AI Manager

Here at Scotts Miracle-Gro there is no such thing as a typical day. Our culture is constantly energized by new and exciting growth opportunities and at a rapid pace. Below are details on an open job. If the role interests you and you would like to be considered we encourage you to apply!

Role Summary
The Manager / Senior Manager, AI/ML will serve as the operational backbone of the AI Center of Excellence at Scotts Miracle-Gro — translating the AI/ML roadmap into production-grade systems, running the day-to-day operations of the CoE, and overseeing the progress and impact of forward-deployed AI engineers embedded in business units. This role bridges strategy and execution, ensuring AI initiatives deliver measurable business outcomes.

In this role you will:
AI/ML Solution Development and Delivery:

-Lead end-to-end development of AI/ML models and applications — from experimentation through production deployment and monitoring.
-Own technical execution of priority initiatives, applying modern techniques (LLMs, RAG, multimodal AI, reinforcement learning) to solve real business problems.
-Design and build consumer-facing AI agents, back-office agentic workflows, and automation solutions using emerging capabilities (multi-agent orchestration, MCP, A2A protocols).
-Drive advanced analytics, predictive modeling, and prescriptive insights across business units. Maintain model monitoring, drift detection, and retraining pipelines.

AI COE Operations and FDE Oversight:

-Manage day-to-day COE operations: intake/prioritization of AI requests, capacity planning, sprint management, and delivery tracking.
-Run team cadences (standups, reviews, retrospectives) and own delivery metrics — throughput, cycle time, adoption rates, and business value delivered.
-Serve as day-to-day manager and technical mentor for forward-deployed AI engineers embedded in Marketing, Insights, and future business units.
-Track FDE impact, facilitate cross-FDE knowledge sharing, and ensure reusable patterns flow back to the central CoE.
-Partner with business unit leaders to assess FDE effectiveness and identify new embedding opportunities as the CoE scales.

Cross-Functional Partnership and Team Leadership:

-Partner with stakeholders across marketing, product, operations, and finance to define success metrics and deliver AI solutions that move KPIs.
-Manage and mentor data scientists, ML engineers, and FDEs — fostering experimentation, technical excellence, and measurable impact.
-Conduct code reviews, guide architecture decisions, and maintain high standards for quality, documentation, and reproducibility.
-Implement responsible AI practices, ensure data governance, and partner with legal/compliance as needed.

What you'll need to be successful:
Required:

-Master's in Data Science, Computer Science, Mathematics, Statistics, or related quantitative field.
-8+ years in AI/ML or data science (5+ for PhD candidates). 2+ years managing a technical team.
-Strong hands-on experience: ML (supervised/unsupervised), deep learning, generative AI (LLMs, RAG, vector databases, prompt engineering, fine-tuning).
-Proficiency in Python, SQL, and ML frameworks (PyTorch, TensorFlow, scikit-learn, Hugging Face).
-Experience with cloud platforms (GCP, AWS, or Azure) and ML infrastructure (MLflow, Vertex AI, SageMaker).
-Proven track record delivering AI solutions that drove tangible business outcomes.
-Strong project management skills across multiple concurrent workstreams and distributed team members.
-Ability to translate business problems into technical approaches and communicate results in business terms.

Preferred:

-Experience in CPG, retail, or consumer-facing industries.
-Exposure to agentic AI systems, multi-agent architectures, or AI-powered automation.
-Experience managing embedded/forward-deployed technical resources across business units.
-Familiarity with responsible AI frameworks and AI governance best practices.
-Experience presenting technical work to senior leadership or executive audiences.

How this role connects to our AI vision:
While the Senior Director sets vision and enterprise strategy, the Manager runs the COE machine — ensuring the team delivers, FDEs are thriving in their embedded business units, and the COE produces measurable value across the enterprise.
 

The starting budgeted pay range for this role will generally fall between $140,000.00 - $164,700.00 per year. Scotts will consider various factors in determining the actual pay including your skills, qualifications, experience, and geographical location.In addition to the determined base salary, this role is also incentive eligible under our corporate bonus programs.For remote roles where the final candidate resides in Alaska, California, Colorado, Illinois, New York, Oregon or Washington, state required pay thresholds will be factored into base salary.

Here at ScottsMiracle-Gro, we believe providing an enriching and engaging employee experience is what sets us apart from other organizations. We recognize our employees are so much more than just their job title so we offer programs and benefits that support them in all aspects of their lives. Wondering how we do it? Below is a glimpse of our highlight reel…

• Our Live Total Health program provides you with options to align to your personal needs.  Selections range from medical, dental and vision coverage for you, your spouse/domestic partner and dependents to an outstanding wellness reimbursement program to an unbelievable 401K match (up to 7.5%) as well as a 15% discount on company stock and much more

• We know our talent is our most precious asset and your unique development contributes to our organization’s success now and in the future.  Career growth at our company is not always a ladder.  It’s much more like a rock climbing adventure.  Grow through exploration and experiences rather than a predictable linear path.

• We value the importance of family. We provide access to Maven Family Planning and up to $30,000 to accommodate for adoption, fertility and surrogacy.

• Be part of something bigger by joining one of our Employee Resource Groups focusing on diversity and inclusion, family, education and sustainability: Scotts Women’s Network, Scotts Black Employees’ Network, Scotts Veterans Network, Scotts Young Professionals, Scotts Pride Network (GroPride), Scotts Associates for a Greener Earth (SAGE), Scotts Family TREE and our Associate Boards.

• Join a company with a strong belief in giving back to the communities where we live and work.  We have a shared passion for service and volunteerism and believe participating in community service benefits our communities and strengthens our team. 

Not interested in this role? Stay up to date on future opportunities by joining our ScottsMiracle-Gro and Hawthorne Gardening talent communities.

Scotts is an EEO Employer, dedicated to a culturally diverse, drug free workplace.

EEO/AA Employer/Minority/Female/Disability/Veteran/Sexual Orientation/Gender Identity

Notification to Agencies:

Please note that the Scotts Miracle-Gro company does not accept unsolicited resumes from recruiters or employment agencies. In the absence of a signed Master Service Agreement, and specific approval to submit resumes to an approved requisition, the Scotts Miracle-Gro company will not consider or approve payment regarding recruiter fees or referral compensations.