Director, Applied AI

Job Description

The Team

We are seeking a Director of Applied AI to join American Tower’s Data and Analytics team in IT. The team advances enterprise insights, decision intelligence, and AI-enabled value creation across the company. The Director develops and operationalizes machine learning models, generative AI systems, Agentic AI solutions, and autonomous decisioning capabilities that drive measurable business outcomes. Day to day, the Director identifies high-value opportunities, designs experiments, builds production-grade models and agents, and ensures continuous monitoring and safe operation. The Director partners with Data Engineering, Data Product and Adoption, Data Strategy and Governance, and Technology teams to deliver scalable, high-impact AI and Agentic AI solutions for the company’s data.

Responsibilities

What You Can Offer Us

• Lead the Applied AI function, including the development of machine learning, optimization, generative AI, and Agentic AI systems that perform multi-step reasoning, autonomous workflows, and decision support.
• Oversee model and agent lifecycle development, including methodology design, feature engineering, validation, safety constraints, agent orchestration, and performance monitoring.
• Partner with Data Engineering to enable MLOps, AgentOps, deployment, observability, retraining, and production reliability.
• Collaborate with the Data Product and Adoption team to translate models and agents into user-facing products that drive adoption and measurable value realization.
• Establish and enforce enterprise standards for documentation, scientific rigor, reproducibility, Responsible AI, and safe Agentic AI practices, including human-in-the-loop oversight.
• As a Director, you are responsible for the recruitment, performance management, and career development of Data Scientists, ML Engineers, and AI Engineers. You will cultivate a collaborative team dynamic that enables us to meet our business objectives.
• Other duties as assigned.
  
  
  

Qualifications

What You Need to Succeed

• Bachelor’s degree in Data Science, Computer Science, Engineering, Mathematics, Operations Research, or a related field required.
• Advanced degree (Master’s or PhD) preferred.
• A minimum of 10 years of data science, machine learning, advanced analytics, or applied AI experience required, with 5 or more years leading technical AI teams strongly preferred.
• Success developing and deploying production-grade ML, generative AI, optimization models, or Agentic AI systems in complex or asset-intensive environments.
• Experience with experimental design, causal inference, predictive modeling, reinforcement learning, and autonomous decisioning systems.
• Strong expertise in Python, ML frameworks, LLMs, vector search, embeddings, and agent-orchestration frameworks.
• Experience with MLOps, AgentOps, model and agent registries, feature stores, monitoring, and AI safety tooling.
• Strong business acumen with the ability to quantify impact, communicate model and agent behavior, and influence senior stakeholders.
• Familiarity with Responsible AI practices for autonomy, including safety constraints, guardrails, alignment testing, and human-in-the-loop design.
• Experience in global, matrixed environments preferred.
• Approximately 20%–30% travel may be required.
• Strong organization, planning, and project management skills; ability to prioritize tasks for yourself and a team.
• Ability to work with different functional groups and levels of employees to effectively and professionally achieve results.
• Strong leadership skills with ability to drive and motivate a team to achieve results.
  
  
  

About Us

American Tower is a global digital infrastructure company serving customers through tower sites and other real estate solutions that support connectivity and opportunity, focused on achieving our vision of Building a More Connected World. Our success is rooted in the potential of our people and the power of local teams at our offices and sites across 25 countries.

We are one of the largest global Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) and a publicly traded (NYSE:AMT), Fortune 500 Company headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts. The next decade will be an exciting time as we evolve our infrastructure to meet tomorrow’s needs and position our people to elevate their impact, their potential, and our shared success. Come grow your career with us!

For more information about how American Tower is building a more connected world, visit americantower.com

American Tower is proud to be an equal opportunity employer and will not discriminate against an applicant or employee based on age, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, race, color, creed, religion, national origin or ancestry, citizenship, marital status, familial status, disability, military or veteran status, genetic information, pregnancy, reproductive decisions, or any other characteristic protected under applicable law.

American Tower is committed to fair and equitable compensation practices. Placement within the salary range is based on a variety of factors, including relevant experience, skills, certifications, job level, and location. For U.S.-based candidates only, please see the base salary range for this position listed below. This position is also eligible for annual bonus, and annual equity award and participation in the Employee Stock Purchase Plan (ESPP). For candidates outside of the U.S., salary and benefits are based upon local market practice.

American Tower also offers a comprehensive benefits package, which includes healthcare coverage, a 401(k) savings plan, paid time off, company holidays, sick leave, parental leave, and access to an Employee Assistance Program focused on mental and financial wellness, please click here to learn more.