Director of Enterprise AI - Oakland, CA

Director of Enterprise AI — MISUMI Americas

Oakland, CA | Full-time | Director-level | $220,000–$260,000 DOE | ~10% travel

The role

As the Director of Enterprise AI, you will own the AI strategy and adoption across MISUMI Americas. This is a highly visible role at the center of our mission: to build the next-generation operating system for New Product Development. We use artificial intelligence, automation, and deep manufacturing intelligence to change how products are designed, sourced, and delivered globally. You will be responsible for the AI “power tools” that make us faster and more competitive across all business functions, at enterprise scale.

You will drive how AI opportunities are discovered, evaluated, and prioritized across the company. You will build and lead a team to assist you in coaching champions and accelerating adoption. And you will work with architecture and product to set the governance standards that move initiatives from prototype to production. AI is an organizational priority at MISUMI, which means leadership is actively engaged and business teams are open to experimentation.

We want to create a company where people can do the best work of their lives. AI is part of how we will get there: by giving people better tools, automating routine work, and making room for more creative and strategic contributions across the organization.

This role is based in our Oakland, CA office.

What you'll own

• Own MISUMI Americas' enterprise AI portfolio: the tools, workflow automations, and agents that serve every function across the company
• Define the strategy and framework for how AI use cases are discovered, evaluated, and prioritized across the enterprise
• Measure the impact of AI initiatives by business outcomes (hours saved, risk reduced, revenue generated, etc.), not by usage metrics or tokens consumed
• Work with architecture and product leaders to establish governance standards for AI initiatives, such as when a prototype moves onto the product roadmap, and what tools business users can own versus what requires core platform development
• Build a structured AI champion network by identifying high-potential people in each function, developing their capabilities, and using them to surface new use cases and proof-of-concepts
• Design onboarding and enablement programs that get teams productive quickly, including prompt libraries, workflow guides, office hours, and self-serve resources
• Embed with business teams to understand their actual workflows on the ground and where AI can help
• Hire and lead a small team focused on coaching champions, enabling adoption, and helping business teams get value from AI tools
• Communicate AI strategy, progress, and business impact to executive leadership. Make the case for what to invest in, what to hold, and what to stop funding.
• Partner with architects to shape MISUMI Americas' AI vendor and platform strategy: what LLM provider we standardize on, what automation tools we buy vs build ourselves, and how we stay flexible as better tools come to market

What we're looking for

• 12+ years of experience leading an enterprise through technology and workflow transformations
• Proven success designing and running enablement or change management programs — training rollouts, adoption campaigns, internal champion networks
• Experience operating within technology governance frameworks, with the ability to build a business case that meets ROI, security, and architectural standards
• Firsthand, regular use of enterprise AI tools like Claude, Copilot, or similar platforms — leadership is actively experimenting and expects you to be ahead of them
• Track record of making hard prioritization calls with an executive audience while encouraging curiosity and experimentation in the teams closest to the work
• Full product lifecycle ownership on ambiguous business problems — discovery through measurement and iteration
• Ability to measure and report AI/automation impact in dollars
• Technical fluency sufficient to evaluate vendor claims, push back on engineering estimates, and earn the respect of senior engineers — you don't need to build things, but you need to understand what's being built
• Manufacturing, supply chain, or industrial operations experience is a big plus

Compensation & location

$220,000–$260,000 base salary, depending on experience.

Work Authorization: Must be a U.S. citizen or U.S. permanent resident (Green Card holder)

Based in Oakland, CA, with approximately 10% travel for leadership meetings and building face-to-face relationships across MISUMI Americas.