Innovation and AI Technical Lead

Innovation and AI Technical Lead

Organization: Invest Ottawa – Operations

Reports to: Director, IT, Systems and Security

Pay Band: E: $91,200–$136,800 Hiring Salary Range: $91,200–$125,400

Reason for opening: New Position

Work Location: Onsite at Bayview Yards, minimum 10 days a month

About the Role

As the Innovation and AI Technical Lead, you will serve as the technical authority for innovation initiatives at Invest Ottawa. In this senior individual contributor role, you are responsible for the design, integrity, and long-term sustainability of modern, scalable, and trustworthy systems, data, and AI-enabled solutions — ensuring all initiatives align with enterprise architecture, data governance, and security standards. You will work in close partnership with the Innovation & AI Project Lead, collaborating directly with IT, data, and systems teams across the organization to ensure new capabilities are built to last, understood beyond a single individual, and free of hidden operational risk.

Technical Design and Delivery

• Lead design and build of critical or high-risk components, acting as a player–coach: contributing directly to delivery while guiding other technical staff on tools, patterns, and standards.
• Translate business requirements into scalable solutions across core enterprise platforms, stepping in to directly execute critical work when needed.
• Validate technical feasibility and scalability during early project shaping; establish and enforce architectural guardrails and reusable design patterns.
• Continuously evaluate emerging platforms, tools, and architectural patterns relevant to AI, automation, and enterprise systems, advising on fit, risk, and readiness prior to adoption.

Business Systems & Solution Design

• Translate business needs into end-to-end system designs across CRM, operational platforms, and enterprise integration layers.
• Design and optimize workflows, data models, and system integrations to support program delivery and reporting, ensuring solutions are practical and aligned with real operational workflows — not just architecturally sound.

Risk Identification and Mitigation

• Identify and mitigate technical risks prior to build, including duplication of existing capabilities, unintended breakage of stable systems, and solutions only one person understands.
• Assess long-term operational burden, technical debt, and lifecycle maintenance requirements before solution approval.
• Identify AI-specific risks including model drift, bias exposure, and inappropriate automation of critical decision processes.

Integration, Documentation & Systems Stewardship

• Act as the primary technical conduit between innovation work and systems of record, data platforms, and reporting environments, maintaining deep understanding of core business systems.
• Enable new capabilities via APIs, AI agents, or automation without compromising core systems, user processes, or enterprise security, privacy, and data governance standards.
• Produce and maintain architecture designs, integration maps, data lineage documentation, and post-mortems; ensure documentation is complete before new work proceeds.

Operational Readiness and Support

• Collaborate with IT and systems teams to define maintenance procedures, ownership boundaries, and support escalation paths post-launch.
• Ensure monitoring, logging, and performance baselines are established prior to production release; design solutions that scale without generating disproportionate support burden.

Required Qualifications

• 7–10 years of progressive experience in software development, systems architecture, data engineering, or enterprise integration.
• Strong experience with enterprise CRM and operational platforms (e.g., Salesforce, Microsoft Dynamics 365, ServiceNow) with emphasis on configuration, data modeling, process design, and integration.
• Proven ability to evaluate technical trade-offs and communicate architectural decisions clearly to both technical and non-technical stakeholders.
• Experience designing and managing governance documentation including architecture diagrams, integration maps, and data lineage documentation.
• Strong analytical and systems-thinking capability with a hands-on delivery orientation.

Preferred Qualifications / Strong Assets

• Hands-on experience with APIs, automation platforms, or orchestration tools.
• Experience with AI-enabled systems, intelligent automation, or ML tooling in an enterprise context, including evaluating risks such as model bias, explainability, and lifecycle monitoring.
• Familiarity with Microsoft Power Platform (Power Automate, Power Apps) or similar low-code/workflow automation environments.
• Experience with data platforms, reporting environments, or data governance frameworks.
• Breadth of platform experience across CRM, ERP, or ITSM environments is valued alongside depth.

How to Apply

Do you have some of these skills but maybe not all? We still encourage you to apply as we would love to review your unique application and learn more about you!

Commitment to Diversity and Accessibility

At Invest Ottawa and Bayview Yards, we know that diversity, inclusion and a sense of belongingness are critical success factors for globally competitive organizations. As an equal opportunity employer that celebrates, supports and thrives because of difference, we invite all qualified candidates to apply, and especially encourage those who identify as members of underrepresented groups.

Invest Ottawa and Bayview Yards are determined to provide a barrier-free work environment, starting with the hiring process. If you require accommodation during any phase of the evaluation process, please contact hr@investottawa.ca. All information received in relation to accommodation will be kept confidential.

We may use an AI-enabled assistant to take notes during our recruitment process to help our team stay present and engaged during interviews. The tool does not screen, assess, or select applicants, and all hiring decisions are made by people. We welcome inquiries about AI use and/or requests for accommodations at any stage of the hiring process. Personal information is safeguarded in line with our privacy policy and applicable Ontario privacy legislation.