VP Of Applied AI & Internal Systems
About the role
This is a build role, not a research seat and not a reactive IT job. This individual is expected to own and drive internal business efficiency. They will execute with real ownership of Stord's enterprise systems and security, and the license to use AI as their primary tool for building better and faster than traditional business operations.
Responsibilities
Own Stord's AI adoption strategy across every internal team, spanning Sales, Customer Success, Finance, People, Legal, IT, and Operations.
Turn AI wins already happening across Stord into a shared standard: one AI-native operating layer that every team builds on daily, not just talks about.
Own the security and compliance review process for AI tools adopted anywhere in the company, and own IT administration for AI platforms company-wide (procurement, provisioning, access management).
Partner with Stord's Product and Data leadership so their adoption work compounds what's already being built into our products, rather than duplicating it.
Report progress and ROI on AI adoption to executive leadership on a regular cadence.
Build and lead a forward-deployed engineering and product team: engineers and PMs who sit inside Finance, People, Legal, Support, and Operations, find the real workflow problems, and ship working software and agents against them in weeks, not quarters.
Build the systems Stord runs on (CRM, ERP, HRIS, Procurement, Customer Success platforms, and more) and build them to keep pace with how fast we're growing.
Find the processes creating the most drag across Finance, People, Legal, Support, and Operations, and use AI to rebuild them, not just automate the old way of doing things.
Make deliberate build, buy, or cut calls on our technology investments as we scale, rather than letting the stack grow by accretion.
Set the roadmap and make the integration and architecture calls that let Stord's back office move at the same speed as the rest of the company.
Own the business systems integration whenever Stord acquires a company: get the acquired business running on Stord's enterprise stack and standards quickly, not left as a permanent side system.
Partner with Corporate Development and executive leadership on the technical and operational due diligence for future acquisitions.
Own governance for the data domains that matter most: customers, vendors, products, locations, employees, working closely with the VP of Data wherever this touches our broader data platform and analytics layer.
Set the standards that make our data a real asset - clean enough that every team builds on it with confidence, no shadow spreadsheets required.
Partner with Finance, Revenue, and Operations to align on one shared definition of the metrics that matter.
Own corporate IT strategy and day-to-day operations: identity and access management, device lifecycle, network infrastructure, end-user support.
Own security operations, built to move as fast as the rest of Stord without cutting corners on compliance.
Build processes that scale cleanly as we add headcount and expand geographically.
Lead and grow a team across AI Enablement, Forward-Deployed Engineering & Product, IT, Security, and Enterprise Systems, with dedicated director-level owners for each discipline so every function has a leader who can go deep.
Earn trust across functions outside your own reporting line; this role only works if people are willing to change how they work because you asked them to.
Requirements
Has built and led a forward-deployed or embedded engineering team: engineers who sit inside a business function, find the real problem, and ship working software fast, not a team that writes specs for someone else to build.
Personally led an internal platform, tools, or applied AI/agents team, comfortable evaluating engineering work and making technical hiring calls, not just approving business requirements.
Integrated systems, data, and teams following an acquisition, and can point to what actually got merged into one operating model, not left running in parallel.
10+ years in a senior technical or operating leadership role in a high-growth business, with direct budget and hiring ownership.
Background in technology or tech-enabled businesses; logistics or operations experience is a plus, not a requirement.
Enough hands-on technical background to earn real credibility with your own engineers: you can read a design doc, push back on an approach, and tell the difference between a genuine agentic workflow and a thin wrapper around an API call.
Deep fluency in enterprise application architecture, system integration, and data management (CRM + ERP + HRIS minimum).
Working knowledge of the current AI tooling and agentic landscape, sharp enough to make build-vs-buy calls yourself, not just sign off on a vendor's security review.
Solid grounding in IT operations, identity management, and security controls - you don't have to be the one doing the work, but you need to know when it's being done well.
Leadership: Earns trust across functions; Finance, Engineering, Revenue, and Operations all want to work with you.
Real change management chops: you can get a Sales or Support team to actually adopt a new way of working, not just tolerate a mandate.
Comfortable being the person who makes a newly acquired company actually feel like Stord within months, not years.