Associate Director SWE & AI

About the Role

Overview: The Senior Manager, AI, Software Engineering \& Intelligent Automation is responsible for leading the strategy, architecture, development, and delivery of enterprise platforms, digital products, AI solutions, and intelligent automation capabilities across PepsiCo's Strategy \& Transformation (S\&T) organization. This leader drives innovation through modern Software Engineering, Cloud Platforms, Generative AI, Agentic AI, and Intelligent Automation while ensuring scalable, secure, resilient, and high\-performing solutions that deliver measurable business value. The role provides technical leadership across Software Engineering and Intelligent Automation teams and partners closely with Product, UX, IT, Data \& Analytics, Emerging Technology, and Business stakeholders to accelerate digital transformation for Pepsico. This role is a part of PepsiCo’s S\&T (Strategy \& Transformation), Platform \& Solution Engineering (PSE). Responsibilities: * Define and execute the technology strategy, architecture, and roadmap for Platform \& Solution Engineering (PSE), Software Engineering, AI, and Intelligent Automation capabilities. * Lead the design, development, deployment, and support of enterprise platforms, digital products, APIs, integrations, cloud\-native applications, and automation solutions. * Serve as the technical authority for software architecture, cloud platforms, distributed systems, application modernization, and Intelligent Automation platforms including UiPath. * Drive adoption of Generative AI, Agentic AI, AI\-assisted development, and automation technologies to improve developer productivity, operational efficiency, and business outcomes. * Build, lead, mentor, and develop high\-performing teams of Software Engineers, Solution Architects, RPA Developers, Engineering Managers, and Technical Leads. * Partner with Product Management, User Experience, IT, Data \& Analytics, Process Engineering, and Emerging Technology teams to deliver strategic business solutions. * Establish engineering standards, architecture reviews, design reviews, code reviews, testing strategies, DevSecOps practices, automation governance, and operational excellence frameworks. * Lead development of scalable, secure, resilient, and highly available enterprise solutions leveraging modern cloud, platform, and automation technologies. * Provide oversight of RPA platforms, bot architecture, orchestration, infrastructure, licensing, operational support, and automation best practices. * Manage technology roadmaps, delivery risks, dependencies, budgets, and stakeholder communications while ensuring measurable value realization. * Influence executive stakeholders and drive technology decisions that support long\-term business and digital transformation objectives. Qualifications: * Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Information Systems, or a related field; Master's Degree preferred. * 10\+ years of experience in Software Engineering, Solution Architecture, Platform Engineering, Intelligent Automation, or Technology Leadership roles. * 3\+ years leading multiple software engineering teams, technical leads, engineering managers, or automation teams. * Strong expertise in modern software architecture, object\-oriented design, data structures, algorithms, and distributed systems. * Experience building enterprise\-scale web, mobile, eCommerce, API\-driven, and cloud\-native applications. * 3\+ years of experience with Intelligent Automation or RPA platforms, preferably UiPath, including bot architecture, orchestration, infrastructure, governance, and operational support. * Working knowledge of Java, Python, JavaScript, and modern frameworks such as Spring Boot, React, React Native, Node.js, and microservices architectures. * Experience with Azure (preferred), AWS, and/or Google Cloud Platform, including cloud\-native services, containers, APIs, messaging, caching, and platform services. * Deep understanding of design patterns, architecture patterns, DevOps/CI\-CD, observability, testing strategies, automation governance, and metrics\-driven software delivery. * Experience implementing and operating high\-throughput, highly available, mission\-critical enterprise systems. * Strong communication, stakeholder management, and organizational leadership skills with experience influencing senior leadership and cross\-functional teams.