Director, Business Transformation & AI

The Director of Business Transformation & AI leads how Olympia Development works, decides, and grows through the practical use of artificial intelligence and emerging technology. This is a business leadership role, not a technology role. Working in close partnership with Ilitch Companies’ central IT organization - which owns the enterprise technology, platforms, and AI direction - this position is responsible for translating that capability into real change inside ODM: improving how work gets done, how knowledge is captured and used, how risk is identified, and how leadership makes decisions.

The role demands a leader who can champion change, challenge legacy thinking, and drive meaningful evolution across the business - someone with the energy, conviction, and passion to move an organization forward, not simply to deploy tools., Lead Adoption and Change Management:

• Own the adoption of AI and new ways of working across ODM’s departments.
• Teach and coach the team on practical, everyday use of AI, building fluency from the ground up.
• Turn new tools into lasting habits, recognizing that most initiatives fail on behavior change, not technology., * Identify where ODM should change how it operates, not simply where tools can be added.
• Redesign core processes to capture real gains rather than bolting AI onto existing workflows.
• Prioritize the highest-value opportunities and sequence the work so results are visible., * Organize ODM’s institutional knowledge - deal structures, partnership terms, entitlement history, construction lessons, and vendor experience - into a resource the team can find and reuse.
• Turn fragmented information across files and systems into accessible business intelligence.
• Ensure the business’s accumulated experience becomes a durable organizational asset rather than knowledge trapped in files and individuals., * Make legal and contractual knowledge - development agreements, leases, contracts, and incentive documents - far easier to find, summarize, and act on across the business.
• Support faster, more reliable contract review, lease abstraction, and document comparison.
• Help leadership identify legal, contractual, and operational risk earlier, before it grows.
• Partner with the legal team and outside counsel to improve both efficiency and insight.

Champion Innovation and New Value:

• Research and pursue new opportunities the business has not previously had the tools to take on.
• Lead applied innovation on high-impact industry problems, including faster and more accurate construction cost estimating.
• Bring forward creative, well-vetted solutions that create competitive advantage, not just efficiency., * Help senior leaders spend less time on administrative and routine analytical work and more time on judgment, relationships, negotiation, and decision-making.
• Increase the organization’s capacity to evaluate opportunities and reach sound decisions without adding senior headcount.
• Strengthen leadership decision-making through faster, clearer synthesis of complex information.

Ensure Responsible Governance:

• Partner with central IT and the Director of AI Strategies to ensure AI is used responsibly and securely within ODM.
• Establish clear, business-aligned standards for the use of AI with confidential deal, legal, and financial information.
• Align ODM’s adoption with enterprise-wide technology direction and standards.

• Bachelor’s degree in related field required.
• 10+ years of progressive leadership experience in business transformation, strategy, operations, consulting, innovation, or a related discipline.
• Demonstrated success leading organizational change and driving adoption of new processes or technology across multiple functions.
• Strong business judgment with the ability to translate between business needs and technical capability; deep technical or data-science credentials are not required.
• Working fluency with AI and emerging technologies, with a clear focus on business application over technical depth.
• Proven ability to influence and align stakeholders across departments and at the executive level.
• Excellent written and verbal communication, including the ability to brief and persuade senior leadership.

Preferred Knowledge, Skills and Abilities:

• Advanced degree preferred.
• Experience in real estate development, construction, hospitality, or a comparably complex, project-driven industry preferred.

Core Competencies:

• Champions change and challenges legacy thinking with conviction and credibility.
• Brings genuine energy and passion for moving the organization forward.
• Strong communication and executive presence.
• High emotional intelligence, with the ability to influence without direct authority.
• Sets priorities and drives results, with a strong bias for action.
• Translates complexity into clarity for decision-makers.
• Builds trust and collaborates effectively, including with central IT and across functions.
• Exercises sound judgment and discretion with sensitive and confidential information.