Senior Manager, AI Strategy and Platforms

Suntory Global Spirits is a world leader in premium spirits with beloved iconic brands, rooted in more than 200 years of heritage and craftsmanship. Our values are deep-rooted, and we aspire to live our purpose to ‘Inspire the Brilliance of Life’ in everything we do. Our ambition is to become the World’s Most Admired Premium Spirits Company. We want to be Most Admired not only for our incredible brands, but also for the brilliant experiences we foster, the ways in which we bring people together, the impactful marketing and innovation we deliver, and for the positive impact we have on the world around us. When you’re on our team, you can build a career of personal and professional growth across functions, business units and geographies. At Suntory Global Spirits, our employees work together to Unleash Their Spirit and realize their full potential each and every day.

Role Responsibilities

Mission of Role

The Senior Manager, AI Strategy and Platforms leads the development and execution of the AI strategy, platform and adoption agenda. The role translates business priorities into a coherent AI roadmap and practical operating processes; helps ensure approved AI platforms are trusted, usable and well governed; and enables colleagues to adopt AI responsibly at scale.

Strategy, roadmap and demand portfolio

Develop and maintain the enterprise AI strategy and roadmap, aligned to business priorities, Digital Products strategy and platform capabilities; provide recommendations on priorities and trade-offs to senior leadership.

Manage a prioritized AI demand portfolio, with clear problem statements, expected value, readiness criteria and recommended route to delivery.

Manage the AI Factory’s functional processes, including demand intake and qualification, prioritisation criteria, business-readiness requirements, functional acceptance, adoption measures and value-realisation process.

Create an approved, prioritised functional brief for each Factory engagement, covering the business problem, target users, expected value, process owner, governance route, business constraints, success measures and adoption plan.

Prepare investment logic and business cases for AI platforms, capabilities and priority use cases; support funding, budget-planning, cost stewardship and vendor decisions in partnership with Finance and Procurement.

Track strategic outcomes, adoption and value realisation, using evidence to adapt priorities and roadmap decisions.

AI platforms and service experience

Develop platform-roadmap recommendations for enterprise AI platforms, model providers and supporting services, balancing business value, user experience, scalability, risk and cost.

Manage the platform-service model, including target users, service catalogue, onboarding paths, roles and permissions, support model, lifecycle standards and platform runbooks.

Monitor the AI platform as a business service, including user experience, adoption signals, access and support experience, provider performance, commercial fit and vendor roadmaps; lead business-side escalations and prioritisation.

Translate approved platform priorities into clear, actionable business requirements for Architecture and vendor partners.

Maintain a clear, scalable approach to platform onboarding, access, usage standards and lifecycle management.

Governance and demand management

Implement and operate the AI governance model, including policies, decision rights, intake criteria, approval pathways and governance forums.

Ensure AI demand is assessed consistently for strategic fit, business value, data readiness, security, privacy, model risk and adoption readiness.

Coordinate governance decisions and escalations with Security, Legal, Privacy, Architecture and business stakeholders; ensure decisions, risks and accountabilities are visible and actioned.

Define and maintain standards for responsible AI use, roles and permissions, human oversight, model and agent usage, and acceptable business practices.

Ensure governance is enabling rather than bureaucratic, maintaining appropriate control for the risk and scale of each use case.

Adoption, literacy and capability

Own the enterprise AI adoption strategy, including personas, target behaviours, adoption measures, literacy pathways, champion communities and change interventions.

Lead the AI literacy, enablement and community agenda so employees can use approved AI tools confidently, safely and productively.

Sponsor practical adoption programmes, onboarding waves, white-glove support and feedback loops that convert platform access into sustained use and measurable business value.

Partner with business leaders to identify barriers to adoption, strengthen local ownership and embed AI into priority workflows.

Establish repeatable adoption and value-realisation practices—baselines, target measures, review cadence and improvement actions—so AI becomes reliably and sustainably embedded in business workflows.

Leadership and collaboration

Manage and develop a small team of AI strategy, governance, platform and adoption resources, setting clear objectives and collaboration practices.

Act as a key business and platform interface for AI with executive stakeholders, business functions, enterprise architecture, security, finance, procurement and vendors.

Establish operating rhythms that connect strategy, demand, governance, platform requirements and adoption readiness to delivery priorities.

Represent the organization in relevant vendor and industry conversations; assess emerging capabilities for strategic relevance and controlled adoption.

Qualifications

Significant experience leading enterprise AI, digital platforms, cloud platforms or technology-enabled transformation in a global, complex organization.

Demonstrated ability to develop strategy, operating processes and multi-year roadmaps that connect business priorities, technology choices and measurable value.

Strong experience in platform adoption, product or service management, governance, change, enablement or portfolio prioritization.

Sound judgment in responsible AI, privacy, security, model risk and governance, with the ability to make pragmatic, proportionate decisions.

Experience managing senior stakeholders, cross-functional teams and external technology partners.

Ability to communicate a compelling AI vision and translate it into practical decisions, programmes and adoption actions for executive, business and technical audiences.

Strong analytical and commercial skills, including business cases, vendor evaluation, benefit tracking and investment prioritization.

Fluent English, written and spoken.

At Suntory Global Spirits, people are our number one priority, and we believe our people grow together in diverse and inclusive environments where their unique insights, experiences and backgrounds are valued and respected. Suntory Global Spirits is committed to equal employment opportunity regardless of race, color, ancestry, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, age, citizenship, marital status, disability, gender identity, military veteran status and all other characteristics, attributes or choices protected by law. All recruitment and hiring decisions are based on an applicant’s skills and experience.