AI Director

Banyan Software is the best permanent home for software businesses that serve specialized industries, their employees, and their customers. We are on a mission to acquire, build, and grow great companies worldwide, helping them modernize through shared AI expertise and operational discipline. The Banyan Software Foundation, endowed with $100 million in Banyan stock, leverages technology to build a greener and more equitable world. Banyan is Great Place to Work Certified, a five-time Inc. 5000 honoree, and a top 10 company on the Deloitte Technology Fast 500. Founded in 2016 and headquartered in Atlanta, Banyan operates more than 100 portfolio companies across North America, the UK, EU, and APAC. Director of AI AI Factory – Application Modernization Program Department AI Factory – Banyan Software Reports To VP of Engineering Location Remote (US-based preferred, 4+ hrs overlap US Eastern) Type Full-Time Direct Reports Forward Deployed Engineers, Project Manager / Scrum Master Travel Up to 15% (operating company site visits as needed) The Opportunity Banyan Software acquires, builds, and grows great software companies for the long term. Across our portfolio of 100+ operating companies, many run on proven but aging codebases—15 to 25 years old—increasingly at odds with what modern customers expect: cloud-native, mobile-first, always-on SaaS. The AI Factory is Banyan’s centralized application modernization engine—using AI-powered discovery, verification-first engineering, and an integrated delivery model to rewrite legacy applications into modern platforms in 15–25 weeks (vs. the traditional 2–5 years). This is a Banyan-funded program purpose-built for our operating companies, and it is already live. The Director of AI will lead this program across its full scope—sitting at the intersection of product strategy, field engineering, and platform operations—with an outsized influence on how Banyan’s portfolio evolves over the next decade. The boundaries of this role are yours to define. Three Pillars of Leadership Pillar 1 AI Factory Product Team Own the strategic direction and delivery cadence of the core product team—developers, team lead, and AI-powered tooling. Drive the product roadmap and continuously evolve factory capabilities based on field learnings. Pillar 2 Forward Deployed Engineering Build, lead, and scale the FDE team from the ground up. FDEs embed directly with OpCo engineering teams to drive modernization, upskill developers on AI-assisted workflows, and ensure clean knowledge transfer. You will recruit the first FDEs, author the engagement playbook, and run initial transformations as a player-coach. Pillar 3 Cloud Operations & Platform Automation Oversee the operational infrastructure underpinning every modernized application—multi-cloud architecture, CI/CD automation, observability, security, and resiliency engineering—ensuring the operational backbone scales across an expanding portfolio. What You Will Do Program Strategy & Execution Own the AI Factory’s end-to-end program lifecycle across its 9-phase modernization process—from harvesting through production launch and customer migration. Define and track program-level KPIs, velocity metrics, and business-value outcomes; translate technical progress into executive-ready language for OpCo CEOs and Banyan leadership. Continuously refine the factory’s operating model based on field learnings, feeding insights back into tooling, process, and architecture. Forward Deployed Engineering Recruit, hire, and develop the FDE team; define the FDE role, career path, and engagement model. Author the FDE playbook: engagement kickoff, stakeholder alignment, technical assessment, embedded delivery, knowledge transfer, and OpCo handoff. Personally lead early FDE engagements—embedding with operating company teams, earning trust through technical credibility, and driving adoption of AI-assisted workflows. People & Operations Manage and mentor direct reports across the FDE team and the s