Director - AI Centre of Excellence (Aikam- DHRITI)

We're hiring: Director – AI Centre of Excellence (Aikam-DHRITI)

Deakin, in association with Aikam, is looking for a mission-driven leader to establish and scale the AI Centre of Excellence (Aikam – Deakin Hub for Research in Intelligent Technology & Innovation).

The role focuses on designing and deploying AI-driven solutions to improve accessibility, quality, and cost-efficiency of citizen services for the Telangana Government across healthcare, agriculture, climate tech, and MSMEs.

This leadership role sits at the intersection of technology and public systems.

We're looking for someone with strong AI/ML expertise, institution-building capability, and a proven track record of delivering impact at scale.

> Role overview

Director – AI CoE under Aikam-DHRITI

Reporting to: CEO, Aikam (with a dotted line to Distinguished Professor & Director A2I2, Deakin University)

Location: Hyderabad, India

> Key responsibilities

- Strategic leadership & operational excellence

* Define and execute CoE vision and roadmap

* Identify high-impact AI use cases with Aikam, Deakin, and Telangana departments

* Establish frameworks for evaluation and scale

* Advise on strategy, risk, policy, and ethics

- AI use case development & deployment

* Lead end-to-end lifecycle from problem definition to PoC and scaled deployment

* Build MVPs with Deakin's technical guidance

- Technical architecture & innovation

* Establish data frameworks and governance

* Ensure model explainability and responsible AI practices

- Capability building & partnerships

* Build and mentor multidisciplinary teams

* Develop partnerships across government and industry

* Represent Aikam-DHRITI in key forums

- Program & delivery management

* Oversee pilots, rollouts, budgets, vendors, and compliance

* Report measurable impact

> What we're looking for

- Experience

* 12+ years in AI/ML, emerging technologies, or digital transformation

* Proven experience building or scaling CoEs

* Track record of delivering AI solutions at scale

* Experience working with government systems in India

- Technical expertise

* End-to-end ML lifecycle, MLOps, and cloud-native systems

* Data governance, privacy, model explainability

* Knowledge of Generative AI and foundation models for public-sector use cases

- Leadership capabilities

* Institution building, talent development, strategic planning and stakeholder alignment

* Program governance and cross-sector collaboration

> Educational background

* Master's or higher in Computer Science, Data Science, MIS, Engineering, Public Policy, or related field preferred

* Executive education in technology or public systems desirable

If you bring deep technical expertise, leadership experience, and a passion for creating real-world impact at scale, we'd love to hear from you.

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