Director, Artificial Intelligence, Finance

Job Description

Overview

 

AtkinsRéalis is looking for a Director, Artificial Intelligence, Finance to turn the potential of AI into measurable improvements in how Finance works and how the business makes decisions.

 

This is a hands-on leadership role. The Director will define a practical AI strategy, identify the opportunities worth pursuing and lead a disciplined portfolio from business case through adoption and verified results. They will also personally design, build, test and help deploy practical Finance agents and AI-enabled workflows within approved enterprise environments.

 

Success means tangible outcomes: capacity released for higher-value work, faster and better-informed decisions, stronger controls, improved cash performance and protection of project margins. The role is not about deploying technology for its own sake or accumulating pilots that never change how Finance operates.

 

Leading a small team with a global mandate, the Director will bring together Finance leaders and process owners with the Financial Systems Centre of Excellence (CoE), IT, Global Digital, the Chief Digital Officer’s organization, and data, cybersecurity, privacy and risk specialists. They will develop Finance-specific strategy and governance within enterprise standards, not create competing platforms or policies.

 

You are a business-led AI and transformation leader who combines strategic ambition, financial discipline and genuine hands-on ability. You can inspire executives, challenge a weak business case and align Finance, Digital, IT and control teams. You are as comfortable discussing strategy as you are building an agent to test an idea with users.

 

Your role

 

Set the strategy and build alignment:

• Define and communicate a value-first AI strategy and roadmap for Global Finance, aligned with Finance priorities, enterprise AI strategy, technology standards and the Financial Systems roadmap.
• Determine where AI can materially improve outcomes, where conventional automation or process redesign is preferable, and where an opportunity should not proceed.
• Build a shared agenda across FP&A, Controllership, Project Finance and other Finance teams; engage regional and business leaders to identify needs that can scale.
• Advise Finance leadership on investment choices, dependencies and risks; secure sponsorship and rally teams that do not report to the Director.

Own a disciplined portfolio of use cases:

• Establish transparent intake and prioritization connected to enterprise channels and governance; assess business value, process and data readiness, feasibility, adoption, total cost and risk.
• Maintain a sequenced portfolio with named sponsors, accountable process owners, delivery partners, milestones and clear decisions to proceed, change direction or stop.
• Prioritize a few opportunities with a credible path to impact over a large collection of pilots. Candidate areas include reporting commentary, Finance knowledge access, exception handling, forecasting support, collections and project-margin early warning; each requires its own assessment and business case.

Make the business case and prove the return:

• Require proportionate business cases before material investment, with baselines, expected benefits, implementation and ongoing costs, risks, dependencies, adoption assumptions and alternatives.
• Distinguish time saved from capacity genuinely redeployed and from cost removed; do not treat these as interchangeable financial benefits.
• Agree measurement methods and benefit owners before delivery; track investment and realized value at use-case and portfolio levels, with independent validation where appropriate.
• Report candidly on adoption, net value, cost and control effectiveness; recommend whether to improve, scale or discontinue initiatives that underperform.

Build, test and demonstrate solutions personally:

• Personally design, build and refine selected Finance agents and AI-enabled workflows, especially early prototypes and focused solutions that accelerate learning.
• Use Microsoft Copilot and Copilot Studio hands-on to configure agents, test them with users, assess reliability and improve outputs based on feedback.
• Use AI tools regularly in professional work to improve analysis, research, drafting and workflow execution, applying appropriate review and data-handling requirements.
• Turn Finance problems into working demonstrations; assess limitations and costs, and decide whether a solution should stop, improve or enter the approved production route.
• Stay close enough to delivery to challenge designs, troubleshoot barriers and coach builders, without being the sole developer of enterprise-scale products; partner with Digital and IT on supported deployment.

Establish practical, responsible governance:

• Translate enterprise AI policy and standards into a Finance operating model covering ownership, intake, risk assessment, testing, approvals, human oversight, monitoring and lifecycle management.
• Partner with Digital, IT, the Chief Digital Officer’s organization, Cybersecurity, Privacy, Legal, Risk and Internal Audit to clarify decision rights and navigate the path from idea to approved production use.
• Protect sensitive Finance and client information through appropriate access, validation, traceability and human review before AI outputs inform reporting or decisions.
• Work with data and process owners on source quality, definitions and controls; reuse approved enterprise platforms and challenge unnecessary complexity without bypassing security or technology accountabilities.

Deliver through partnership and adoption:

• Partner with the Financial Systems CoE so initiatives fit ERP, EPM and reporting architecture without creating competing technology roadmaps.
• Agree delivery responsibilities with Digital and IT while retaining Finance accountability for business outcomes; redesign workflows with process owners around human decisions, exceptions and controls.
• Lead communications, training and feedback to build user confidence; create reusable approaches that can scale across regions while respecting genuine process and risk differences.

Lead a lean, high-impact team:

• Build and coach a small team with commercial judgment, hands-on capability and delivery discipline; mobilize a federated network of Finance champions, process owners and enterprise specialists.
• Create a culture of curiosity, constructive challenge, accountability and collaboration, including the confidence to recommend “not AI” when appropriate.
• Represent Finance in enterprise AI forums and lead by example as both sponsor and practitioner: demonstrate tools, share what works and acknowledge limitations.

 

About you

 

• A degree in Finance, Business, Technology, Engineering or a related discipline, or equivalent relevant experience, is expected.

• Significant experience leading AI, data, automation or digital transformation in a complex organization, with demonstrated outcomes beyond proofs of concept.
• Experience navigating architecture, cybersecurity, privacy, data governance and risk requirements without losing sight of business value or delivery pace.
• Deeper practical experience with Copilot Cowork or Claude Cowork, including a proven record of deploying agentic workflows and demonstrating value in another organization.
• Demonstrated hands-on experience building, testing and deploying AI agents, preferably in Microsoft Copilot Studio, with examples you personally created or materially developed.
• Experience in an engineering, professional-services or project-based business; familiarity with enterprise Finance platforms, including Oracle-based environments.
• Working knowledge of generative AI, agents, analytics and intelligent automation, sufficient to build focused solutions and challenge complex technical designs.

• Strong understanding of Finance processes and decisions, ideally including FP&A, reporting, project or contract performance, working capital and financial controls.
• Evidence of moving solutions beyond demonstrations to adoption, changed workflows and measurable business outcomes.

• Active, capable use of Microsoft Copilot, ChatGPT or Claude in day-to-day professional work, with sound judgment about approved tools, sensitive information and human review.

• Proven ability to build investment cases, evaluate total cost and alternatives, establish benefit baselines and demonstrate return on investment.

• Exceptional collaboration, executive communication and matrix leadership skills; sound judgment about when to scale, simplify or stop.

 

Rewards & benefits

 

Explore the rewards and benefits that help you thrive – at every stage of your life and your career at AtkinsRéalis in Canada.

Enjoy competitive compensation, employee recognition, and a brilliant range of flexible benefits you can tailor to your health, wellbeing, financial and lifestyle needs.

Make the most of diverse opportunities for training and professional development to grow your skills and expertise.

And take advantage of our hybrid working culture and generous time-off policies to balance a fulfilling career with your personal life.

Be rewarded. Find out more.

 

About AtkinsRéalis

 

We're AtkinsRéalis, a world-class engineering services and nuclear organization. We connect people, data and technology to transform the world's infrastructure and energy systems. Together, with our industry partners and clients, and our global team of consultants, designers, engineers and project managers, we can change the world. We're committed to leading our clients across our various end markets to engineer a better future for our planet and its people.

Find out more.

 

Additional information

 

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Worker Type

Employee

Job Type

Regular

At AtkinsRéalis, we seek to hire individuals with diverse characteristics, backgrounds and perspectives. We strongly believe that world-class talent makes no distinctions based on gender, ethnic or national origin, sexual identity and orientation, age, religion or disability, but enriches itself through these differences.