Managing Director, AI Enablement – Hybrid AZ

Join BWH Hotels – Where Passion Meets Purpose At BWH® Hotels, we don't just offer employment opportunities, we create opportunities to be part of something extraordinary. As a global leader in hospitality for nearly 80 years, our vision is to inspire travel through unique experiences. Joining our corporate team means becoming part of a dynamic and inclusive community that values innovation, collaboration, and making a meaningful impact in the travel industry.

Headquartered in Phoenix, Arizona, BWH Hotels boasts a powerful portfolio of 18 brands, including WorldHotels™, Best Western® Hotels & Resorts, and SureStay Hotels®, with approximately 4,300 hotels in over 100 countries. We take pride in our top-ranking employee engagement scores and foster a workplace culture where your contributions truly matter. Join us and be part of a team that's shaping the future of hospitality!

Job Purpose BWH Hotels is seeking a Managing Director, AI Enablement to direct the roadmap and end-to-end delivery of the AI initiatives across the organization. The Managing Director, AI Enablement leads an AI architect and a small team of engineers,  directing technical execution against prioritized business outcomes. The role blends technical product leadership, program and project management, and business-relationship management — setting direction, driving prioritization and value-based trade-off decisions, and ensuring initiatives are delivered on scope, on time, and on budget while advancing the enterprise’s adoption of AI capabilities.

This is a technical, hands-on leadership role. It ensures the enterprise’s AI efforts are focused, prioritized, and value-driven; plays a key part in aligning AI initiatives across the organization; ensures AI is adopted consistently and effectively; and gives leadership clear visibility into AI’s impact — overseeing shared AI capabilities and responsible-AI governance. Key Responsibilities Product Strategy & Roadmap Direct the multi-year roadmap for AI initiatives across the organization.

Develop a deep understanding of business goals, guest needs, and market and technology trends to inform priorities and proactively propose new solutions. Establish roadmaps and release plans that satisfy requirements and achieve measurable business outcomes; continuously monitor product performance and champion improvements. Prioritization & Value-Based Trade-offs Drive prioritization and trade-off decisions tied to business value and return on investment.

Align investment and team capacity to the highest-value outcomes; sequence and balance the backlog across competing demands. Manage investment decisions and product finances, maximizing value while minimizing cost, and surface trade-offs transparently to stakeholders. End-to-End Delivery & Engineering Execution Own end-to-end delivery of key initiatives — from concept through launch, adoption, and value realization.

Consult across teams to ensure use of AI is understood and aligned with Enterprise strategy and standards. Direct engineering execution against prioritized business outcomes; guide teams to scope, plan, and deliver work using agile methods and established best practices (e.g., reusability). Proactively identify and remove blockers, dependencies, and risks — including technical and resourcing challenges.

Ensure alignment and adherence to enterprise architecture, security, compliance, and financial standards. Project & Program Management Establish and maintain integrated delivery plans, milestones, and schedules across product owners and project managers. Manage scope, timelines, budgets, resources, dependencies, and risks across multiple concurrent initiatives. Apply consistent project and program management disciplines — intake, stage-gates, RAID (risks/assumptions/issues/dependencies) tracking, and status reporting — using enterprise roadmap and delivery tools.

Report delivery status, risks, and outcomes to business stakeholders and techno