Director, AI Transformation

We are a lifestyle brand!

We are on a mission to provide the world with simple, wholesome food and beverage items that fit today's lifestyle, offering an intimate - yet fast and consistent - experience to our customers.

We love and take pride in what we do, and we currently offer an exciting opportunity to join a thriving and ever-growing brand in this industry.

OVERVIEW:

We are seeking a very hands-on Director of AI Transformation to architect and lead the integration of Artificial Intelligence across our entire corporate ecosystem. This is a role for a "player-coach"—someone who is as comfortable whiteboarding an enterprise strategy as they are testing LLM prompts, configuring agentic workflows, and diving into data schemas.

You will not just "oversee" the transformation; you will be the primary engine driving it. You’ll partner with Finance, Marketing, Legal, Operations, and Procurement to build, deploy, and scale the AI tools that will define our next chapter of growth.

RESPONSIBILITIES:

Departmental Execution:

• Finance: Personally build and test automations for invoice processing and expense categorization. Deploy AI-assisted auditing and anomaly detection models to improve forecasting accuracy.
• Marketing: Hands-on implementation of AI-driven creative pipelines and campaign automation. Work in the weeds of our data to personalize promotions and segment guest behavior.
• Legal: Configure and deploy contract review automation and compliance monitoring tools. Directly set up AI systems for document analysis to increase legal research efficiency.
• Operations: Develop and iterate on labor scheduling and workforce planning models. Use predictive analytics to optimize inventory and store-level performance.
• Procurement: Build dashboards and tools for vendor performance analytics and automated PO processing.

Technical Infrastructure & Systems Integration:

• Vendor Selection & Setup: Evaluate, select, and hands-on configure enterprise AI platforms (OpenAI, Anthropic, Google Vertex AI).
• Deep Integration: Partner with the Data Engineering Specialist to manually oversee the integration of AI tools with our ERP, Toast POS, Accounting, HRIS, and Marketing systems.
• Architecture & Security: Direct the data pipeline strategy to ensure a secure, "privacy-first" AI environment (SOC-2/GDPR).
• Prototyping: Rapidly build Proof of Concepts (POCs) for internal tools before scaling them to the wider team.

Change Management & Cultural Leadership:

• Lead by Example: Conduct live training sessions and "Prompt Engineering" workshops for corporate staff.
• Policy Creation: Write the playbooks for AI usage, ethics, and best practices.
• Team Building: Eventually hire and lead a small, agile AI team, remaining deeply involved in the technical output.

Performance & ROI

• Define & Track KPIs: Build the tracking mechanisms for cost reduction, productivity gains, and revenue uplift.
• Executive Reporting: Deliver detailed, data-backed quarterly reports on AI ROI directly to the VP of IT and the Board.

REQUIREMENTS:

• 8+ years of experience in Digital Transformation, Technology Leadership, or Strategy Consulting.
• 3+ years of "in-the-trenches" experience implementing AI/ML solutions or advanced automation (Python, SQL, Zapier/Make, or LLM APIs).
• Extreme AI Literacy: You must be able to explain the difference between various LLM architectures and know when to use a simple script vs. a complex model.
• Relentless Problem-Solver: You don't wait for a vendor to fix a bug; you find the workaround.

PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS:

• Experience in Hospitality/Retail (managing the messiness of POS and labor data).
• Master’s in a technical field or MBA with a strong technical track record.
• Experience with Google Cloud (GCP) Vertex AI or similar enterprise-grade AI studios.

BENEFITS:

• Health & Wellness – Medical, Dental & Vision
• PTO
• Discounted Meals
• Growth Opportunities
• 401(k) Plan with Company Match

The general nature and level of work being performed by persons assigned to this job classification are contained in this job description. This job description should not be construed as an exhaustive list of all responsibilities, essential job functions, duties, skills required and other job requirements of personnel in this role. All employees may be required to perform duties outside of their normal responsibilities from time to time as needed. Management reserves the right to assign or reassign duties and responsibilities to the job at any time.

Pura Vida Miami is proud to be an equal opportunity employer. We are committed to creating a workplace where diversity is celebrated and everyone feels welcome, regardless of race, color, religion, national origin, age, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, disability, veteran status, or any other legally protected characteristic. We believe that building a team with diverse perspectives and experiences makes us stronger, more creative, and more connected to the communities we serve.

Agency Disclaimer

We’ve got this covered! At Pura Vida Miami, our Talent Acquisition team leads all hiring efforts internally. We do not accept unsolicited resumes from agencies, we mean it. Any resumes sent our way without a signed agreement in place (including those sent directly to our team or hiring managers) will be considered property of Pura Vida Miami and we won’t be responsible for any fees. If you’re interested in partnering with us, reach out to our Talent team first. We’re happy to connect the right way!