Director, AI Enablement in San Diego, California at Ascent

Ascent is a leading provider of innovative financial products and student support services that enable more students to access education and achieve academic and economic success. Everything Ascent offers is designed with the best-in-class teams and technology to increase every student's ability to plan, pay, and succeed in their education and career. Ascent's planning tools and financing resources are co-created by students for those in college, graduate school, and career training programs. Ascent offers financial wellness education, student success services, and one-on-one and digital career coaching that put students' academic and professional goals within reach. Ascent has been widely recognized for its strong culture – named “Best Places to Work” by the San Diego Business Journal for the past 5 years – and as an industry leader – named “Best Student Loan” by NerdWallet for the past 3 years.

We are seeking an Director, AI Enablement to drive practical, responsible, and value-generating AI adoption across the entire organization. This role sits at the intersection of technology, operations, product, and business, and is responsible for turning AI from isolated experiments into repeatable, trusted workflows used daily by teams across the company.

This is not a research role and not a marketing role. The Director, AI Enablement owns enablement, adoption, prioritization, and delivery of AI-powered solutions that improve efficiency, decision-making, and customer outcomes, while operating within clear governance and risk boundaries.

You will partner with Engineering, Data, Product, Legal, Compliance, Operations, Marketing, and Customer teams to identify opportunities, design AI-enabled workflows, and ensure they are successfully deployed, adopted, and measured.

Core Responsibilities

Organization-Wide AI Enablement

• Act as the central AI enablement partner for all departments, helping teams identify where AI can meaningfully improve workflows, quality, or speed.
• Translate business problems into AI-appropriate use cases, selecting the right approach (automation, copilots, agents, analytics, ML) rather than forcing AI everywhere.
• Serve as a trusted advisor to leaders on what AI should and should not be used for.

AI Solution Delivery (Non-Engineering First)

• Design and deliver AI-enabled workflows using approved platforms and tools (e.g., copilots, agents, automation, RAG systems).
• Enable non-technical teams to safely use AI through templates, patterns, playbooks, and guardrails.
• Partner with Engineering and Data teams when solutions require deeper system integration or custom development.

Adoption, Training & Change Management

• Drive real adoption, not just tool availability—ensure teams actually change how they work.
• Create and deliver role-based AI training, examples, and best practices tailored to each department.
• Run internal demos, workshops, and enablement sessions focused on real business scenarios.

AI Intake, Prioritization & Governance

• Operate and evolve a formal AI intake and prioritization process, ensuring efforts align to business value.
• Help define and enforce AI governance standards covering data usage, privacy, compliance, and risk.
• Partner with Legal, Security, and Compliance to ensure AI use remains safe, auditable, and defensible.

Measurement & Business Impact

• Define success metrics upfront for every AI initiative (time saved, cost avoided, quality improved, revenue enabled).
• Track and report AI impact in a way leadership can clearly understand and defend.
• Proactively sunset or redirect AI efforts that do not demonstrate progress toward outcomes.

Evangelism (Internally, Not Hype)

• Build organizational understanding of what modern AI can realistically do today.
• Share success stories, patterns, and lessons learned to accelerate adoption across teams.
• Maintain a pragmatic, grounded perspective—balancing innovation with operational discipline.

• 7+ years of experience in technology, operations, product, or automation roles with strong cross-functional exposure.
• Demonstrated experience delivering workflow automation, AI, analytics, or platform solutions into real business environments.
• Strong ability to translate between business needs and technical capabilities.
• Comfort working with LLMs, copilots, automation tools, and AI platforms, even if not a deep ML engineer.
• Excellent communication skills—able to influence without authority across departments.
• Proven ability to drive change management and adoption, not just implementation.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience implementing enterprise AI programs or large-scale automation initiatives.
• Familiarity with AI governance, data privacy, and risk management in regulated environments.
• Background in product management, technical program management, or solution architecture.
• Experience working with both engineering and non-technical teams.
• Strong business acumen; MBA or equivalent experience a plus.
• Management consulting experience preferred, especially supporting AI, digital transformation, process optimization, or enterprise change initiatives.

What Success Looks Like

• Teams across the organization are independently using AI in approved, effective ways.
• AI initiatives are tied to clear business outcomes, not vague experimentation.
• Leadership has clear visibility into AI ROI, risk, and adoption.
• AI solutions scale through patterns and standards, not one-off heroics.
• The organization moves faster with less manual work and lower operational friction.

Competitive pay with bonus, and comprehensive benefits package that includes, but not limited to:

• Compensation includes base salary of $160,000 - $220,000 commensurate with experience, plus bonus and options.
• Company Stock Options
• 401(k) + Company Match
• Medical, dental, and vision coverage
• Annual HSA contribution of $1,650
• Life insurance, disability, and critical illness
• 14 Paid Holidays! Eleven (11) + Two (2) Community Days + Your Birthday!
• Snacks and drinks in the office
• Tuition reimbursement program
• Generous paid leave policies
• $2,000 Vacation Incentive Plan after 3 years + $1,000 Sabbatical Day
• Wellness, Work from Home funds, and more!