Head of AI Automation

Novelis is one of the world leaders in aluminum recycling and rolling and a leading sustainable aluminum solutions provider. Driven by our purpose of shaping a sustainable world together we work alongside our customers to provide innovative solutions to the aerospace automotive beverage packaging and specialty markets. Headquartered in Atlanta Georgia Novelis has approximately 13000 employees in 32 operating facilities on 4 continents.

Position Overview

This role is for a forward-thinking results-driven Head of AI Automation to lead the enterprise AI automation and production-AI engineering function within the Data Analytics & AI organization. Based in Atlanta GA this role reports to the VP of Data Analytics & AI and is accountable for designing engineering deploying and operating Novelis production AI systems safely and reliably at scalespanning computer vision and edge AI predictive intelligence and control AI enterprise knowledge (RAG) solutions and advanced agentic systemsacross Novelis global manufacturing and corporate operations.

This leader defines and owns the AI production platform and engineering roadmap and the enterprise MLOps backbone and engineers AI systems to meet the safety risk and guardrail standards set by an independent AI governance functionprogressing reliably from validated pilot to full enterprise production through its governance gates. The Head of AI Automation directs a multi-disciplinary global engineering organization across computer vision and edge AI predictive intelligence and control AI MLOps and AI production engineering retrieval-augmented knowledge solutions and advanced agentic systems built on enterprise AI platforms (e.g. Azure AI Foundry). This role requires strategic vision deep AI/ML and production-engineering expertise operational discipline and enterprise-scale people leadership to deliver production-grade AI systems that drive measurable outcomes in yield quality cost safety and sustainability across 32 global facilities and four continents.

Capability Alignment

This role owns the following enterprise AI capabilities:

• Computer Vision & Edge AI
• Predictive Intelligence & Control AI
• MLOps & AI Production Engineering
• Knowledge Management Solutions (RAG Solutions)
• Advanced Agentic Solutions (AI Foundry)

Responsibilities

Strategic Leadership & AI Roadmap

• Define and own the enterprise-wide AI production platform and engineering roadmapprioritizing delivery with operations and business sponsors aligning to Novelis business strategy 330 sustainability targets and digital transformation goals and holding the team to committed engineering dates.
• Drive the progression of AI capabilities from validated pilots to full enterprise production on standard engineering patterns eliminating re-architecture at each deployment stage.
• Partner with operations and business sponsors across all Novelis regions and functions to translate automation requirements into deployable governed production-supportable AI systems.
• Set the multi-year technology direction for the enterprise AI platform (e.g. Azure AI Foundry MLOps tooling and edge infrastructure) ensuring AI systems are engineered to scale reliably across the global manufacturing footprint without one-off re-architecture.

AI System Delivery & Technical Excellence

• Lead the design deployment and operation of computer vision and edge AI systems for autonomous quality inspection safety monitoring scrap sorting optimization real-time anomaly detection and process automation at the factory edge.
• Build and operate predictive intelligence and control AI capabilitiespredictive models engineered to drive autonomous closed-loop actions including real-time process control autonomous setpoint optimization and machine actuation within engineered safety limitsin partnership with Operations.
• Deliver enterprise knowledge management (RAG) solutions grounded in governed Novelis data providing trusted retrieval-augmented assistants for operations engineering and corporate functions.
• Build and operate advanced agentic solutions on the enterprise AI platform (e.g. Azure AI Foundry)multi-agent workflows and autonomous production-grade systems with human-in-the-loop design exception handling and safe execution within business-defined rules.
• Partner with business and analytics teams to take democratized citizen-built agentic solutions that require production-grade or autonomous execution and re-engineer them for safe reliable production at scale.

MLOps & AI Production Engineering

• Build and operate enterprise MLOps infrastructure for model deployment monitoring drift detection and alerting retraining execution and production operations for all production AI modelsoperating to the thresholds retraining approval criteria and incident-response playbook defined by the AI governance function.
• Implement and operate the technical guardrails explainability logging and controls required by the enterprise AI governance frameworkproviding model evidence and documentation for governance gates audits and approvals and addressing remediation that the AI governance function directs across every deployed system.
• Set and publish AI platform operational SLAs covering system uptime model-lifecycle cadences and operational incident response times and meet the guardrail-conformance standards defined by the AI governance function.
• Engineer reusable production patterns reference architectures and CI/CD for AI so capabilities deploy consistently across the global footprint and remain auditable on demand for governance review.
• Manage compute model provider and tooling costsmeasuring forecasting and keeping expenditures within approved budgets.

Strategic Traceability & Enterprise Alignment

• Align work execution to Novelis enterprise strategic data outcomes including trusted data operational reliability metal flow optimization 330 sustainability goals and cash focus/operational efficiency.
• Support the enterprise Data & AI Governance framework ensuring governance is embedded into all workflows and deliverables.
• Contribute to quarterly planning feature scoping and sprint execution aligned to the enterprise delivery roadmap and KPI framework.

People Leadership & Engagement

This role is a leader of people first and a manager of process second. The Head is accountable for intentionally engaging the team specifically:

• Hold deliberately scheduled engagement sessions with employees at every level of the pillar short listening-first conversations not status reviews and maintain equivalent rhythm and access for remote and non-Atlanta team members. Open leadership meetings with people topics (growth recognition blockers) before task topics.
• Push decisions and ownership to the team. Sponsor ideas on their merit regardless of the originators tenure or title. Maintain a current growth plan for every team member and ensure each has a peer mentor preferably from another pillar.
• Act with intention. Own the pillars engagement baseline and KPIs (retention engagement-survey results session cadence) and report them alongside delivery KPIs in monthly goal reporting. Apply the front-line engagement budget deliberately to build team connection.
• Build lead and scale a high-performing global engineering organization across computer vision engineers predictive analytics and control AI engineers MLOps and AI production engineers RAG/knowledge engineers agentic systems engineers AI platform and reliability engineers and AI product managersorganized into distinct sub-functions each with its own technical leadership.
• Foster a culture of engineering excellence innovation responsible AI and continuous improvement through mentoring coaching and professional development.
• Attract and retain top AI talent by creating a compelling vision clear career growth paths and a supportive team environment.
• Develop succession depth and technical leadership capacity across all AI disciplines.
• Own the functions budget AI compute and model-provider spend and platform and tooling portfolioaccountable for cost-to-value across the production AI estate.

Success in this role is measured by an intentionally engaged empowered team that delivers not by delivery alone.

Cross-functional Collaboration & Enterprise Partnership

• Partner with operations business sponsors data and analytics teams the AI governance function and IT teams across all Novelis regions to translate strategic objectives into production-grade AI solutions.
• Serve as a trusted advisor to senior leadership on AI automation capabilities delivery and operational posture investment trade-offs and emerging AI opportunities.

• Partner with the independent AI governance function throughout the lifecyclesubmitting AI systems to intake and pre-deployment gates providing model evidence and documentation and addressing required remediation to meet enterprise governance standards.

Minimum qualifications

• Bachelors degree in Computer Science Artificial Intelligence Machine Learning Data Science or related field.
• 10 years of experience in AI/ML engineering data science or AI systems delivery with at least 5 years in a leadership role managing AI or engineering teams.
• Proven track record of delivering production-grade AI systems at enterprise scale including experience transitioning AI pilots to full production deployment.
• Deep expertise across multiple AI domains such as computer vision predictive and control modeling MLOps retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) or agentic systems.
• Hands-on experience with enterprise AI platforms and MLOps tooling (e.g. Azure AI Foundry) and production deployment patterns.
• Strong understanding of AI safety governance and risk management frameworks.
• Strong strategic thinking with the ability to define and execute multi-year AI platform roadmaps aligned to enterprise business objectives.
• Strong leadership communication and stakeholder management skills with the ability to influence at the executive level.

Preferred Qualifications

• Masters degree or Ph.D. in Artificial Intelligence Machine Learning Computer Science or a related field.
• Experience in manufacturing industrial or sustainability-focused organizations operating across multiple global facilities.
• Experience deploying computer vision edge AI or predictive and closed-loop control systems in operational technology (OT) environments.
• Experience building enterprise RAG/knowledge solutions and production agentic systems on platforms such as Azure AI Foundry.
• Familiarity with AI regulatory frameworks responsible AI practices and enterprise AI policy development.
• Experience governing AI compute and model provider costs at enterprise scale.

Please note that we are unable to provide visa sponsorship for this position. Candidates must be legally authorized to work in the United States without the need for current or future sponsorship

What We Offer:

Novelis benefits say a lot about how we care for each other. Our employees and their families have many different needs. As a result our benefits offer choices on many levels and are high in quality driven by the marketplace and addition to core benefits we provide these unique to the industry benefits:

• Family Growth Programs: Paid parental Leave Adoption Assistance Fertility Treatment Childcare Discount and Nursing Mom Support
• Employee Assistance Programs: free resources available 24/7 to you and your family in the areas of mental health family life and career and financial guidance
• Wellness Programs: incentives for wellness activities wellness spending account programs for building healthy habits virtual physical therapy for joint back and pelvic health health management programs and more.
• Diabetes Management Program
• Pet insurance
• Identity Theft Protection
• PerkSpot Discount Program
• Tuition assistance and career development programs

Novelis Global Corporate and North America Headquarters is located in the Buckhead neighborhood of Atlanta GA employing around 700 people. Supporting its 31 operations worldwide Novelis corporate office is home to the executive leadership team and global functions that support the automotive beverage can and high-end specialties value streams. The City of Atlanta provides a diverse and family-friendly place to live with countless museums cultural organizations and educational institutions including the Georgia Aquarium Woodruff Arts Center CNN Center Georgia Tech and Mercedes-Benz the Atlanta area Novelis has strong community partnerships with Atlanta Habitat for Humanity GeorgiaFIRST and Agape Youth and Family Center in addition to many local museums and community groups.

Novelis recognizes its talented and diverse workforce as a key competitive advantage. Novelis provides equal employment opportunities to all employees and terms and conditions of employment at Novelis including recruiting hiring placement promotion termination layoffs recalls transfers leaves of absence compensation and training are without regard to race color religion age sex national origin disability status genetics protected veteran status sexual orientation gender identity or expression or any other characteristic protected by federal provincial or local laws.

We encourage all potential candidates to follow the protocols below and to be diligent when sharing any personal information:
1. Check the job posting is live and valid via our careers page: Careers - Novelis
2. Verify any communication with us by contacting our talent team at Careers - Novelis