Senior AI Specialist

Seaspan Shipyards is seeking a highly experienced Senior AI Specialist to define, build, and scale enterprise AI capabilities across the shipyards. This role will establish the foundational AI practice, guide the responsible adoption of AI technologies, and deliver of high-value AI solutions aligned with Seaspan’s business objectives, regulatory obligations, and long-term digital strategy.

As a technical and strategic leader, the Senior AI Specialist will work closely with IT, Engineering, Operations, Finance, Security, Legal, and Business stakeholders to ensure AI initiatives are secure, ethical, production-ready, and measurable. This role plays a critical part in shaping Seaspan’s AI roadmap, supporting the AI and Data Governance Working Groups, and enabling teams to leverage AI as a force multiplier across engineering, manufacturing, and corporate functions.

Note: This position qualifies for an optional hybrid work schedule after 90 days of onsite work and onboarding. Employee will be subject to the terms of the Flexible Work Policy Agreement. 

What you'll do

AI Strategy & Practice Leadership

• Serve as a core member of the AI Working Group, contributing to governance, risk management, prioritization, and policy development.
• Coordinate the execution of Seaspan Shipyards’ enterprise AI strategy and roadmap, aligned with business priorities and digital transformation initiatives.
• Serve as the authoritative voice on AI capability, readiness, and feasibility across the organization.

Team Leadership & Capability Development

• Foster a collaborative, inclusive, and high-performing team culture with a strong emphasis on learning, experimentation, and accountability.
• Define role profiles, skills development plans, and career pathways for AI practitioners.

Technology Support

• Stay current on advancements in AI, Machine Learning, NLP, LLMs, GenAI, and cloud-based AI platforms.
• Support the evaluation of emerging AI tools, frameworks, and vendors to ensure suitability for Seaspan’s scale, security posture, and regulatory context.
• Lead the design and implementation of reusable AI architectures, pipelines, and components that can be leveraged across projects.
• Support and Manage AI Platforms.

Business Engagement & Value Delivery

• Partner with business leaders and technical teams to translate operational challenges into AI-enabled solutions.
• Lead discovery and solution design efforts to ensure AI initiatives address real business problems and deliver measurable outcomes.
• Oversee delivery of AI use cases that improve operational efficiency, decision-making, quality, safety, and program visibility.
• Ensure AI initiatives move beyond proof-of-concept into production, with clear ownership, performance metrics, and lifecycle management.

Governance, Risk & Responsible AI

• Embed ethical AI principles, transparency, and risk mitigation practices into solution design and delivery.
• Collaborate with Legal, Privacy, Security, and Data Governance teams to manage AI-related risks.
• Support the development of guidance for acceptable AI use, data handling, and model lifecycle management.

Communication & Change Enablement

• Act as a bridge between technical teams and business stakeholders, translating complex AI concepts into clear, actionable insights, promoting responsible adoption and practical value creation.
• Support change management, training, and adoption efforts to build confidence and trust in AI solutions.
• Contribute to executive-level updates, business cases, and decision materials related to AI initiatives.

What you'll bring

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Data Science, Applied Mathematics, or a related discipline.
• Master’s degree in a relevant field is strongly preferred.
• Relevant certifications in AI, cloud platforms, or data engineering are considered an asset.
• 8+ years of progressive experience in technology, data, analytics, or AI-related roles.
• 5+ years in a technical leadership role, building and leading teams.
• Demonstrated experience establishing or scaling an AI, analytics, or advanced data practice within a complex organization.
• Experience delivering AI solutions in shipbuilding, manufacturing, regulated, safety-critical, or industrial environments is highly desirable.
• Proven track record of moving AI initiatives from concept to production with measurable business impact.
• Strong understanding of AI and machine learning concepts, including supervised and unsupervised learning, NLP, and LLM-based solutions.
• Experience with cloud-based AI and data platforms (e.g., Azure, AWS, or equivalent enterprise environments).
• Familiarity with AI/MLOps / model lifecycle management, including deployment, monitoring, and retraining.
• Working knowledge of data architecture, integration patterns, and enterprise systems (ERP, PLM, operational systems).
• Understanding of data governance, security, privacy, and responsible AI principles.
• Ability to evaluate and guide the use of open-source and commercial AI tools.

Why you’ll love working here

• This is a full-time, permanent position. With multiple operations and long-term projects, Seaspan employees enjoy job stability as we look ahead to build ships for decades to come.
• In addition to an annual bonus and pension plan matching, this role provides you a very competitive salary in line with the successful candidate’s experience.
• We also provide a best-in-class health and wellness benefits package for this position, including such things as full health care (e.g. unlimited physiotherapy), dental, vision, life insurance, medical leave coverage, parental leave coverage, wellness/fitness reimbursement for memberships or registration fees, and an Employee Family Assistance Program (EFAP).
• Parking is included and to assist those that are using transit, we operate a complimentary shuttle bus Monday through Friday with various pick up and drop off points around North Vancouver.

The estimated salary for this position is $119,700 - $146,300. In determining final salary, Seaspan considers many factors including the successful Candidate’s skillset and experience as well as position location and internal equity. The final base salary offer will be at the Company’s sole discretion and presented as part of a competitive total compensation package.

 #LI-HYBRID #LI-MT1