Lead Product Manager

We’re looking for a strategic, collaborative, and delivery-minded Applied AI Lead to help bring AI to life across Kroger, KTD and 84.51°. This role sits at the intersection of AI capability development and business impact, focused on driving AI adoption and application, from consultation to co-development.

You’ll lead prototyping efforts, drive tangible use case delivery, and serve as a champion for scaling AI Enablement tools and services. This is a high-visibility, high-impact role that requires someone who can connect technical potential with business value — and deliver quickly.

Applicants for employment in the US must have work authorization that does not now or in the future require sponsorship of a visa for employment authorization in the United Stated and with the Kroger Family of Companies (i.e. H1-B visa, F-1 visa (OPT), TN visa or any other non-immigrant status).

RESPONSIBILITIES:

The ideal candidate will be responsible for bridging the gap between cutting-edge, foundational AI technologies and Kroger, KTD, and 84.51° business strategies.  This individual will play a crucial role in understanding business needs, users’ problems and tying them back to the Kroger AI Enablement technical roadmap.  This role will ensure AI initiatives and priorities are aligned with business vertical objectives to drive innovation and efficiency.  They will help to drive adoption of AI capabilities across the business by being the conduit between the technical teams and the business.

Responsibilities include:

• Partner with business and product teams to identify, co-develop, and validate high-impact use cases
• Lead Applied AI MVP and prototype delivery in close collaboration with data scientists, engineers, and UX
• Drive adoption of AI Enablement capabilities, GenAI productivity tools, and reusable components across business teams
• Champion responsible, explainable, and user-centered AI in all applied solutions
• Lead Super Agent (orchestration) strategy and implementation for Customer-facing and Supplier-facing experiences
• Serve as AI representative/lead on high-value, end-to-end initiatives, in a ‘tiger team’ capacity
• Own AI Spoke Lead network (AI advocates named on each business team) through monthly meetings, regular Teams communications, and ongoing check-ins; enable AI Spoke Leads to lead AI consults on their own teams and surface high-priority opportunities to our team
• Facilitate and scale AI opportunities through AI ideation workshop sessions
• Track ongoing business value of AI use cases
• Own core product management responsibilities, including OKRs, roadmaps, planning cycles, and day‑to‑day execution in Jira

Cross-Functional Collaboration

• Domain Product & Business Teams: Co-develop use cases, drive adoption, embed AI where it matters
• AI Enablement Team: Shape scalable services, relay feedback, align tooling with real needs
• Data Science & Engineering: Translate opportunity into prototypes and working solutions
• Vendors/Partners: Guide third-party development and delivery with strategic alignment
• Change Management & Enablement: Support onboarding, activation, and success metrics tracking

QUALIFICATIONS, SKILLS, AND EXPERIENCE:

Successful candidates will thrive in a fast-paced environment that is a little unorthodox at times and will possess the following:

• Minimum Bachelor’s degree
• 7+ years of experience influencing and driving business strategy, bridging technical and business needs, and driving cross-functional impact
• Strong understanding of AI/ML and GenAI technologies, and how to apply them to business problems
• Stakeholder management - proven relationship-builder with ability to lead cross-functional initiatives, facilitate workshops, influence and align diverse stakeholder groups to drive change
• Technical liaison - ability to effectively translate business requirements into clear technical specifications for DSR and Engineering teams
• Organize the chaos - demonstrated expertise in managing competing priorities across multiple business teams simultaneously, and ability to bring structure and clarity to complex, fast-moving environments
• Proactive influence - proactively seeks out opportunities, identifies unmet needs, and drives adoption of innovation solutions rather than waiting for inbound requests
• Executive-level presence - proven ability to influence senior stakeholders and navigate organization dynamics to advance strategic initiatives, and challenge existing processes when needed
• Business acumen - knows the 84.51 business, and has experience navigating KTD and GO initiatives and knows the cross-team ways of working
• Process-oriented - product management experience or process-oriented mindset for OKR, cycle planning, and roadmap development
• Intellectually curious and love learning new skills and capabilities, i.e., agile principles and AI technologies
• Value-driven decision making - proven track record of tracking business value and making data-driven prioritization decisions

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