Director - AI - Robotics

Robots already work at Mayo Clinic, cleaning our floors, moving millions of laboratory specimens, and assisting in our operating rooms. Yet this is less than one percent of what is possible. Over the next decade, robotics will advance from sensor-driven, single-purpose machines to AI-driven autonomous systems, including generalist and humanoid robots, and Mayo Clinic intends to lead across that entire continuum, from the operating room to the loading dock. The Mayo Clinic Robotics Program exists to pioneer human-centered robotics that expands access and creates an empowered, safe, more personalized, and convenient experience for patients and staff, cementing Mayo Clinic as the global leader in healthcare while freeing our people for the human work of healing. Within this program, the Director - AI - Robotics makes enterprise robotics take hold across Mayo Clinic. Working shoulder-to-shoulder with technical leadership, this leader turns standards into practice: embedding interoperability and data requirements into how Mayo evaluates and buys robots, defining with the owners of Mayo's networks, facilities, security, and healthcare technology management what robot-ready environments require, and building the education that prepares Mayo's workforce for robotics, from frontline teams working alongside robots to leaders making robotics decisions. The Director is a people leader, managing and developing the program's operations managers and owning, through them, the execution processes that keep the program's initiatives moving: intake, governance, portfolio reporting, and partner logistics. Robotics succeeds or fails on adoption, and this role is accountable for its conditions: teams across the enterprise finding it faster and easier to do robotics the enterprise way than to go it alone. 

The Director partners closely with executive leaders, clinical and business stakeholders, and technical teams to ensure AI initiatives are aligned with enterprise strategy, governance expectations, and operational readiness. The role leads multidisciplinary teams across product, operations, and technology and serves as a key connector between strategy and execution.

Key Responsibilities

• AI Strategy & Program Leadership: Lead development and execution of enterprise AI strategy and multi-year roadmaps aligned with organizational goals.
• Portfolio Oversight: Oversee intake, prioritization, and sequencing of AI initiatives; balance value, feasibility, risk, and capacity across portfolios.
• Cross‑Functional Leadership: Partner with clinical, operational, technical, legal, compliance, and data leaders to advance AI initiatives from concept through deployment.
• Governance & Responsible AI: Ensure AI initiatives adhere to governance frameworks, ethical standards, regulatory requirements, and risk management practices.
• Operational Enablement: Establish operating rhythms, performance metrics, and reporting mechanisms to track progress, outcomes, and value realization.
• Stakeholder Engagement: Serve as a trusted advisor to senior leaders; communicate AI strategy, progress, and impact through executive‑level updates and presentations.
• People & Team Leadership: Lead, develop, and support managers and senior professionals; foster a culture of accountability, collaboration, and continuous improvement.

• Financial & Resource Stewardship: Support budget planning, resource allocation, and business case development for AI initiatives.

  
  

Core Competencies

• Enterprise AI & Digital Strategy
• Executive Presence & Influence
• Change Leadership & Resilience
• Ethical & Responsible AI Stewardship
• Cross‑Functional Collaboration
• Program & Portfolio Management

Position Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree and 10 years of progressive experience in healthcare, technology, operations, analytics, or related fields with demonstrated leadership responsibility required.
• Master’s degree and 10 years of progressive experience in healthcare, technology, operations, analytics, or related fields with demonstrated leadership responsibility preferred.
• Demonstrated experience leading high performing teams and delivering complex enterprise initiatives in a matrixed organizations preferred.

The preferred candidate will possess:

• Track record driving enterprise-wide adoption of technology standards, requirements, or governance frameworks across a large, federated organization, through influence, incentives, and service rather than mandate.
• Experience in robotics, automation, or comparable cyber-physical technology programs, sufficient to represent standards credibly with vendors, engineers, and domain owners.
• Experience partnering with infrastructure and operations domain owners (IT, Facilities, Information Security, Healthcare Technology Management, or equivalents) to define readiness requirements others must plan for and deliver.
• Demonstrated ability to build workforce education and enablement programs at enterprise scale, ideally spanning frontline staff through executive audiences.
• Familiarity with procurement and vendor governance, including conditions of purchase, evaluation frameworks, and multi-vendor ecosystems.
• Demonstrated people leadership: hiring, managing, developing, and holding accountable direct reports who run operational and program-execution functions.
• Experience designing and maturing execution processes (intake, governance coordination, portfolio reporting, partner and logistics management) and leading the staff who operate them.
• Healthcare or other highly regulated industry experience; comfort operating in a matrixed model where the program defines requirements that owning organizations deliver.