AI Operationalization Manager

If you’re passionate about building a better future for individuals, communities, and our country—and you’re committed to working hard to play your part in building that future—consider WGU as the next step in your career.

Driven by a mission to expand access to higher education through online, competency-based degree programs, WGU is also committed to being a great place to work for a diverse workforce of student-focused professionals. The university has pioneered a new way to learn in the 21st century, one that has received praise from academic, industry, government, and media leaders. Whatever your role, working for WGU gives you a part to play in helping students graduate, creating a better tomorrow for themselves and their families.

The salary range for this position takes into account the wide range of factors that are considered in making compensation decisions including but not limited to skill sets; experience and training; licensure and certifications; and other business and organizational needs.

At WGU, it is not typical for an individual to be hired at or near the top of the range for their position, and compensation decisions are dependent on the facts and circumstances of each case. A reasonable estimate of the current range is:
 

Grade: Professional 313

Pay Range: $119,400.00 - $185,100.00

Job Description

Functions as a senior expert responsible for leveraging early-stage artificial intelligence (AI) innovation to create sustainable operational capability across Academic Program Development (APD). Reporting to the VP of Academic Program Development, this role serves as APD’s AI ops leader, accelerating the practical adoption, integration, and measurement of AI-enabled workflows and learning experiences.
Academic Program Development is adopting AI across the full lifecycle of program development, including course design, multimedia production, assessment development, content generation, and AI-enabled learning experiences. While efforts thus far have produced promising use cases, APD now requires a systematic approach to operationalizing AI at scale. It’s that systematic implementation and scale that is the directive and scope of this position.
The position works across design and development, quality assurance, publication, and design strategy to identify high-value use cases, enable adoption, and track measurable efficiency and learning impact.
This role does not manage a team but operates with broad influence across a 200+ person department. The role requires deep fluency and hands-on experience with applied generative AI tools, strong operational thinking, and the ability to translate emerging technology capabilities into practical implementation plans that improve productivity, accelerate program development, and support innovative learning experiences.
This is an implementation and operationalization role rather than an AI research or engineering role.

 

• Develops dashboards and scorecards to track AI adoption and impact across APD.
• Establishes metrics to measure efficiency gains, productivity improvements, and impact on program development timelines.
• Provides executive-level reporting and insights on the performance and outcomes of AI initiatives.
• Maintains an AI enablement scorecard aligned to organizational priorities.
• Identifies and prioritizes high-value AI use cases across APD, including content creation, multimedia development, instructional design, development workflows, and AI-enabled learning experiences.
• Develops repeatable operational frameworks for how AI tools are integrated into APD’s design and development processes.
• Translates emerging AI capabilities into practical workflows that improve speed, quality, and scalability.
• Supports organization-wide AI adoption across a 200+ person team by developing guidance, playbooks, and implementation pathways for teams.
• Partners with design, development, QA, and operations teams to embed AI into existing production processes.
• Identifies barriers to adoption and address workflow, policy, or capability gaps that slow implementation.
• Translates successful pilots into operational standards, toolkits, and implementation plans.
• Supports leaders and teams in adopting AI-enabled workflows through structured change management and implementation planning.
• Translates executive priorities into actionable initiatives and operational plans.
• Leads additional strategic transformations as directed.
• Performs other duties as assigned.

Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities

• Demonstrated expertise in the application and adoption of generative AI and automation technologies within operational or production environments.
• Experience with AI adoption across large teams.
• Strong analytical capability for measuring operational performance and productivity improvements.
• Strong cross-functional leadership skills and ability to influence without formal authority.
• Excellent executive communication skills, including synthesis of complex initiatives into clear decision-making insights.
• High degree of technical curiosity and ability to independently explore emerging tools and workflows.

Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in a relevant discipline required
• 8+ years in program development, learning technology, operational strategy, or related fields
• Hands-on experience with tools like ChatGPT (paid versions) and Claude, with strong fluency in capabilities and limitations
• Proven ability to deploy, optimize, and scale AI solutions within operational workflows (focus on adoption over innovation)
• Demonstrated success implementing AI or automation solutions to improve efficiency and drive measurable outcomes
• Experience working within complex, matrixed organizations to drive alignment and technology adoption
• Ability to translate AI capabilities into practical, high-impact operational use cases  
• Strong focus on continuous improvement, process optimization, and performance measurement

Preferred Qualifications

• Master’s degree in a relevant discipline preferred
• 10+ years of professional experience, ideally in an operations role within higher education or a related field
• Proven ability to navigate and influence within complex, matrixed organizations to achieve outcomes
• Experience leading AI-driven transformation initiatives across both program development and the student learning experience

Working Conditions

• On-site collocation is required in SLC, UT

Travel Language

This position requires occasional travel of up to 20%, including required attendance at designated company summits (typically one to two per year). Additional travel may include conferences, visits to company locations, and other business-related events as needed.  Additional travel may be assigned as needed to support business requirements.

Position & Application Details

Full-Time Regular Positions (classified as regular and working 40 standard weekly hours): This is a full-time, regular position (classified for 40 standard weekly hours) that is eligible for bonuses; medical, dental, vision, telehealth and mental healthcare; health savings account and flexible spending account; basic and voluntary life insurance; disability coverage; accident, critical illness and hospital indemnity supplemental coverages; legal and identity theft coverage; retirement savings plan; wellbeing program; discounted WGU tuition; and flexible paid time off for rest and relaxation with no need for accrual, flexible paid sick time with no need for accrual, 11 paid holidays, and other paid leaves, including up to 12 weeks of parental leave.

How to Apply: If interested, an application will need to be submitted online. Internal WGU employees will need to apply through the internal job board in Workday.

Additional Information

Disclaimer: The job posting highlights the most critical responsibilities and requirements of the job. It’s not all-inclusive.

Accommodations: Applicants with disabilities who require assistance or accommodation during the application or interview process should contact our Talent Acquisition team at recruiting@wgu.edu.

Equal Employment Opportunity: All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to any protected characteristic as required by law.