Job Details

Company Description

Established in 2014, Connext serves as a top-trusted offshore partner to clients across the United States, Canada, Singapore, and Europe. We work hand-in-hand with our clients to find and retain the top 1% of talent in healthcare, finance, customer service, IT and development, and marketing. Connext provides access to state-of-the-art facilities and SOC 2–compliant equipment, ensuring employees have a secure and reliable work environment. Recognized as a Great Place to Work and an Inc. 5000 company, Connext is focused on building long-term partnerships and investing in its people.

Position Summary

Location: Honolulu, Hawaii. Candidates must be based in Honolulu or willing to relocate prior to start. This role is primarily onsite, with regular in-office presence expected.

Compensation: $120,000 – $150,000 base salary, commensurate with experience and qualifications

• Connext is hiring an AI & Automation Lead to lead the practical application of AI across the organization. The role is responsible for identifying opportunities, defining priorities, and implementing AI-enabled workflows that improve how the business operates. Success in this role will be measured by the extent to which AI initiatives produce measurable operational improvements and become embedded in day-to-day processes.
• This position sits at the intersection of technology, operations, and organizational change. Connext's service delivery model relies on large, distributed teams operating across the Philippines and Colombia. Delivering value from AI therefore requires both building effective tools and ensuring those tools are successfully adopted across a distributed workforce. Operational adoption and sustained usage are as important as the underlying technology. The role focuses on applying modern AI tools and automation to operational workflows rather than developing proprietary machine learning models.
• The AI & Automation Lead will work closely with senior leadership to identify priorities and drive execution. The role operates with a high degree of autonomy and is expected to translate business context into a clear roadmap of AI initiatives, delivering those initiatives directly and through collaboration with other teams.
• This role is best suited to someone who has previously been responsible for defining and delivering significant operational initiatives, including situations where the scope of the mandate was initially undefined and had to be shaped through analysis and execution.
• This role reports to senior leadership and works cross-functionally across recruiting, operations, client delivery, and marketing.

Key Responsibilities

Strategy & Roadmap

• Identify and evaluate opportunities to apply AI across Connext's core functions, including client delivery, recruiting, operations, and marketing.
• Develop and maintain a prioritized AI roadmap based on measurable operational impact, revenue potential, and implementation feasibility.
• Maintain an informed perspective on how AI is reshaping the offshore workforce market and advise executive leadership on implications for Connext's service model and competitive positioning.
• Maintain an informed and hands-on understanding of emerging AI models, platforms, and automation tools, and evaluate their applicability to Connext's operations and client services, translating relevant developments into practical initiatives.

Workflow Analysis & Prioritization

• Review existing workflows across recruiting, operations, client delivery, and marketing to identify where AI can reduce manual effort, improve accuracy, or accelerate throughput.
• Translate operational challenges into clearly defined technical problems and implementation briefs.
• Maintain a structured pipeline of AI initiatives, updating priorities as business needs and available technologies evolve.

Execution & Delivery

• Design, build, and deploy AI-enabled workflows and tools across the organization, and lead the scoping, execution, and delivery of client-facing pilots and solutions.
• Lead cross-functional initiatives that require operational process changes across departments.
• Coordinate internal stakeholders and external vendors to deliver projects on the AI roadmap.
• Establish a consistent delivery cadence and monitor progress against defined milestones and outcomes.

Adoption & Change Management

• Lead the rollout and operational integration of AI initiatives across teams and geographies.
• Develop training materials, documentation, and internal enablement programs to build long-term AI capability within the organization.
• Measure adoption, usage, and operational impact of deployed solutions, and adjust implementations where adoption or outcomes fall short of expectations.

Leadership & Communication

• Provide regular updates to executive leadership on AI initiatives, including progress, risks, and strategic opportunities.
• Communicate technical concepts in clear business terms to support executive decision-making.
• Serve as the internal subject-matter authority on AI tools and their practical application to service-based and workforce-driven businesses.

Governance & Responsible Use

• Establish internal guidelines for appropriate AI use, including client confidentiality, data security, and operational safeguards.
• Evaluate risks associated with new AI tools before deployment.
• Ensure AI-enabled workflows meet client expectations for reliability and transparency.

Qualifications

Experience & Background

• 6–12 years of professional experience with a clear progression in scope, decision-making authority, and accountability for results preferred.
• Evidence of independently defined initiatives — situations where the candidate identified a problem, built a solution (automation, system, or tool), and delivered measurable outcomes.
• Demonstrated hands-on experience designing and implementing systems, integrations, or automation workflows, including writing code or configuring data flows between tools and platforms.
• Experience in environments with high operational accountability, such as consulting, product leadership, internal strategy roles, or fast-growing operating organizations.
• Practical experience applying modern AI tools and automation platforms to design, build, and implement systems or workflows that solve real operational problems and deliver measurable outcomes.

Capabilities

• Strong bias toward action — able to identify operational problems and move quickly from problem definition to implementation.
• Structured problem-solving — able to translate ambiguous operational challenges into clearly defined projects, implementation plans, and success metrics.
• Experience working in client-facing or commercially accountable environments, with an understanding of delivery expectations and service quality.
• Strong communication across organizational levels, including the ability to present complex technical or operational issues as clear business recommendations.
• Comfort interacting with senior leadership, including presenting tradeoffs, risks, and implementation plans.
• Ability to evaluate and apply emerging AI tools and technologies, assessing their reliability and operational implications and driving adoption decisions.

Positive Signals

• Experience working with distributed or international teams, particularly across cultures where communication norms and decision-making styles vary.
• A career trajectory that reflects increasing ownership of problems and outcomes, not only progression in title or team size.
• Evidence of operating effectively in partially defined roles, where the individual was responsible for shaping the mandate as well as executing it.
• Experience introducing new technologies, automation, or operational systems that required teams to change established workflows.

Education

• Bachelor's degree in a quantitatively rigorous field (e.g., computer science, engineering, economics, or related), or equivalent practical experience