Director AI and Analytics Platform Services - 90397435 - Washington, DC

Your success is a train ride away!

As we move America’s workforce toward the future, Amtrak connects businesses and communities across the country. We employ more than 20,000 diverse, energetic professionals in a variety of career fields throughout the United States. The safety of our passengers, our employees, the public and our operating environment is our priority, and the success of our railroad is due to our employees.

Are you ready to join our team?

Our values of ‘Do the Right Thing, Excel Together and Put Customers First’ are at the heart of what matters most to us, and our Core Capabilities, ‘Building Trust, Accountability, Effective Communication, Customer Focus, and Proactive Safety & Security’ are what every employee needs to know and do to be most impactful at Amtrak. By living the Amtrak values, focusing on our capabilities, and actively embracing and fostering diverse ideas, backgrounds, and perspectives, together we will honor our past and make Amtrak a company of the future.

SUMMARY OF DUTIES:

Amtrak is undergoing a digital and data transformation to modernize operations, elevate customer experience, and enable smarter, faster decisions. We are seeking a Director of AI and Analytics Platform Services to lead the engineering and delivery of enterprise platforms that support artificial intelligence, agentic systems, automation, and data self-service.  This role will manage a cross-functional team responsible for the platforms that power enterprise data, streaming, and intelligent automation. The Director will also help shape the strategy and execution of AI and automation efforts, working closely with product, governance, architecture, and enablement teams to ensure scalable, responsible adoption across Amtrak.

ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS:

• Define the strategy and roadmap for scalable AI and automation platforms, including agentic frameworks, orchestration models, and model delivery approaches.
• Support enterprise AI and agentic automation strategy, working across teams to deliver use cases in areas such as predictive maintenance, crew optimization, customer personalization, and operational analytics.
• Manage engineering teams responsible for building reusable, secure, and scalable systems that support analytics, AI, and automation at scale.
• Oversee platform observability, ensuring high availability, data quality, and transparency across platform services.
• Guide adoption of modern tooling (e.g., Databricks, Azure ML, Vertex AI) for batch, streaming, and event-driven use cases.
• Lead the AI-specific governance strategy and partner with the enterprise data governance team to integrate AI-specific needs model transparency, explainability, auditability into broader policies.
• Co-develop risk frameworks that meet internal and regulatory expectations while enabling innovation.
• Own the strategic direction of Data, AI and automation enablement efforts in collaboration with the enterprise enablement lead.
• Help define and prioritize tooling, templates, and AI learning paths that accelerate adoption across business functions.
• Champion AI/ML experimentation and responsible automation pilots across domains like Operations, Customer Experience, HR, and Finance.
• Align AI initiatives to Amtrak’s strategic objectives and Capital Projects, including:

• • Predictive train delay and fleet forecasting
  • Customer-facing agentic copilots and personalization engines
  • Safety and operational risk reduction using intelligent pattern detection
  • Smart labor and resource planning solutions
  • Translate business goals into AI opportunities and coordinate across teams for effective delivery and measurable value.
• Guide a cross-functional working team of engineers, architects, analysts, and applied AI professionals.
• Collaborate with external partners and vendors on proofs of concept, accelerators, and innovation opportunities.
• Serve as an internal evangelist and external representative for Amtrak’s AI and automation vision.

MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS:

• 10+ years of experience in AI/ML, automation, or intelligent systems, with 5+ years in strategic or platform leadership.
• Proven ability to scale enterprise AI or automation systems in partnership with platform, governance, and enablement functions.
• Experience implementing AI governance, MLOps, or federated automation strategies in regulated or public-sector organizations.

• Familiarity with agentic systems, LLM orchestration, model lifecycle management, and operational ML use cases.

MINIMUM KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS, AND ABILITIES:

• Strong executive communication skills and ability to collaborate cross-functionally to drive transformation.
• Strong understanding of modern data and AI platform architecture, including streaming, observability, and self-service enablement.
• Ability to lead cross-functional teams and align technical delivery with business objectives.

• Skilled in translating strategic goals into practical, scalable platform capabilities.

PREFERRED EXPERIENCE, EDUCATION OR QUALIFICATIONS:

• Transportation, logistics, or public infrastructure domain knowledge.

WORK ENVIRONMENT:

• On site work schedule. 
• 4 days in the office with 1 day remote.

COMMUNICATION AND INTERPERSONAL SKILLS:

Must have excellent oral and written communication skills.

The salary/hourly range is $179,300.00 232,416.00. Pay is based on several factors including but not limited to education, work experience, certifications, internal equity, etc. Depending on an employee’s assigned worksite or location, Amtrak may consider a geo-pay differential to be applied to the employee’s base salary. Amtrak may offer additional incentive and pay programs to recognize and reward our employees, including a short-term incentive bonus based upon factors such as individual and company performance that is commensurate with the level of the position and/or long-term incentive plan compensation. In addition to your salary, Amtrak offers a comprehensive benefit package that includes health, dental, and vision plans; health savings accounts; wellness programs; flexible spending accounts; 401K retirement plan with employer match; life insurance; short and long term disability insurance; paid time off; back-up care; adoption assistance; surrogacy assistance; reimbursement of education expenses; Public Service Loan Forgiveness eligibility; Railroad Retirement sickness and retirement benefits; and rail pass privileges. Learn more about our benefits offerings here.

Requisition ID:165125

Work Arrangement:06-Onsite 4/5 Days Click here for more information about work arrangements at Amtrak. 
Relocation Offered:No 
Travel Requirements:Up to 25% 

You power our progress through your performance.
 

We want your work at Amtrak to be more than a job. We want your career at Amtrak to be a fulfilling experience where you find challenging work, rewarding opportunities, respect among colleagues, and attractive compensation. Amtrak maintains a culture that values high performance and recognizes individual employee contributions. 

Amtrak is committed to a safe workplace free of drugs and alcohol. All Amtrak positions requires a pre-employment background check that includes prior employment verification, a criminal history check and a pre-employment drug screen. 

Candidates who test positive for marijuana will be disqualified, regardless of any state or local statute, ordinance, regulation, or other law that legalizes or decriminalizes the use or possession of marijuana, whether for medical, recreational, or other use. Amtrak's pre-employment drug testing program is administered in accordance with DOT regulations and applicable law.  

In accordance with DOT regulations (49 CFR § 40.25), Amtrak is required to obtain prior drug and alcohol testing records for applicants/employees intending to perform safety-sensitive duties for covered Department of Transportation positions. If an applicant/employee refuses to provide written consent for Amtrak to obtain these records, the individual will not be permitted to perform safety-sensitive functions.

In accordance with federal law governing security checks of covered individuals for providers of public transportation (Title 6 U.S.C. §1143), Amtrak is required to screen applicants for any permanent or interim disqualifying criminal offenses. 

Note that any education requirement listed above may be deemed satisfied if you have an equivalent combination of education, training and experience.

Amtrak is an equal opportunity employer and all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race/color, to include traits historically associated with race, including but not limited to, hair texture and hairstyles such as braids, locks and twists, religion, sex (including pregnancy, childbirth and related conditions, such as lactation), national origin/ethnicity, disability (intellectual, mental and physical), veteran status, marital status, ancestry, sexual orientation, gender identity and gender expression, genetic information, citizenship or any other personal characteristics protected by law..