Universal Orlando Resort believes in-person collaboration is key to our success. Many of our Team Members work in a hybrid capacity, contributing from the workplace a minimum of three days per week. There are also roles that require being on-site full time. Limited remote opportunities may be available within specific departments. You’ll learn more about this during the recruitment process.

JOB SUMMARY:

In UDX’s Digital & Technology team, we support our global parks by providing the data, advanced analytics, and technology needed to create extraordinary experiences. By knowing our guests’ hearts and minds, we deliver relevant, bespoke moments throughout the Universal journey ensuring a vacation experience like no other.

The Senior Manager of Applied AI/ML will lead a multidisciplinary team of data scientists, AI/ML engineers, data engineers, and developers to design and deploy enterprise-scale AI solutions that drive measurable business outcomes. This role combines strategic vision with hands-on leadership, guiding teams to deliver production-ready systems that enhance business performance and customer experiences. Key responsibilities include managing a portfolio of applied AI/ML initiatives, translating strategy into execution, embedding responsible AI practices, and fostering a culture of innovation. The ideal candidate will be a collaborative leader, committed to developing talent, championing technical rigor, and enabling innovation at scale across the organization.

MAJOR RESPONSIBILITIES:

Team Leadership

• Lead and mentor a multidisciplinary team of data scientists, data engineers and AI/ML practitioners, promoting collaboration, continuous learning, and high-impact delivery.
• Recruit, develop, and retain a high-performing AI development team by setting clear goals, providing regular coaching and feedback, and fostering a culture of innovation and experimentation.
• Create individualized growth plans to advance team members' technical depth and leadership capabilities.
• Oversee team performance, ensuring alignment with business goals and timely execution of key initiatives.
• Manage project timelines, prioritize resources effectively, and ensure delivery within scope and schedule.
• Facilitate monthly, quarterly, and annual planning to align team objectives with broader enterprise strategies.

AI/ML Technical Strategy

• Help define the strategy for AI products, balancing near‑term deliverables with long‑term platform evolution.
• Stay abreast of the rapidly evolving GenAI ecosystem. Systematically compare open-source and commercial large-language-model families across benchmarks, licensing terms, latency/cost profiles, and safety features; generate data-driven recommendations on which models to adopt, fine-tune, or replace.
• Translate enterprise AI strategy into a prioritized backlog of initiatives with clear business cases, resource plans, and success metrics.
• Partner with Product, Infrastructure, Architecture, Security, and Legal teams to align on scope, timelines, and responsible‑AI requirements.
• Communicate complex technical concepts and program status to senior leadership, championing the value of AI initiatives.

Applied AI/ML Development

• Oversee AI/ML development, architecture, code quality, and product‑lifecycle best practices in AI/ML to ensure scalable, maintainable, and secure solutions in production.
• Engage with internal/external partners to gather requirements and collaborate with technology engineers, architects and business stakeholders to help in designing a robust solution.
• Remove roadblocks, manage sprint ceremonies, and track velocity, quality, and reliability KPIs.
• Establish governance for product monitoring, drift detection, and incident response.
• Understands and actively participates in Environmental, Health & Safety responsibilities by following established UO policy, procedures, training and team member involvement activities.
• Performs other duties as assigned.

EDUCATION:

Master’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Data Science or in a relevant applied quantitative field is required.

EXPERIENCE:

• 9+ years’ experience in applied‑AI, data science or software‑engineering roles, with 3+ years managing technical teams delivering end‑to‑end AI/ML products in production.
• Or equivalent combination of education and experience.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:

• Deep expertise in modern ML/AI frameworks (e.g., PyTorch, TensorFlow, LangChain) and cloud AI services (AWS, GCP, or Azure).
• GenAI Model Fluency: Demonstrated expertise with the current landscape of foundation models (instruction-tuned, code, vision, speech, multi-modal) and their tooling stacks.
• Experience with Retrieval‑Augmented Generation (RAG), vector databases, and prompt‑engineering best practices.
• Familiarity with cost‑optimization for AI workloads.
• Leadership Acumen: Proven ability to motivate, coach, and retain high‑performing talent while driving cross‑functional alignment and decision‑making.
• Strategic & Business Orientation: Track record of connecting technical solutions to tangible business value and managing a portfolio of initiatives.
• Communication Excellence: Skilled storyteller comfortable presenting to executives and mentoring both technical and non‑technical audiences.
• Responsible‑AI Literacy: Hands‑on experience applying privacy, security, fairness, and compliance principles in production AI systems.
• Project Management: Advanced knowledge of Agile/Scrum or Kanban methodologies, with demonstrated success in fast‑paced, ambiguous environments.
• Reasonable accommodation may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.
• Consistent attendance is a job requirement.

Your talent, skills and experience will be rewarded with a competitive compensation package.

Universal Orlando Resort. Here you can.

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