Director, AI Enterprise Risk Management

At Early Warning, we’ve powered and protected the U.S. financial system for over thirty years with cutting-edge solutions like Zelle®, Paze℠, and so much more. As a trusted name in payments, we partner with thousands of institutions to increase access to financial services and protect transactions for hundreds of millions of consumers and small businesses.

Positions located in Scottsdale, San Francisco, Chicago, or New York follow a hybrid work model to allow for a more collaborative working environment.

Candidates responding to this posting must independently possess the eligibility to work in the United States, for any employer, at the date of hire. This position is ineligible for employment Visa sponsorship.

Overall Purpose

The Director, Artificial Intelligence Risk Management, will lead and manage the design, implementation, and oversight of the firm’s AI Risk Management Program within the Second Line of Defense (SLOD). This role is responsible for providing management, independent review, challenge, and advisory support to ensure the organization’s development and use of artificial intelligence — including generative AI — is safe, responsible, compliant, and aligned with the firm’s risk appetite, ethical principles, and regulatory expectations. Reporting to the Senior Director of Enterprise Risk Program Governance within independent risk management, the Director partners closely with the first-line business managers, product, technology (including the CDO office), data science, as well as Compliance, Legal, Privacy, Operational, Third-Party and Technology & Security Risk, to embed AI risk requirements across the enterprise. The role plays a key part in enabling innovation while ensuring AI-related risks are appropriately identified, assessed, monitored, and governed.

 Essential Functions

• AI Risk Governance & Program Management
  • Lead the development, maintenance, and ongoing enhancement of the enterprise AI Risk Management framework, policies, standards, procedures, and control expectations, aligned with industry-recognized frameworks such as the NIST AI Risk Management Framework and ISO/IEC 42001.
  • Maintain and evolve the AI risk and control taxonomy, ensuring consistency with operational risk, model risk management, data governance, privacy, and technology risk frameworks.
  • Oversee the development and use of risk management technologies and tooling used to inventory AI use cases, track risks, controls, issues, and approvals.
  • Lead AI governance forums, providing independent challenge and driving risk oversight and escalation
  • Participate in and support enterprise governance forums, committees, and working groups related to AI providing independent risk perspectives and recommendations.
  • Develop and deliver training on the AI Risk Management program.
• Risk Measurement, Monitoring and Reporting
  • Define and implement a consistent approach to measuring and monitoring AI-related risks, aligned with enterprise risk frameworks across domains (e.g., operational, model, data, technology risk)
  • Analyze trends, emerging risks, and control performance related to AI risk exposures.
  •  Produce enterprise-level reporting and insights on AI risk posture, trends, and program effectiveness for senior management and governance forums
• Risk Identification & Assessment
  • Develop and maintain AI use case risk assessment methodologies, including inherent risk identification, control evaluation, residual risk determination, and escalation criteria.
  • Execute the second line of defense enterprise-level AI risk profile assessment to measure compliance with our approved risk appetite / tolerance.
  • Embed AI risk considerations and requirements into other risk domain assessments (e.g., operational risk, model risk, third-party risk, data risk, privacy, and technology risk).
  • Identify emerging AI risks related to bias, explainability, data quality, security, resilience, regulatory compliance, and customer impact.
• Independent Review, Challenge & Quality Assurance
  • Lead effective independent review and challenge of first-line AI risk assessments, control design, mitigation strategies, and risk acceptance decisions.
  • Execute and / or oversee quality assurance (QA) activities to assess adherence to AI risk management policies, standards, and governance requirements.
  • Identify gaps, weaknesses, or inconsistencies in AI risk practices and ensure issues are documented, escalated, and tracked through remediation.
  • Partner with other second-line risk domains to deliver integrated, holistic risk oversight of AI-enabled processes and products.
• Risk Reporting & Insights
  • Develop and deliver insightful, enterprise-level AI risk reporting that clearly communicates risk posture, trends, emerging issues, and program health.
  • Prepare materials for senior management, governance committees, and external stakeholders that drive informed decision-making and timely action.
  • Lead regulatory exam support, internal audits, and management self-assessments related to AI governance and risk management.
• Stakeholder Engagement & Advisory
  • Serve as a trusted risk advisor to first-line leaders across Product Management, Technology, Data Science, Model Development, and Business Operations.
  • Collaborate closely with Compliance, Legal, Privacy, Model Risk Management, Technology & Security Risk, and Operational Risk to ensure coordinated oversight of AI-related risks.
  • Support responsible innovation by helping the business understand AI risk requirements while enabling safe and compliant adoption of AI capabilities.

Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent experience.
• Typically, 12 years of experience in risk management, technology risk, model risk management, data risk, or a related discipline within financial services or another highly regulated industry.
• Direct experience supporting or leading AI risk management framework, model governance, or emerging technology risk programs.
• Strong working knowledge of industry-recognized AI risk and governance frameworks, including the NIST AI Risk Management Framework and ISO/IEC 42001.
• Experience designing or executing risk assessments, governance frameworks, metrics, and reporting for complex risk domains.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to clearly explain complex AI risks to technical and non-technical stakeholders.
• Strong analytical skills, sound judgment, and attention to detail.
• Proven ability to work independently, manage multiple priorities, and influence across a matrixed organization.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience at a large financial institution developing and implementing AI risk management frameworks and governance practices
• Hands-on experience building and operationalizing AI risk frameworks, assessments, and controls
• Strong understanding of current and emerging AI trends (e.g., generative AI, LLMs) and associated risk considerations

The above job description is not intended to be an all-inclusive list of duties and standards of the position. Incumbents will follow instructions and perform other related duties as assigned by their supervisor.

Physical Requirements

Working conditions consist of a normal office environment. Work is primarily sedentary and requires extensive use of a computer and involves sitting for periods of approximately four hours. Work may require occasional standing, walking, kneeling and reaching. Must be able to lift 10 pounds occasionally and/or negligible amount of force frequently. Requires visual acuity and dexterity to view, prepare, and manipulate documents and office equipment including personal computers. Requires the ability to communicate with internal and/or external customers.

Employee must be able to perform essential functions and physical requirements of position with or without reasonable accommodation.

The base pay scale for this position in:
New York, NY/ San Francisco, CA in USD per hour is: $186,000 - $232,000.

Additionally, candidates are eligible for a discretionary incentive plan and benefits.

This pay scale is subject to change and is not necessarily reflective of actual compensation that may be earned, nor a promise of any specific pay for any specific candidate, which is always dependent on legitimate factors considered at the time of job offer. Early Warning Services takes into consideration a variety of factors when determining a competitive salary offer, including, but not limited to, the job scope, market rates and geographic location of a position, candidate’s education, experience, training, and specialized skills or certification(s) in relation to the job requirements and compared with internal equity (peers). The business actively supports and reviews wage equity to ensure that pay decisions are not based on gender, race, national origin, or any other protected classes.

Some of the Ways We Prioritize Your Health and Happiness 

•  Healthcare Coverage – Competitive medical (PPO/HDHP), dental, and vision plans as well as company contributions to your Health Savings Account (HSA) or pre-tax savings through flexible spending accounts (FSA) for commuting, health & dependent care expenses.

• 401(k) Retirement Plan – Featuring a 100% Company Safe Harbor Match on your first 6% deferral immediately upon eligibility.

• Paid Time Off – Flexible Time Off for Exempt (salaried) employees, as well as generous PTO for Non-Exempt (hourly) employees, plus 11 paid company holidays and a paid volunteer day.

• 12 weeks of Paid Parental Leave

• Maven Family Planning – provides support through your Parenting journey including egg freezing, fertility, adoption, surrogacy, pregnancy, postpartum, early pediatrics, and returning to work.

And SO much more! We continue to enhance our program, so be sure to check our Benefits page here for the latest. Our team can share more during the interview process!

Early Warning Services, LLC (“Early Warning”) considers for employment, hires, retains and promotes qualified candidates on the basis of ability, potential, and valid qualifications without regard to race, religious creed, religion, color, sex, sexual orientation, genetic information, gender, gender identity, gender expression, age, national origin, ancestry, citizenship, protected veteran or disability status or any factor prohibited by law, and as such affirms in policy and practice to support and promote equal employment opportunity and affirmative action, in accordance with all applicable federal, state, and municipal laws. The company also prohibits discrimination on other bases such as medical condition, marital status or any other factor that is irrelevant to the performance of our employees. 

Early Warning Services LLC is a proud participant in E-Verify, a federal program to help ensure a legal and authorized workforce. As part of our hiring process, we electronically verify the employment eligibility of all new hires through E-Verify. For more information on your rights and responsibilities under E-Verify please visit Home | E-Verify.