Director of Technical Operations & AI Automation

Since 2008, Smule has been transforming music from a passive listening experience into a collaborative, social form of creative expression. Our mission is to bring people together through music, empowering anyone, anywhere, to create, share, and connect through song. Today, tens of millions of people use Smule to make music together, creating more than 20 million songs every day. From aspiring singers to lifelong music lovers, our global community comes together to collaborate, discover new talent, and express themselves through music.

At Smule, you'll have the opportunity to build products that inspire creativity, foster meaningful connections, and bring joy to millions of people around the world.

About the Role:

We're looking for an innovative and results-driven leader to shape the future of Technical Operations, Data, Analytics, and AI Automation at Smule. As Director of Technical Operations & AI Automation, you'll lead the teams and initiatives that keep our platforms reliable, scalable, secure, and cost-efficient while driving the adoption of AI-powered internal automation across the organization.

In this highly cross-functional role, you'll build the systems, insights, and operational intelligence that help teams make better decisions, work more efficiently, and deliver greater business impact. From cloud operations and service reliability to data platforms, business intelligence, and AI-driven automation, you'll play a key role in modernizing how Smule operates and scales. If you're passionate about leveraging technology, data, and AI to solve complex challenges and create measurable results, we'd love to talk with you.

This position follows a hybrid work schedule, requiring two days per week in our downtown Salt Lake City office.

What You'll be Doing:

• Lead Smule’s technical operations, infrastructure enablement, cloud operations, security operations, service reliability, and operational readiness.
• Own execution across Data, Analytics, Business Intelligence, and AI Automation, ensuring these functions deliver reliable reporting, operational visibility, and measurable business impact.
• Lead AI-driven automation initiatives that improve operational efficiency, service reliability, KPI monitoring, anomaly detection, workflow execution, reporting, forecasting, and cross-functional productivity.
• Build data and operational intelligence systems that improve visibility into product performance, infrastructure utilization, cloud spend, service health, and business operations.
• Lead Smule’s GCP operations strategy, including cloud enablement, compute planning, infrastructure scaling, cost optimization, vendor management, and migration to managed services.
• Establish operational processes, KPIs, SLAs, observability standards, incident management practices, and executive reporting frameworks that improve reliability, accountability, and decision-making.
• Partner with Engineering, Product, and Finance teams, to support platform modernization, optimize infrastructure investments, manage vendors and contracts, improve delivery practices, and measure ROI from cloud, data, and AI automation initiatives.
• Build and develop high-performing Technical Operations, Data, Analytics, AI Automation, IT, and Security teams with a culture of automation, accountability, reliability, and data-driven execution.
  

What We're Looking For:

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Information Systems, Data Science, or a related technical field.
• 10+ years of experience across technical operations, infrastructure, engineering operations, data platforms, analytics, or related technical disciplines.
• 5+ years of leadership experience managing technical teams, managers, and cross-functional delivery.
• Strong experience with cloud infrastructure and managed platforms, preferably GCP, including AI/ML workloads, GPU infrastructure, compute planning, and cloud-based AI platforms.
• Strong AI fluency, including practical experience applying AI automation, analytics automation, operational intelligence systems, workflow automation, or productivity tooling.
• Experience with data systems, analytics platforms, business intelligence, reporting frameworks, and metrics-driven decision-making.
• Knowledge of Kubernetes, containerized environments, CI/CD pipelines, observability, incident management, and modern DevOps/SRE practices.
• Demonstrated ability to improve operational reliability, reduce manual work, optimize cloud spend, and scale technical systems.
• Strong communication, stakeholder management, vendor management, and executive reporting skills.

Bonus Points For:

• Background supporting generative AI, machine learning, recommendation systems, personalization platforms, or large-scale data platforms.
• Familiarity with GCP AI/ML services, NVIDIA GPU environments, AI accelerators, model training infrastructure, and inference platforms.
• Experience operating consumer-facing platforms serving millions of users. 
• Track record leading globally distributed teams.
• Demonstrated ownership of cloud spend management and infrastructure optimization programs. 
• Strong familiarity with security, compliance, and privacy frameworks, including SOC 2 and GDPR.

Why Join Our Team?

• Flexible time off 
• 12 observed holidays 
• Comprehensive benefits package, including medical, dental, vision, and supplemental insurance, available from your first day of employment at low or no cost to you.
• Employer-paid life and short-term disability insurance
• Employer contributions to employee HSA accounts
• Well-being subscriptions, including Headspace and Wellhub
• Cell phone and internet reimbursement to support hybrid work
• Home office stipend to help create your ideal workspace
  

Smule is an Equal Opportunity Employer and considers all qualified applicants without regard to race, color, religion, sex, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, national origin, ancestry, age, disability, medical condition, genetic information, marital status, military or veteran status, or any other protected characteristic under federal, state, or local law.

We are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees and applicants. If you require a reasonable accommodation during the application or interview process, please let us know.