical, dental, and vision plans as well as 401K retirement plans and company match
• Bonus potential for all positions
• Paid Time Off
• Paid holidays throughout the calendar year
• Want to continue learning? We'll support you 100%

ICW Group is committed to creating a diverse environment and is proud to be an Equal Opportunity Employer. ICW Group will not discriminate against an applicant or employee on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, ancestry, sex/gender, age, physical or mental disability, military or veteran status, genetic information, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, marital status, or any other characteristic protected by applicable federal, state or local law.
Job Category
IT