Service · Ongoing ownership
Fractional AI Operations Lead
Senior, part-time ownership of your AI programme — governance, vendor decisions, delivery oversight and the scoreboard — without the cost or ramp of a full-time hire.
What it is
A pilot needs a sponsor. Production needs an owner — someone accountable for the service level, the vendor calls and the number the programme is supposed to move. This is that owner, on a fraction of a full-time seat, drawing on 27 years of running operations where the SLA and the P&L were mine to answer for.
Who it's for
Firms with a roadmap or a live AI programme but no senior person carrying it day to day — where scope, vendor and service-level decisions keep slipping between people, and no one owns the scoreboard.
What I own, month to month
- The governance model — data boundaries, retention, audit and vendor review, decided before they can kill a build
- Vendor and build decisions, including honest calls to use your own team or incumbent
- Delivery oversight across the delivery network, so multi-party work doesn't fail at the seams
- One scoreboard — the same business metric from the pilot, followed all the way through production
When it makes sense vs. a full-time hire
Hire full-time when the programme is large and permanent and you know exactly what you need. Go fractional when you need senior judgement now, can't justify a full seat yet, or want the risk of over-hiring taken off the table while the programme proves itself. The role is built to hand off once the capability belongs in-house.
Questions
Common questions
What does a fractional AI operations lead do?
They own your AI programme part-time: the governance model, vendor and build decisions, delivery oversight, and the single scoreboard that tracks whether the work is paying off. It is senior ownership without a full-time hire.
How is this different from hiring a full-time AI lead?
You get 27 years of delivery-operations judgement immediately, with no recruitment, ramp, or full-time cost, and no risk of over-hiring for a programme that is still proving itself. When the capability belongs in-house, the role is designed to hand off.
When does it make sense to bring one in?
When you have a roadmap or a live AI programme but no senior owner carrying it day to day, and decisions about scope, vendors and service levels are slipping between people. It pairs naturally with the output of an AI Readiness Assessment.
How much time and commitment is involved?
It is a monthly retainer scaled to the programme — enough senior attention to hold governance, vendor calls and delivery oversight, without paying for a full-time seat you don't yet need.
Get started
Tell me what you're trying to get AI to do.
One conversation is usually enough to tell us both whether there's a real return in it. No pitch, no obligation.
sandeep@sandeeprajhans.com