Sr. Director, AI & Data Science

Cargill's size and scale allows us to make a positive impact in the world. Our purpose is to nourish the world in a safe, responsible and sustainable way. We are a family company providing food, ingredients, agricultural solutions and industrial products that are vital for living. We connect farmers with markets so they can prosper. We connect customers with ingredients so they can make meals people love. And we connect families with daily essentials - from eggs to edible oils, salt to skincare, feed to alternative fuel. Our 160,000 colleagues, operating in 70 countries, make essential products that touch billions of lives each day. Join us and reach your higher purpose at Cargill.
Job Purpose and Impact
The Sr. Director of AI & Data Science is a visionary leader responsible for uncovering and enabling differentiated, high-impact applications of artificial intelligence across the business. This role partners closely with business leaders to identify innovative opportunities where AI can be a strategic differentiator, fueling competitive advantage and driving measurable outcomes. Beyond leading the development and deployment of AI solutions, this role plays a critical part in shaping how AI can transform decision-making, operations, and customer experiences. The Sr. Director also champions responsible AI practices, ensuring governance, risk mitigation, and ethical use of AI are embedded in every initiative. With a focus on business value, quality, and foresight, this role drives cross-functional collaboration to turn AI potential into sustainable impact.
Key Accountabilities

• Partners with business leaders to identify and accelerate AI opportunities through re-imagining how work is performed, embracing new and modern optimization techniques and changing the pace by which business value is realized.
• Translates complex AI capabilities into compelling business narratives, presenting to and influencing non-technical audiences and senior stakeholders to drive informed strategic decisions and foster confidence in AI-driven innovation.
• Provides strategic direction of product delivery to ensure scope, timeline and budget are prioritized and in compliance with related regulations and policies.
• Leads all aspects of ongoing efforts to guide and improve artificial intelligence and data science design & development practices, champions a culture of innovation and continuous improvement within the organization and partners with key team members to drive artificial intelligence literacy and adoption.
• Develops and sponsors a community of practice of global data scientists to drive reuse, awareness and alignment to further Cargill's adoption and value through analytics solutions
• Presents and sells artificial intelligence solutions to non-technical audiences to influence strategic related decisions.
• Accountable for delivering measurable business outcomes from artificial intelligence investments, with responsibility for handling a significant budget and achieving defined value impact targets.
• Builds strategic partnerships and alliances with key business and industry entities to achieve organizational objectives and improve the value of investments.
• Manages team members to achieve organization goals, provides technical coaching & guidance, drives accountability for high performance and develops and sustains an environment for data scientists to thrive in an inclusive culture.
• Other duties as assigned

Qualifications
MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS

• Bachelor's degree in data science, computer science, math, engineering or related field or equivalent experience
• Minimum of eight years of related work experience
• Experience in a minimum of two machine learning algorithms approaches: unsupervised, supervised and reinforcement learning
• Confirmed ability to present to non-technical audiences

PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS

• Master's degree or PhD in data science, computer science, math, engineering or related field
• Five years of experience leading teams
• Experience driving analytics adoption and mobilizing business transformation through AI adoption
• Broad expertise of business processes and functions
• Proficient in communicating to senior executives on opportunity and value, relating to the audience at hand
• Experience working with continuous integration and delivery (CI/CD) pipelines
• Experience working with distributed computing frameworks
• Experience working with AWS
• Experience in software development environment and code management or versioning
• Experience in agriculture

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Compensation Data
The expected salary for this position is $190,000 - $300,000. Compensation varies depending on a wide array of factors including but not limited to the specific location, certifications, education, and level of experience. The disclosed range estimate may be adjusted for any applicable geographic differential associated with the location at which the position may be filled. This position is eligible for a discretionary incentive award. The incentive award amount is dependent upon company performance and your personal performance.
At Cargill we put people first. As part of your overall rewards, we offer a comprehensive benefit program including medical and/or other benefits dependent on the position offered and hours worked. Visit: https://www.cargill.com/page/my-health/mh-health-and-wellnessto learn more (subject to certain collective bargaining agreements for Union positions) .
Minnesota Sick and Safe Leave accruals of one hour for every 30 worked, up to 48 hours per calendar year unless otherwise provided by law
Equal Opportunity Employer, including Disability/Vet.