Job Overview: 

The Senior Manager leads business engagement and delivery oversight for a portfolio of AI initiatives across assigned UNFI business units and functional areas. The role is accountable for turning business opportunities into clearly defined, prioritized, funded, executable, and ultimately delivered initiatives, from initial discovery and opportunity framing through business case development, project readiness, delivery oversight, adoption, and benefits realization.

The position serves as the primary AI portfolio partner for assigned business/functional areas, developing a deep understanding of their operations, strategic priorities, pain points, data, and performance drivers. The role maintains an integrated AI roadmap for those areas, proactively identifies opportunities, shapes use cases around measurable business outcomes, and coordinates the business, Technology, PMO, Finance, governance, and delivery resources required to move initiatives from idea to implementation.

The Senior Manager works in close partnership with the AI Product & Engineering organization. AI Engagement & Delivery owns the business problem, business case, functional scope, roadmap, stakeholder alignment, delivery outcomes, adoption, and benefits realization. Product & Engineering owns technical architecture, engineering execution, development and quality standards, technical governance, deployment, production operations, platform scalability, and ongoing technical support. Both teams collaborate during discovery, prototyping, planning, and delivery, including joint oversight of third-party partners from their respective business and technical perspectives.

This is a hands-on leadership role. The Senior Manager is expected to bring sufficient AI product and solutioning experience to lead rapid discovery exercises and, in partnership with Product & Engineering, create or guide lightweight prototypes and proof-of-concept solutions that help stakeholders understand what is possible, validate feasibility, sharpen scope, and make better investment decisions. The role is not expected to serve as the production engineering owner, but must be capable of working credibly with engineers, architects, data teams, and external developers throughout the solution lifecycle.

Job Responsibilities: 

• Serve as the primary AI engagement and portfolio leader for assigned business units and functional areas, developing trusted relationships and a strong understanding of their strategies, processes, priorities, and performance drivers.

• Maintain an integrated AI opportunity pipeline and roadmap for assigned areas, balancing business value, feasibility, readiness, dependencies, investment needs, and delivery capacity.

• Lead opportunity discovery and use-case framing, translating business challenges into clear problem statements, target outcomes, functional scope, requirements, success measures, and phased delivery options.

• Help stakeholders determine whether opportunities are best addressed through AI, analytics, process redesign, automation, existing platform capabilities, or other technology solutions.

• Lead or participate in rapid prototypes and proof-of-concept exercises with business stakeholders and AI Product & Engineering to validate feasibility, demonstrate the art of the possible, and improve scope, estimates, and delivery direction.

• Own development of business cases in partnership with business sponsors, Finance, and other stakeholders, including baselines, value levers, assumptions, costs, risks, expected benefits, and measures of success.

• Prepare initiatives for formal delivery by aligning sponsorship, funding, scope, business requirements, dependencies, resource needs, governance, and stakeholder responsibilities.

• Partner with PMO to establish project plans, milestones, governance, risks, decisions, resource models, and reporting appropriate to each initiative.

• Remain accountable for the business outcome of assigned initiatives from discovery through implementation, adoption, and benefits realization.

• Partner with AI Product & Engineering throughout solution design, development, testing, deployment, and stabilization to ensure technical delivery remains aligned with the intended business need and functional scope.

• Coordinate business participation in requirements validation, demonstrations, user acceptance testing, process readiness, communications, training, adoption, and go-live decisions.

• Direct third-party partners from a business outcome, functional scope, stakeholder, and delivery perspective, while AI Product & Engineering provides technical direction and owns engineering standards, technical quality, deployment, production operations, and support readiness.

• Track portfolio progress, risks, decisions, dependencies, adoption, and expected value, providing clear updates and recommendations to business and Technology leadership.

• Lead and develop engagement leads, product owners, analysts, contingent resources, and delivery partners, establishing consistent practices for discovery, roadmap design, business cases, prototyping, project readiness, and value realization.

• Performs other duties as assigned.

Job Requirements: 

Education/ Certifications: 

• Bachelor’s degree in business, technology, engineering, computer science, data science, information systems, operations, supply chain, finance, or a related field. 

Experience: 

• 10+ years of progressive experience across business functions, technology, finance, process transformation, analytics, automation, digital product management, or enterprise solution delivery.

• 5+ years of experience leading product owners, analysts, consultants, cross-functional teams, contingent resources, or third-party partners.

• Experience taking initiatives from business discovery and opportunity framing through business case development, planning, delivery oversight, adoption, and benefits realization.

• Experience managing business or functional roadmaps and prioritizing a portfolio of competing opportunities, investments, and dependencies.

• Experience leading stakeholder discovery, process analysis, requirements definition, solution shaping, and use-case prioritization.

• Experience developing financially grounded business cases, including baseline analysis, value-driver identification, benefit and cost modeling, investment options, assumptions, and value tracking.

• Hands-on experience developing, configuring, or guiding rapid prototypes, proofs of concept, workflow solutions, analytical products, or AI-enabled experiences.

• Experience applying analytics, process mining, intelligent automation, RPA, or AI to improve business processes, decision-making, and operational outcomes.

• Working experience with enterprise analytics, process mining, automation, or AI platforms, with the ability to learn and apply emerging technologies to practical business needs.

• Experience partnering with engineering, architecture, cybersecurity, data, cloud, Finance, sourcing, compliance, and PMO teams in a governed enterprise environment.

• Experience directing third-party consulting, development, or implementation partners.

• Experience supporting distribution, supply chain, procurement, logistics, warehouse, retail, customer, finance, merchandising, or enterprise operations preferred. 

Knowledge/Skills/ Abilities:

• Strong business engagement and stakeholder-management skills, with the ability to build credibility across executive, operational, and technical teams.

• Strong business and financial acumen, with the ability to understand operating processes, value drivers, performance measures, data, controls, and organizational constraints.

• Strong product and portfolio management capabilities, including opportunity discovery, prioritization, roadmapping, requirements, adoption, and benefits realization.

• Ability to translate ambiguous business ideas into clearly framed use cases, functional scope, phased delivery options, success measures, and decision-ready recommendations.

• Strong analytical and financial skills, including business-case development, baseline analysis, benefit estimation, cost modeling, and assumption management.

• Ability to use process, data, and financial analysis to identify root causes, quantify improvement opportunities, and determine where process redesign, analytics, automation, or AI can deliver the greatest value.

• Practical knowledge of analytics, process mining, automation, and AI concepts, including how these capabilities can be combined to improve processes, decisions, and business outcomes.

• Familiarity with GenAI, agentic workflows, data grounding, human oversight, evaluation, and responsible AI considerations.

• Sufficient hands-on capability to explore data and processes, configure or guide lightweight prototypes, test automation and AI concepts, and collaborate effectively with product, engineering, and data teams.

• Ability to distinguish prototype feasibility from production readiness and engage the appropriate architecture, engineering, security, data, quality, and support expertise.

• Strong project and delivery-management knowledge, including scope, milestones, dependencies, resources, risks, governance, vendor coordination, and organizational readiness.

• Ability to lead cross-functional teams through influence and establish clear accountability across business, AI Engagement & Delivery, AI Product & Engineering, PMO, other technology team stakeholders, and third-party partners.

• Strong facilitation, communication, and presentation skills, with the ability to explain AI opportunities, tradeoffs, risks, investments, and outcomes in practical business language.

• Demonstrated judgment in determining when to advance, reshape, pause, or stop an initiative based on value, feasibility, readiness, risk, and available capacity.

• Good judgment is required for this position, as there may be times when direct supervision may not be immediately available.

Work Environment: 

Remote Role: 

• This position is classified as remote where the associate will perform remote work from their primary residence. Remote associates are welcome to work from the office but are not required to do so. While remote associates are not required to work from an office on a regular basis, they may be required to come to the office or other UNFI locations for necessary business reasons or if directed to do so by their manager.

Physical Environment/Demands: 

• This role is meant to be primarily remote, with some presence expected in office ad-hoc as required. For office environments:

• Most work is performed in a temperature-controlled office environment. 

• Incumbent may sit for long periods of time at a desk or computer terminal. 

• While performing the duties of this job, the employee is regularly required to sit; use hands to finger, handle, or feel; reach with hands and arms; and talk or hear.   

• Incumbent may use calculators, keyboards, telephones, and other office equipment in the course of a normal workday. 

• Stooping, bending, twisting, and reaching may be required in the completion of job duties.

The above statements are intended to describe the general nature of the work performed by the employees assigned to this job. All employees must comply with Company policy and applicable laws. The responsibilities, duties and skills required of personnel so classified may vary within each department and/or location.