VP, AI Practice Lead - US-Based

Job Summary:

Responsibilities:

• Strategy: Identify high-value client problems in AI/ML and develop a roadmap for offerings that address them.
• Offering Development: Create services in areas including LLM integration, custom model training, AI strategy consulting, and AI-powered analytics.
• Go-to-Market: Lead initial market engagements to validate offerings, then scale adoption in collaboration with Sales and Practice Operations teams.
• Thought Leadership: Represent Toptal as an AI innovation leader via publications, speaking engagements, and community involvement.
• Sales Enablement: Educate sales teams on AI/ML concepts, emerging trends, and value propositions; personally lead key client discussions.
• P&L Ownership: Oversee financial performance of the AI/ML practice.
• Talent Network Development: Build and maintain a network of AI engineers, data scientists, and ML researchers with cutting-edge expertise.
• Accomplish work objectives through leading and supervising other Toptal team members within the AI/ML Practice.
• Establish objectives and initiatives for the team, recommend the team’s structure and jobs, and organize, assign, delegate, oversee, and monitor work.
• Coach and mentor team members, provide feedback, conduct performance reviews, and implement performance improvement plans, if needed.

In the first week, expect to:

• Onboard and integrate into Toptal; meet your colleagues.
• Learn about Toptal’s history, culture, and vision, with a focus on the state of our industry, the Future of Work, and the core messages important to Toptal.
• Shadow critical teams throughout the organization to learn Toptal’s core operations and capabilities.

In the first month, expect to:

• Begin developing relationships with key leaders and stakeholders across the organization.
• Dive deeper into the operations of key teams (e.g., Sales, Talent Operations) across the company.
• Conduct a comprehensive review of the current demand in your practice area, the talent that exists already in the network, and any work we may already be doing or have done.
• Articulate a hypothesis about where you want to take the practice (strategy) and design experiments and build execution approaches to get there.

In the first three months, expect to:

• Be a well-integrated member of the organization with positive relationships in Sales (Enterprise and SMB), Marketing, and Talent Operations.
• Be in front of clients on a regular basis to hear from them firsthand, while exercising discretion and independent judgment.
• Build your practice and begin positively impacting revenue growth.
• Understand market demand, assess Toptal’s current AI/ML capabilities, review AI Practice’s current offerings, and finalize the AI practice strategy.
• Build pipeline momentum.

In the first six months, expect to:

• Deliver initial client wins with high-profile AI deployments.
• Build Thought leadership presence.
• Be the go-to expert for your practice within Toptal.
• Have established initial market traction.
• See a commercial impact from your involvement in early initiatives.

In the first year, expect to:

• Feel like you made the best decision of your career.
• Lead Toptal’s AI practice revenue growth.
• Position Toptal as a go-to provider for advanced AI solutions.

Qualifications and Job Requirements:

• Bachelor’s degree in Engineering is required. Master’s degree in Engineering, Business, or a related field preferred.
• 15+ years of experience in Technology Services and/or Product, with 10+ years of experience in AI/ML, including deep exposure in enterprise AI initiatives.
• Strong expertise in machine learning, deep learning, NLP, LLMs, and AI governance.
• Proficiency with Python, TensorFlow, PyTorch, and ML Ops tools.
• Track record of leading AI commercialization and productization efforts.
• P&L ownership experience in a technology services context.
• Industry experience in sectors like marketing, finance, healthcare, or e-commerce.
• Strong ability to bridge technical and business conversations with both executives and engineers.
• This role is highly collaborative and will work extremely closely with Toptal’s Marketing, Sales, and Talent Operations teams to fulfill the above responsibilities.
• Outstanding written and verbal communication skills.
• Ability to work in a fast-paced, rapidly growing company and handle a wide variety of challenges, deadlines, and a diverse array of contacts.
• You must be a world-class individual contributor to thrive at Toptal. You will not be here just to tell other people what to do.

Essential Job Functions

• Regularly and reliably attend scheduled virtual team meetings on camera.
• Work independently with minimal supervision.
• Use all required digital collaboration tools.
• Prioritize and self-manage workflows and deadlines.

US FLSA Classification: Full-Time/Exempt