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Director, AI & Data Transformation

TKO
2 days ago
Full-time
Remote
United States

Who We Are:

IMG is a leading global sports marketing agency, specializing in media rights management and sales, multi-channel content production and distribution, brand partnerships, strategic consulting, digital services, and events management. It powers growth of revenues, fanbases and IP for more than 200 federations, associations, events, and teams, including the National Football League, English Premier League, International Olympic Committee, National Hockey League, Major League Soccer, ATP and WTA Tours, the AELTC (Wimbledon), Euroleague Basketball, CONMEBOL, DP World Tour, and The R&A, as well as UFC, WWE, and PBR. IMG is a subsidiary of TKO Group Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: TKO), a premium sports and entertainment company. TKO Group Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: TKO) is a premium sports and entertainment company. TKO owns iconic properties including UFC, the world’s premier mixed martial arts organization; WWE, the global leader in sports entertainment; and PBR, the world’s premier bull riding organization. Together, these properties reach 1 billion households across 210 countries and territories and organize more than 500 live events year-round, attracting more than three million fans. TKO also services and partners with major sports rights holders through IMG, an industry-leading global sports marketing agency; and On Location, a global leader in premium experiential hospitality.

Title: Director, AI & Data Transformation Office (DTC PMO)
Business Unit: TKO Group Holdings

Location: Flexible (hybrid preferred; aligned to executive cadence)
Reports To: SVP, AI & Data Transformation
Key Partners: Strategy, Technology, Data/Analytics, Finance, Legal, HR, Functional leaders

Position Summary

This is a strategic transformation leadership role responsible for operationalizing TKO’s Data & AI strategy into measurable business outcomes through a disciplined enterprise operating cadence. The Director will lead the governance, operations, and delivery of core forums to ensure alignment, transparency, and effective decision-making across data, technology, and business stakeholders. The Director will establish and continuously improve key governance, operational, and management processes needed to accelerate TKO’s Data & AI transformation agenda, including a robust “front door” intake and prioritization mechanism, streamlined interfaces with adjacent corporate governance processes, and mechanisms for providing portfolio transparency and value realization discipline (ROI + adoption) across initiatives spanning WWE, UFC, PBR, IMG, and On Location. Focuses on data/AI and material or cross-BU technology initiatives; routine IT requests route through standard IT processes.

Responsibilities

1) DTC Operations

  • The Data & Technology Council (DTC) is TKO's enterprise governance forum for Data & AI — the body through which initiatives are reviewed, prioritized, and tracked to outcome. The Director owns the operational infrastructure that makes the DTC effective

  • Own the end-to-end DTC operating rhythm (monthly/quarterly cadences, sub-forums as needed), ensuring each forum produces clear decisions, accountable owners, and measurable follow-through.

  • Partner with the DTC Chairs and enterprise leadership to shape agendas that are outcomes-forward (value, adoption, risk, dependencies, resourcing), not informational updates.

  • Establish high-quality standards for pre-reads, decision memos, and meeting outputs; maintain action and decision logs with rigorous closure discipline.

  • Serve as the “control tower” for escalation: surface tradeoffs, unresolved risks, and cross-BU dependencies early with clear options and recommendation.

  • Act as the connective tissue between executive leadership, shared services, business unit leadership, and operational teams, ensuring effective communication and flow of information between stakeholder groups to accelerate data & AI transformation across the business.

  • Help foster a culture of transparency, accountability, and collaboration across the organization when it comes to data & AI initiatives.

2) Portfolio Orchestration & Value realization

  • Institutionalize a value-based prioritization approach grounded in business strategy alignment, impact, feasibility, and adoption; ensure every priority initiative has explicit success metrics and an outcome owner.

  • Own and continuously improve the enterprise intake and triage mechanism for data/AI requests (the “front door”), including categorization, routing, prioritization readiness, and throughput management.

  • Build a single, coherent view of the data/AI portfolio -including pipeline, in-flight initiatives, and delivery health -across business units and shared services.

  • Provide standardized framework for intake artifacts - problem statement, strategic alignment with business goals, scope, dependencies, KPI outcomes, governance checkpoints) so proposals are comparable and decision-ready.

  • Drive stakeholder alignment across BU sponsors, delivery teams, and functional partners to avoid duplicated effort and ensure coordinated execution.

  • Partner with Finance and initiative owners to improve business case quality and ensure benefits assumptions are defensible and measurable.

  • Track initiative financials at a high level in partnership with Finance and initiative owners (budget, forecast, actuals; CapEx/OpEx; vendor spend), and surface variances, risks, and decision points early.

  • Establish a lightweight standard set of portfolio metrics (schedule/throughput, scope stability, resourcing, risk/compliance checkpoints) so delivery health is comparable across initiatives and BUs.

3) Strategic Enablement and Continuous Improvement

  • Drive continuous improvement of the transformation operating model through retrospectives, process automation, and tooling modernization.

  • Help shape use-case roadmaps and sequencing (quick wins vs. foundations), ensuring the portfolio reflects enterprise priorities and transformation dependencies.

  • Support executive narrative development for leadership updates, SteerCo materials, and board-ready progress reporting where required.

  • Identify opportunities to apply enterprise AI capabilities to improve governance throughput (e.g., automated intake enrichment, pre-read synthesis, action tracking, and insight generation) while maintaining appropriate controls and auditability.

  • Collaborate with internal teams to ensure alignment and effective interfaces with relevant corporate governance processes (e.g., procurement, investment approval, etc.)

The Person (Qualifications)

Required Qualifications

  • 5-8 years of experience in management consulting, corporate strategy, transformation office/PMO leadership, or enterprise portfolio management roles with measurable outcomes delivered.

  • Demonstrated track record running executive governance cadences that drive decisions, accountability, and cross-functional execution in complex matrixed organizations.

TKO EEO Statement:

TKO is an Equal Opportunity Employer and complies with all applicable federal, state, and local laws regarding non-discrimination in employment. TKO makes employment decisions based on merit and qualifications, without considering an employee’s or applicant’s race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, national origin, age, disability, marital status, veteran status, or any other basis prohibited under federal, state or local laws governing non-discrimination in employment in every location in which the Company has facilities. TKO also provides reasonable accommodations for qualified individuals with disabilities in accordance with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and applicable state or local laws. For information about Privacy and Information Security for TKO employment candidates, please review our . For information regarding Terms of Use for this and other TKO websites, please review our Terms of Use.