Sr. Manager, AI & Automation

Overview Great brands reflect culture. The best ones help shape it. At Foot Locker, we’re rooted in sport, powered by style, and driven by the communities that move both. From Foot Locker and Kids Foot Locker to Champs Sports, WSS, and atmos, our brands sit at the intersection of sport, style, and self-expression. As part of the DICK’S Sporting Goods family, you’re backed by the resources, reach, and career opportunities of a world-class sports company. That unleashes Foot Locker to keep pushing forward with the agility and edge that define the brand. We’re looking for great people who want to influence culture and the generation that is shaping what’s next. Whether you’re building strategy, shaping innovations, or creating unforgettable customer moments, you’ll contribute to decisions and experiences that define our brands’ impact in the communities we serve. Come change the game with us. Apply today! This Role is 100% REMOTE, US Based At this time, Foot Locker will not sponsor a new applicant for employment authorization, or offer any immigration related support for this position (i.e. H1B, F-1 OPT, F-1 STEM OPT, F-1 CPT, J-1, TN, or another type of work authorization. Foot Locker, Inc. is seeking an experienced technology leader to serve as Sr. Manager, AI & Automation, accountable for building and running the engineering team that delivers Generative AI, Agentic AI, and intelligent automation products across the retail enterprise. This leader owns the delivery, reliability, governance, and cost of the AI and automation portfolio, and partners with architecture, data, product, and business leaders to convert enterprise AI strategy into production capabilities that serve Merchandising, Supply Chain, Stores, Digital Commerce, Finance, Customer, and Corporate functions. The Sr. Manager leads a team of engineers, senior engineers, and contract resources; sets the operating model, hiring plan, and engineering standards for the group; and is the accountable owner for what the team ships. AI products delivered by this team are used every day by store, merchandising, supply chain, digital commerce, and corporate teams across Foot Locker’s brands and digital channels. Responsibilities Scope of the role: owns the people, delivery, and operating model for the AI & Automation engineering team. Accountable for portfolio outcomes, talent, and operational health rather than for any single system. Sets priorities with product and business partners, and makes staffing, sequencing, and build-versus-buy calls within the enterprise architecture standards set by the Sr. Architect, AI & Automation. RESPONSIBILITIES This role will include, but will not be limited to the following responsibilities: People leadership: hire, coach, and develop a team of AI and automation engineers; set expectations, run performance and career conversations, and build a durable bench across levels Delivery ownership: own the roadmap, commitments, and end-to-end delivery of AI agents, RAG solutions, automation workflows, APIs, and enterprise integrations Operating model: define how work enters the team, how it is prioritized, and how capacity is allocated across PODs, business domains, and shared platform work Engineering standards: establish and enforce standards for code quality, testing, evaluation, documentation, security, observability, and operational readiness Production accountability: own reliability, incident response, service levels, and remediation for AI and automation solutions in production Evaluation and quality: require measurable evaluation of every AI capability before and after release, including groundedness, retrieval quality, task success, latency, and cost per task Cost and consumption management: forecast and manage token, compute, platform, and licensing spend; drive unit-cost improvement as usage scales Governance and risk: operationalize Responsible AI, security, privacy, PII protection, RBAC, model and prompt governance, and audit readiness in partnership with Security, Legal, and Risk Architecture partnership: translate enterprise AI reference architectures and guardrails into delivered implementations, and feed production learning back into the standards Business partnership: work directly with business and product leaders to shape demand, define measurable outcomes, and communicate trade-offs, sequencing, and capacity realities Vendor and platform management: evaluate AI platforms, models, and vendors; manage contracts, renewals, consumption commitments, and partner performance Reuse and leverage: drive reusable services, agents, skills, connectors, and accelerators so that each new use case costs less to deliver than the last Executive communication: report portfolio health, risk, adoption, and value realization to directors and executive leadership Qualifications At Foot Locker, we value innovation, authenticity, and integrity in all that we do. To uphold the security and fairness of our hiring process, we ask that candidates refrain from using AI tools, including ChatGPT, during interviews and assessments. To ensure a smooth and secure experience, please review the following guidelines: Cameras must be on for all virtual interviews. AI tools are strictly prohibited during interviews or assessments. We appreciate your understanding and cooperation as we work together to create a transparent and equitable hiring experience. REQUIREMENTS 7+ years of experience in software engineering, data engineering, applied AI, automation, or related technology areas 3+ years of direct people leadership, including hiring, coaching, performance management, and developing engineers across levels Demonstrated track record of delivering production technology products at enterprise scale, not proofs of concept Working technical depth in Generative AI, LLMs, Agentic AI, RAG, embeddings, vector search, prompt engineering, and AI orchestration — sufficient to lead design reviews, challenge technical choices, and earn the trust of senior engineers Familiarity with Python, SQL, REST APIs, cloud architecture, and modern data platforms such as Snowflake and Databricks Experience with LLMOps, CI/CD, evaluation frameworks, AI observability, and production monitoring Strong understanding of Responsible AI, data governance, security, privacy, RBAC, and regulatory compliance in an enterprise environment Proven ability to own budget, vendor relationships, consumption forecasting, and cost management for a technology portfolio Experience leading distributed and blended teams, including onshore, offshore, and contract resources Excellent written and verbal communication, with the ability to influence engineering teams, business stakeholders, directors, and executive leadership Experience in Retail, Digital Commerce, Supply Chain, or Customer Analytics domains preferred Experience working in Agile product delivery environments preferred PREFERRED SKILLS Experience with Azure OpenAI, Snowflake Cortex AI, Databricks, the Microsoft Copilot ecosystem, Power BI/Fabric, AI gateways, and Model Context Protocol (MCP), or equivalent technologies. Experience standing up a new AI or automation capability from initial team through sustained production operation is highly valued, as is experience managing managers or technical leads. DESIRED CHARACTERISTICS Public cloud experience, preferably Azure or AWS Previous experience at a Fortune 500 company Comfortable operating with ambiguity and setting direction before the standard is fully defined SUPERVISORY RESPONSIBILITIES The Sr. Manager, AI & Automation role has direct supervisory responsibility for a team of engineers, senior engineers, and contract resources. Responsibilities include hiring, onboarding, goal setting, coaching, performance management, career development, and resource planning, carried out in accordance with Foot Locker policies and applicable laws. QUALIFICATIONS To perform this job successfully, an individual must be able to perform each essential duty satisfactorily. The requirements listed below are representative of the knowledge, skill, and/or ability required. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions. The successful candidate will have a high degree of motivation, exceptional attention to detail, and the ability to derive answers from communications with multiple parts of the business. This person will also require the ability to work well within a team atmosphere and has the flexibility to help with a variety of the department goals. EDUCATION and/or EXPERIENCE Bachelor’s degree (B.S.) from a four-year college or university in Computer Science, Engineering, Information Systems, or a related field, and 7 or more years of related experience and/or training, or an equivalent combination of education and experience. COMMUNICATION SKILLS The candidate must be able to communicate with others in a simple, clear, and understandable manner. Must also have the ability to read and interpret all forms of communication. The ability to write reports for management and professional correspondence, as well as to speak effectively before peers, management, customers, and other associates of the organization is required. REASONING ABILITY The candidate must effectively plan and execute unusual and difficult work. Takes initiative and is decisive and quick, when appropriate. All while adhering to the team’s standards and patterns and practices. Must have the ability to solve practical and impractical problems and deal with a variety of concrete variables in situations where only limited standardization exists. Ability to interpret a variety of instructions furnished in written, oral, diagram, or schedule form. Deals constructively with conflict and disagreement. PHYSICAL DEMANDS The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions. While performing the duties of this job, the employee is regularly required to sit and talk or hear. The employee must regularly lift and/or move up to 10 pounds. Specific vision abilities required by this job include close vision, and ability to adjust focus. WORK ENVIRONMENT The work environment characteristics described here are representative of those an employee encounters while performing the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions. The noise level in the work environment is usually quiet, however positive, work-driven collaboration is encouraged. Benefits The annual base salary range is $160,000 - $190,000 / year. This range represents the anticipated low and high end of the salary for this position. Salary will be determined by the education, experience, knowledge, skills, and abilities of the applicant, internal equity, and alignment with market data. Salary is one component of the Foot Locker, Inc. total compensation package, which includes the below. Foot Locker Benefits: Employee Discount Paid Time Off Medical | Dental | Vision Coverage 401(k) | Roth 401(k) Life Insurance Flexible Spending Account Opportunities for Advancement Tuition Reimbursement for Qualified Courses Strong Company Culture Employee Resource Groups