Note: The job is a remote job and is open to candidates in USA. Vantor advances spatial intelligence by bringing together geospatial data, AI, and mission-focused technology to help decision makers understand what is happening now and shape what comes next. The Principal, AI Strategy & Engineering Transformation leader will develop the strategy for AI-assisted software delivery, build and validate hands-on workflows, and guide secure adoption across engineering and enterprise functions. The role will lead pilots, establish governance and measurement, and translate evidence into scalable engineering practices and executive decisions.
Responsibilities
- Define and maintain Vantor's strategy, roadmap, and investment priorities for AI-assisted software engineering
- Evaluate AI development tools through representative workflows and evidence covering capability, security, compliance, cost, supportability, portability, and operating-model fit
- Recommend primary tools, approved patterns, exception paths, and bounded experiments for emerging capabilities such as local inference
- Design, prototype, and validate agentic and AI-assisted workflows for coding, testing, documentation, code review, bug finding, repository automation, and workflow orchestration
- Build practical solutions with modern AI tooling, APIs, scripting, prompt and context engineering, and developer-tool integrations
- Move promising ideas from concept to prototype to reusable operating pattern, partnering with engineering teams when productionalization or platform support is required
- Discover how teams plan, build, review, release, and operate software; identify friction, manual work, and high-value opportunities for AI and automation
- Redesign workflows across requirements, backlog management, development, testing, release coordination, documentation, and post-launch learning
- Lead or support foundational changes that affect engineering delivery, including source-control governance, collaboration integrations, workflow migrations, ownership models, and phased rollout planning
- Run structured pilots with real engineering teams, including readiness baselines, workflow selection, hands-on dogfooding, blocker removal, evidence collection, and scaling decisions
- Translate successful pilots into reusable playbooks, reference implementations, automation, templates, skills, and internal marketplace or knowledge-base assets
- Build adoption through embedded Pioneer and Champion networks; coach participants, facilitate teach-backs and demonstrations, run pulse checks, and help local leaders support teams with decreasing central assistance
- Partner with Security, Compliance, Privacy, IT, and engineering owners to establish practical governance and approved AI usage patterns
- Address identity, authorization, secrets, network and egress controls, data handling, storage, logging, retention, and human review as part of workflow design
- Design bounded pilots and deployment paths for regulated, restricted, or mission-sensitive environments without treating experimental infrastructure as broadly authorized
- Define success measures for adoption, developer friction, productivity, quality, useful outcomes, risk, and vendor value; establish baselines and collect before-and-after evidence
- Turn pilot and portfolio evidence into clear recommendations about what to continue, change, standardize, scale, or stop
- Operate a cross-functional portfolio through milestones, decision gates, dependencies, owners, risks, and concise leadership readouts; support vendor evaluation and procurement decisions with measurable evidence
Skills
- To be eligible for this position, you must be a U.S. Person, defined as a U.S. citizen, permanent resident, Asylee, or Refugee
- * 8+ years of relevant experience across software engineering, developer platforms, technical product or program leadership, engineering enablement, or enterprise technology transformation
- * Hands-on experience building AI-assisted workflows, agents, prototypes, integrations, or developer automation with modern generative-AI tools
- * Strong understanding of the software delivery lifecycle, including Git-based workflows, CI/CD, testing, code review, repository automation, and secure development practices
- * Ability to use programming or scripting, APIs, and automation tooling to build prototypes, evaluation harnesses, and repeatable workflows
- * Demonstrated ability to turn ambiguous opportunities into structured experiments, measurable outcomes, roadmaps, and clear decisions
- * Experience leading cross-functional initiatives involving engineers, senior leaders, platform owners, security, compliance, infrastructure, and business stakeholders
- * Working knowledge of enterprise security, data governance, responsible AI, and the controls needed to use AI safely in software delivery
- * Proven ability to influence without direct authority, coach technical teams, facilitate working sessions, and drive adoption of unfamiliar tools or practices
- * Excellent written and verbal communication, including the ability to translate technical evidence into concise executive recommendations
- * Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Data or AI, Systems Engineering, or a related discipline, or equivalent demonstrated experience
- * Experience deploying AI development tools in regulated, export-controlled, disconnected, or otherwise restricted environments
- * Experience evaluating or scaling AI coding assistants, agent frameworks, retrieval-augmented systems, local inference, or related developer tooling
- * Experience building Champion networks, communities of practice, embedded enablement models, or enterprise change programs
- * Experience with developer-productivity measurement, experimentation, engineering metrics, or platform-value assessment
- * Experience with GitHub Enterprise governance, source-control or collaboration-platform migrations, cloud platforms, and modern DevOps practices
- * Experience supporting vendor evaluation, procurement, implementation planning, and sustainable operating or support models
Benefits
- A robust 401(k) with company match
- Mental health resources
- Student loan repayment assistance
- Adoption reimbursement
- Pet insurance
- Incentive eligible with a target based on contribution, company performance, and/or individual results achieved
Company Overview