Director, Digital and AI Solutions

Overview

The Director, Digital and AI Solutions is a strategic technology leader who partners with the CTO to advance Garan Apparel’s digital transformation through a business-first technology strategy. This role ensures that all digital and AI initiatives are grounded in business outcomes—driving e-commerce, B2C, and B2B sales growth, enhancing customer experiences, and improving operational efficiency. The Director contributes to the digital roadmap by identifying high-impact opportunities, evaluating AI solutions in collaboration with the Vice President of Enterprise, Data, and AI Architect, and delivering scalable platforms that align with market demands. A key responsibility includes leveraging social platforms to amplify brand engagement, drive traffic, and support omnichannel growth. By staying attuned to industry trends and emerging use cases, this leader ensures Garan remains competitive and future-ready.

Key Responsibilities:

Business-First Technology Strategy

• Champion a business-first approach to technology, ensuring clear business objectives, customer needs, and revenue impact drive digital and AI initiatives within the Digital, Marketing, Trends, and E-commerce business areas.
• Collaborate with business leaders to identify pain points, growth opportunities, and efficiency gaps—then translate them into actionable technology solutions.
• Prioritize initiatives based on ROI, scalability, and alignment with Garan’s strategic goals, ensuring technology investments deliver measurable value.

Digital Roadmap Contribution & Sales Enablement

• Play a key role in shaping and managing the digital roadmap to support e-commerce, B2C, and B2B channels, with a focus on conversion, retention, and omnichannel engagement.
• Lead the evolution of digital platforms—including website, mobile, and B2B portals—to enhance usability, personalization, and performance.
• Ensure seamless integration across systems to support shipping, inventory synchronization, and order fulfillment, thereby improving time-to-market and customer satisfaction.

Social Platforms & Digital Engagement

• Partner with Marketing and Brand teams to integrate social platforms (e.g., Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, LinkedIn) into the digital ecosystem, ensuring consistent brand presence and engagement.
• Identify and deploy AI-powered tools for social listening, content personalization, influencer analytics, and campaign performance optimization to drive traffic and conversions.
• Enable seamless social commerce capabilities, including shoppable posts, UGC integration, and cross-platform attribution, to convert engagement into sales.

AI Solution Evaluation & Innovation

• Evaluate and recommend AI-powered solutions in close partnership with the Vice President of Enterprise, Data, and AI Architect, ensuring alignment with enterprise architecture and innovation goals.
• Identify and pilot high-impact use cases, such as customer service automation, visual search, dynamic pricing, content generation, and supply chain intelligence.
• Stay ahead of emerging AI trends, retail tech innovations, and digital fashion use cases—including metaverse applications, 3D product visualization, and hyper-personalization—to position Garan as a forward-thinking brand.

Technology Collaboration & Solution Delivery

• Work closely with the Tech team to co-develop, test, and deploy digital platforms, ensuring alignment with architectural standards and delivery timelines.
• Translate business requirements into technical specifications, managing agile delivery from concept to launch.
• Champion user-centered design and continuous improvement to accelerate time-to-market and enhance solution quality.

Strategic Influence & Cross-Functional Leadership

• Serve as a trusted influencer and advisor to business leaders, shaping digital strategy and driving the adoption of new technologies.
• Communicate initiative progress, business impact, and ROI using data-driven insights to secure executive buy-in and cross-functional alignment.
• Lead change management efforts to ensure smooth adoption and maximize value realization across teams.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s or master’s degree in computer science, Information Systems, Business, or related field.
• 10+ years in digital product, AI solutions, or technology leadership, preferably in retail or apparel.
• Proven experience in contributing to digital roadmaps, driving e-commerce growth, and leading AI innovation initiatives with a business-outcome focus.
• Strong understanding of AI/ML platforms, cloud infrastructure, APIs, and modern digital architectures.
• Familiarity with social media platforms, social commerce, and digital marketing technologies is highly desirable.
• Demonstrated ability to collaborate with enterprise architects and influence stakeholders across technical and business domains.

Desired Skills & Competencies

• Business-first mindset with strong commercial acumen
• Strategic roadmap contribution and execution
• AI and digital innovation expertise
• Agile delivery and cross-functional collaboration
• Executive influence and communication

Performance Metrics

• Digital Sales Growth: Year-over-year increase in e-commerce and B2B digital channel revenue, directly attributable to technology-enabled features and platform improvements.
• Conversion Rate Improvement: Measurable uplift in website and mobile app conversion rates driven by UX enhancements, personalization engines, and AI-powered recommendations.
• AI Solution Adoption & Impact: Number of AI-powered features launched and their contribution to operational efficiency and customer engagement.
• Time-to-Market for Digital Features: Reduction in cycle time from concept to production for key digital initiatives, reflecting agile delivery and team effectiveness.
• Technology Roadmap Execution
• Social Commerce Conversion Rate: Performance of shoppable posts, UGC integrations, and social platform traffic-to-sale conversion, enabled by tech team integrations.
• System Uptime & Performance: Ensuring the availability, speed, and scalability of digital platforms to deliver seamless customer and B2B user experiences, working with the Tech team and 3rd party vendors.

Annual Salary: $150,000 - $175,000