We’re seeking an Executive Director to join our Firmwide Innovation team in Montreal as an AI/ML Sector Lead. You will be a key strategic partner to senior leadership—helping shape our Firm's AI strategy, leading business development efforts in market, identifying and cultivating partnership opportunities with leading AI/tech companies, and supporting Business and Technology in building high-impact, scalable relationships. This role blends deep technical credibility (often a Master’s or PhD in AI/ML) with commercial acumen and the ability to drive pilots-to-scale outcomes across the Firm.

In the Technology division, we leverage innovation to build the connections and capabilities that power our Firm, enabling our clients and colleagues to redefine markets and shape the future of our communities. You’ll translate frontier AI into secure, compliant, and measurable value—accelerating product adoption, client experience, and productivity.

This is an Executive Director position within the Firmwide Innovation team at Morgan Stanley. We are dedicated to providing exceptional and trusted advice and services that enable the ideation, design, research, and development of world-class products. Our team comprises highly skilled and experienced technical and business professionals focused on deeply understanding our Firm's strategy, market innovation, and the environments needed to create new products and invent new ways of doing business. You will operate at the intersection of AI research, product integration, and commercial strategy, partnering with Operating Committee members, Business Leaders, and CIOs.

Since 1935, Morgan Stanley is known as a global leader in financial services, always evolving and innovating to better serve our clients and our communities in more than 40 countries around the world.

Interested in joining a team that’s eager to create, innovate and make an impact on the world? Read on…

What you’ll do in the role:

This role will support and maintain win-win relationships between the various technology providers and the business divisions of the bank including Wealth Management, Private Bank, Investment Management, and Institutional Solutions. The role entails significant elements of relationship development and strategy. Primary elements of the role include:

Strategy and Insights

• Provide executive-grade, curated perspectives on AI market innovation (e.g., GenAI/LLMs, multimodal, RAG, vector databases, guardrails, evaluation & red-teaming) to Operating Committee members, Business Leaders, Tech Leaders, and CIOs through market landscapes, investment theses, and curated executive events to support strategic discussion and decisions on innovation priorities.

• Conduct rigorous market research and deliver actionable analysis on the AI technology landscape across our providers and broader ecosystem (hyperscalers, frontier model companies, startups, and enterprise vendors), translating insights into build/partner/buy recommendations and pilots-to-scale pathways.

• Analyze market, industry, regulatory, and technology trends and provide clear recommendations to internal and external clients. Recommendations may include product adoption, partnership models, or supporting M&A conversations, with explicit focus on risk, governance, and ROI.

• Serve as an AI/ML subject matter expert for the Firm—sharing internal technology perspectives with select Research, Institutional, and Wealth Management clients—and advising on Responsible AI practices (fairness, transparency, explainability) aligned to enterprise model risk frameworks and emerging regulation.

Business Development & Relationship Management

• Source, assess, and prioritize early to growth-stage AI companies for potential partnership with the Firm. Demonstrate deep understanding of our businesses and technology priorities by identifying the most relevant disruptors and strategic partners for Wealth Management, Private Bank, Investment Management, and Institutional Solutions.

• Align on an approach for a portfolio of priority AI companies with relevant product owners and client-facing partners; drive toward agreed outcomes including strategic fit assessments, proofs of value, technical evaluations, commercial constructs, and product decisions that scale.

• Ensure successful client and vendor interactions: set clear agendas, align on intended outcomes and decision rights, identify relevant participants, and run high-stakes executive meetings and ecosystem events that move opportunities forward.

• Handle and coordinate escalations (contractual, operational, or risk-related) with vendors, ensuring suitable senior executives at the Firm and the vendor are involved; partner closely with Legal, Compliance, Risk, Cybersecurity, and Procurement to maintain velocity while upholding standards.

• Translate opportunity into measurable business value—establishing KPIs and success criteria (e.g., adoption, revenue lift, client experience improvements, cost-to-serve reduction) and communicating progress to senior stakeholders.

What you’ll bring to the role:

• 15+ years of experience with hands-on AI/ML (applied research, engineering, or product/portfolio leadership) spanning both technology and business-side roles in financial services or top-tier consulting/enterprise environments.

• Bachelor’s degree required; Master’s or PhD in CS/AI/ML, Applied Math, Statistics, or related field strongly preferred.

• Strong foundation in AI/ML concepts including supervised/unsupervised learning, deep learning, NLP/Generative AI, reinforcement learning, and evaluation/validation. Ability to credibly guide teams on LLM integration, prompt/context engineering, retrieval (RAG), safety/guardrails, and model risk considerations.

• Experience with Python (and literacy in Julia/Java/C++ or similar). Hands-on familiarity with TensorFlow, PyTorch, Scikit-learn, Hugging Face, and modern MLOps platforms such as Azure ML, SageMaker, Databricks MLflow, Vertex AI, or Weights & Biases.

• Demonstrated experience turning AI capabilities into commercial outcomes (product adoption, revenue growth, efficiency, and/or risk reduction) within complex, regulated enterprises.

• Awareness of Ethical/Responsible AI principles and practices; familiarity with data protection and AI regulations and standards such as GDPR, CCPA, and the EU AI Act, and how these map to enterprise governance and model risk.

• Awareness of industry trends and key vendors; active network across the AI ecosystem (hyperscalers, startups, labs, academic partners) is a plus.

• Experience with market research, tooling, and business analysis (e.g., ROI case studies, transformation business cases) with an ability to articulate clear, executive-ready narratives and recommendations.

• Experience in high-intensity, ambiguous environments with strong context-switching, prioritization, and program leadership skills across multiple stakeholders and deliverables.

• Executive communication skills—able to simplify complexity, influence senior decision makers, and write crisply for Operating Committee audiences.

At Morgan Stanley Montreal, we support the Firm’s global businesses and infrastructure with cutting edge technology and innovation. The multi-faceted and highly technical Montreal team plays a critical role in building and maintaining our leading technology platform, including electronic trading, algorithm trading, cloud engineering, infrastructure, cybersecurity and AI/ML. Morgan Stanley has been rooted in the Montreal community since 2008 and is considered a leading employer among the area’s highly skilled technology talent. There’s ample opportunity to move across the businesses for those who show passion and grit in their work.

All our positions are located in Montreal, Quebec. We offer a hybrid work environment, combining remote work and attendance in the office.

Knowledge of French and English is required.

Build a career with impact. Visit morganstanley.com for more information.

WHAT YOU CAN EXPECT FROM MORGAN STANLEY:

At Morgan Stanley, we raise, manage and allocate capital for our clients – helping them reach their goals. We do it in a way that’s differentiated – and we’ve done that for 90 years.  Our values - putting clients first, doing the right thing, leading with exceptional ideas, committing to diversity and inclusion, and giving back - aren’t just beliefs, they guide the decisions we make every day to do what's best for our clients, communities and more than 80,000 employees in 1,200 offices across 42 countries. At Morgan Stanley, you’ll find an opportunity to work alongside the best and the brightest, in an environment where you are supported and empowered. Our teams are relentless collaborators and creative thinkers, fueled by their diverse backgrounds and experiences. We are proud to support our employees and their families at every point along their work-life journey, offering some of the most attractive and comprehensive employee benefits and perks in the industry. There’s also ample opportunity to move about the business for those who show passion and grit in their work.

To learn more about our offices across the globe, please copy and paste https://www.morganstanley.com/about-us/global-offices​ into your browser.

Morgan Stanley is an equal opportunities employer. We work to provide a supportive and inclusive environment where all individuals can maximize their full potential.