Chief AI Development Officer

Virginia Union University (VUU) is a distinguished private institution founded in 1865 that proudly upholds a legacy of academic excellence and community engagement. With a historic 86-acre campus, it offers a dynamic and nurturing environment for its 1,568 undergraduate and graduate students. Virginia Union University is recognized in the 2024 edition of U.S. News & World Report, holding a prestigious position as #39 among Historically Black Colleges and Universities.

Five fundamental principles (core values) guide Virginia Union University. Each principle is essential to our ability to provide a Best-In-Class educational experience for students, faculty, and staff. These principles help our community understand the right path to fulfilling our institution's mission. The principles are Innovation, Spiritual Formation, Integrity, Diversity & Inclusion, and Excellence.

The Chief AI Development Officer (CAIDO) is Virginia Union University's senior enterprise leader for artificial intelligence. Reporting to the Senior Vice President for Infrastructure Management & Planning / Chief of Staff, with strategic access to the President, the CAIDO establishes the University's AI strategy, governance framework, policies, training protocols, development standards, and implementation roadmap. The role ensures that AI is adopted responsibly, securely, equitably, and in direct support of VUU's mission, strategic priorities, student success, academic excellence, operational effectiveness, and institutional growth.

The CAIDO is both strategist and builder. The position leads the development of AI-enabled solutions and helps divisions design, build, test, deploy, and govern AI agents that improve business processes across the University. Working across academic and administrative units, the CAIDO creates a common institutional approach to AI while enabling departments to develop practical solutions within approved standards and controls.

As a senior leader, the CAIDO will help position VUU as a national model for responsible, applied AI in higher education - preparing students and employees for an AI-shaped future while using technology to expand access, capability, and institutional impact.

Reporting Relationship & Scope

Division

Infrastructure Management & Planning (IMP)

Reports to

Senior Vice President for IMP / Chief of Staff

Strategic access

President; Cabinet and Board briefings as requested

Scope

University-wide AI strategy, policy, training, governance, development, adoption, and agent enablement

Key partners

Academic Affairs, IT, Institutional Effectiveness, Student Affairs, Enrollment, Finance, Advancement, HR, VUU Global, and other University units

Essential Duties and Responsibilities

1. Enterprise AI Strategy, Policy & Governance

• Develop, publish, and maintain a multi-year University AI Strategy and implementation roadmap aligned with VUU strategic and institutional-effectiveness priorities.
• Establish and maintain University-wide AI policies, standards, acceptable-use requirements, procurement criteria, data protections, model-risk controls, and responsible-AI practices.
• Chair or lead the University AI Governance Council and establish review, approval, escalation, and exception processes for institutional AI use.
• Advise the President, Cabinet, and Board on AI opportunities, investments, emerging risks, regulatory developments, and institutional readiness.
• Create standards for security, privacy, accessibility, bias/fairness, transparency, human oversight, records management, and lifecycle governance for AI systems and agents.

2. University-Wide AI Training & Adoption

• Establish tiered AI training protocols for executives, faculty, staff, students, technical teams, and other role-based audiences, including required foundational training where appropriate.
• Develop an institutional AI literacy program covering responsible use, prompt and workflow design, data handling, verification, academic integrity, agent use, and human accountability.
• Create training standards, playbooks, templates, office hours, workshops, and communities of practice that enable divisions to adopt AI consistently and safely.
• Partner with Academic Affairs to support faculty development, curricular AI literacy, credentials, and student preparation for an AI-enabled workforce.
• Measure training completion, adoption, proficiency, risk awareness, and demonstrated business or academic impact.

3. AI Agent Development & Business Transformation

• Lead and enable the design, development, testing, deployment, and continuous improvement of AI assistants, agents, automations, retrieval-augmented systems, predictive tools, and other AI solutions.
• Help business units identify high-value processes and build agents that reduce cycle time, improve service, strengthen decision-making, increase accuracy, and automate appropriate repetitive work.
• Establish a reusable enterprise agent-development framework, including approved architectures, templates, identity/access controls, data connectors, testing protocols, human-in-the-loop controls, monitoring, documentation, and retirement standards.
• Create an intake and prioritization process for AI use cases based on strategic value, feasibility, risk, cost, measurable benefit, and readiness.
• Partner with IT to integrate AI securely with approved enterprise platforms, data sources, ERP, LMS, CRM, collaboration tools, and other University systems.
• Use Lean Six Sigma / process-improvement methods to redesign workflows before or alongside automation, ensuring AI improves the underlying business process rather than simply digitizing inefficiency.

4. Data, Technology & Responsible AI Architecture

• Partner with IT and Institutional Effectiveness to strengthen AI-ready data architecture, data quality, metadata, access controls, integration, analytics, and governance.
• Establish technical standards for model selection, evaluation, testing, observability, performance, security, versioning, auditability, and lifecycle management.
• Evaluate AI vendors, platforms, enterprise licenses, and emerging technologies in coordination with Procurement, Finance, IT, Legal/Compliance, and other stakeholders.
• Maintain an institutional inventory of approved AI systems, agents, use cases, owners, data dependencies, risk classifications, and performance outcomes.

5. Institutional Impact, Partnerships & Leadership

• Deliver AI-enabled solutions across administrative and academic operations, including student success, enrollment, finance, advancement, HR, facilities, communications, VUU Global, and other priority areas.
• Define and report enterprise AI performance measures, including adoption, productivity, service improvement, cost avoidance, revenue impact, student outcomes, risk, and return on investment.
• Cultivate partnerships with technology companies, HBCU consortia, government agencies, foundations, and research organizations; pursue grants and sponsored funding in coordination with appropriate University offices.
• Recruit, develop, and lead AI developers, data/automation professionals, student interns, contractors, and cross-functional project teams as the function grows.
• Represent VUU externally as a leader in responsible AI adoption, HBCU innovation, workforce readiness, and applied institutional transformation.

Qualifications

• Master's degree in computer science, data science, artificial intelligence, information systems, engineering, business/technology management, or a related field.
• Progressive leadership experience in AI, software, data, automation, digital transformation, or enterprise technology, including experience leading complex cross-functional initiatives.
• Demonstrated ability to take AI solutions from concept through production and to translate emerging technology into practical institutional or business outcomes.
• Working knowledge of large language models, agentic systems, retrieval-augmented generation, workflow automation, cloud AI platforms, APIs/integrations, data governance, and AI operations.
• Experience developing or implementing technology governance, policy, security/privacy controls, training, change management, and responsible-AI practices.
• Executive-level communication skills and the ability to explain technical opportunities, risks, and decisions to trustees, executives, faculty, staff, students, and external partners.

Preferred

Masters degree required; strong AI knowledge, higher-education experience a plus; familiarity with ERP/LMS/CRM/student systems; grant or sponsored-funding experience; SACSCOC/institutional-effectiveness knowledge; Lean Six Sigma or comparable process-improvement credential.

Core Competencies

Enterprise AI strategy and execution • AI governance and responsible innovation • Training and organizational capability building • Agentic AI and automation • Business-process redesign • Data and technology architecture • Change leadership • Executive communication • Cross-divisional collaboration • Equity, access, and HBCU mission alignment

Work Environment

The position is based primarily on the Richmond campus and requires regular engagement across University divisions, with occasional travel to conferences, partner sites, and professional events. Evening or weekend availability may be required for executive/Board activities, major training events, or critical technology deployments. Other duties may be assigned by the Senior Vice President for IMP / Chief of Staff or the President.