IT Operational Automation SME, AI-Ops (product owner, Operation Specialist)

IT Operational Automation SME, AI-Ops (product owner, Operation Specialist)

Initial 6 months, then Contract to Hire or at least open to the conversation

Location: Canada (Toronto or Ottawa, ON. preferred)

Work Model: 90% remote – in office occasionally for key meetings

We are looking for an automation SME for the AI-Ops team, who can help automate operations processes – highly focused on the operations cycle and how to make more efficient (can assess, identify inefficiencies, and translate those insights into automation opportunities using intelligent automation)

It is really a mix of a product owner and an operations person. This is NOT application development in AI. This is operations focused.

Automation Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) to join our growing AI Ops team. This group is responsible for transforming operational processes through intelligent automation, improving efficiency, reliability, and speed across the full operations lifecycle. This role is a hybrid between operations specialist and product owner — ideal for someone who understands how operations truly run, can identify inefficiencies, and can translate those insights into automation opportunities. This is not an AI application development role. Instead, it focuses on operational excellence, process automation, and intelligent run state optimization.

Key Responsibilities

Operational Automation & AI Ops Enablement

• Identify automation opportunities across the operations lifecycle, including incident management, monitoring, remediation, and service optimization.

• Work closely with the AI Ops team to design, refine, and implement intelligent automation solutions that reduce manual effort and improve operational outcomes.

• Translate operational pain points into clear automation requirements, user stories, and acceptance criteria.

Product Ownership & Stakeholder Collaboration

• Act as a product owner style lead for automation initiatives, prioritizing work based on business value and operational impact.

• Partner with operations teams, engineering, and AI Ops developers to ensure automation solutions align with real world operational needs.

• Communicate progress, risks, and value delivered to stakeholders across the organization.

Operational Expertise & Continuous Improvement

• Bring deep understanding of operational processes, workflows, and dependencies across complex environments.

• Analyze operational data to identify inefficiencies, recurring issues, and automation opportunities.

• Contribute to the development of standardized automation frameworks, runbooks, and best practices.

AI Ops Strategy & Execution

• Support the evolution of the AI Ops roadmap by identifying new use cases and emerging automation capabilities.

• Ensure automation solutions are scalable, maintainable, and aligned with broader operational strategy.

• Advocate for automation adoption across teams and help drive cultural change toward intelligent operations.

Required Skills & Experience

• Strong background in IT operations, service management, or infrastructure operations.

• Hands on experience with automation tools, workflows, or AI Ops platforms (e.g., ServiceNow, Dynatrace, Moogsoft, Splunk, Ansible, Terraform, etc.).

• Ability to map operational processes and identify automation opportunities.

• Experience writing user stories, defining requirements, or acting in a product owner capacity.

• Strong analytical skills with the ability to interpret operational data and trends.

• Excellent communication skills and the ability to work across technical and non-technical teams.

Nice to Have

• Experience with AIOps platforms, observability tools, or intelligent monitoring systems.

• ITIL certification or experience working within ITSM frameworks.

• Background in SRE, DevOps, or CloudOps environments.