A fractional Chief AI Officer engagement covering AI strategy development, C-suite advisory, governance frameworks, and cross-functional capability building across the organisation.
Axial Search is a specialist executive search firm focused on placing leaders who guide organisations through AI transformation. This fractional Chief AI Officer role suits a senior executive or adviser with a strong record of translating business strategy into AI capability, spanning assessment, roadmap definition, governance, and scaled delivery.
The engagement spans the full AI lifecycle: shaping strategy aligned to commercial objectives, identifying high-impact use cases with product and engineering teams, driving vendor selection, and reporting progress and ROI to leadership. The rate for engagements of this type typically ranges from $250 to $400 per hour, scaled by scope and prior executive experience.
- Define and communicate an AI strategy aligned to business objectives, advising the C-suite and board on opportunity sizing, risk, and competitive implications
- Assess current AI capability, define talent and tooling requirements, and establish governance frameworks for responsible deployment
- Partner with product, engineering, and business leaders to identify and prioritise high-impact AI use cases, owning the business case and commercialisation logic
- Lead vendor evaluation and technology selection, integrating chosen tools into existing systems and workflows
- Facilitate cross-functional AI working groups, resolving blockers and aligning business, technical, and compliance stakeholders
- Establish KPIs and metrics for AI initiatives, reporting progress and return on investment to leadership with clarity
- 10 or more years in strategy, business transformation, AI/ML leadership, or technology roles, with at least 5 years at executive or senior advisory level
- Demonstrated track record building or scaling AI capabilities from concept through to production
- Strong grasp of AI/ML fundamentals and the practical constraints of model deployment, data engineering, and MLOps
- Experience navigating cross-functional stakeholder groups spanning product, engineering, compliance, and finance
- Comfort with ambiguity and early-stage problem-solving in fast-moving, resource-constrained environments
Axial Search is a specialist executive search firm focused exclusively on placing leaders who help organisations navigate AI transformation. The firm offers a live job market dashboard alongside salary, skills, and hiring trend data drawn from thousands of AI transformation roles across the United States.
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