Head of AI, Portfolio Operations

Council Capital is a healthcare-focused private equity firm based in Nashville, Tennessee, managing over $350 million in committed capital.

We invest in lower middle market healthcare companies where we see the potential to scale purpose and performance. Our investments span control and minority positions in businesses with enterprise values between $10 million and $100 million.

What sets us apart is the Council Model—a proven framework that surrounds founders and leadership teams with a powerful combination of support: our CEO Council of seasoned operators, our Strategic Healthcare Investors who bring real-world insight and access, and our internal Value Creation Team, focused on enabling growth through talent, systems, and strategy.

At Council Capital, we’re not just backing companies—we’re helping build enduring businesses that improve lives and shape the future of healthcare.

The Role

We are hiring a Head of AI to drive measurable AI-enabled impact across our portfolio and within the firm.

About 80% of the work resembles a product manager or operations leader who has shipped AI-enabled products and workflows in healthcare services and/or B2B SaaS. The other 20% requires enough technical depth to distinguish real AI opportunities from hype: you’re fluent with frontier model APIs, cloud LLM platforms, RAG and evaluation methodologies, and understand security and compliance realities of working with PHI.

We’re not hiring a data scientist, a research engineer, or a strategist who just builds decks. We want a pragmatic operator who delivers concrete solutions for our portfolio companies and firm.

This role reports to Tim Schulte, Partner.

What You'll Do

• Lead AI diligence on new investments. Build and apply a repeatable tech/AI evaluation framework for pipeline opportunities. Manage third-party IT diligence providers. Assess targets on AI maturity and ensure our ability to accelerate AI adoption is built into the underwriting thesis.
• Build and drive portfolio-wide AI strategies. Baseline AI capabilities, data infrastructure, and team readiness across the portfolio. Benchmark against industry peers. Translate findings into prioritized roadmaps for each company.
• Hands-on AI value creation. Personally lead AI initiatives at portfolio companies, from problem identification to requirements, vendor selection, deployment, and impact measurement.
• Ship internal AI initiatives. Improve sourcing, diligence, portfolio monitoring, and LP reporting. Prototype directly in tools like Claude Code, Cursor, and Lovable to compress idea-to-pilot cycles.
• Run vendor evaluation and partner management. Build scorecards, pressure-test demos with real data, negotiate AI-specific terms, and manage solution partners working with the portfolio.
• Upskill non-technical operators. Build AI literacy programs and coach portfolio leaders to democratize AI adoption.
• Own the firm’s AI governance framework, including HIPAA‑compliant data handling, model risk standards, and rollout to portfolio companies.
• Develop toolkits and playbooks for repeatable, scalable, and fast AI adoption with less risk and workload.
• Represent Council Capital’s AI thesis externally to LPs, portfolio companies, and prospects.

Qualifications

• Strong alignment with our core values: hiring the best people, building authentic relationships, being performance‑driven, and a passion for building great companies.
• 7-12 years of professional experience in product, operations, or value‑creation roles, including 3+ years focused on shipping AI‑enabled products or workflows—ideally at a PE‑backed healthcare services company, a healthcare or vertical SaaS business, or an operating team in PE/growth equity.
• A track record of personally driving AI initiatives from problem identification to measured ROI, with dollar figures and operators who will vouch for the impact.
• Hands‑on fluency with the modern AI toolkit, including frontier model APIs, cloud LLMs, agentic frameworks, RAG, evaluation methods, and developer tools. You use AI in your work, not just talk about it.
• Light‑to‑moderate build skills. You can spin up a Lovable app, run Claude Code, write a Python script, or build a basic SQL pipeline—not to code full‑time, but to quickly pilot and build credibility with tech teams.
• Healthcare data and workflow fluency (or at least fast learning), with understanding of areas like revenue cycle, patient experience, clinical documentation, prior authorization, and more.
• Vendor diligence and management experience, including building scorecards, testing demos, rejecting polished pitches, and negotiating AI‑specific terms.
• Communication range: can present to a CEO, coach non‑technical operators through their first LLM integration, and debug AI prompts with engineers.
• Change management experience, ideally in clinical settings.
• Financial literacy to build ROI models, read a P&L, and quantify initiative value for a CFO.
• High‑ownership, bias to action, and proven success in scrappy environments.
• Project management skills, energy, and tenacity to lead 5+ concurrent initiatives without dropping balls.
• Enthusiasm for living in Nashville, the healthcare capital of the US, with great weather, low taxes, and rich culture.

What You’ll Get

• High‑leverage role with real budget, authority, and the autonomy to build the AI function
• Direct exposure to a portfolio of healthcare technology and healthcare services companies
• A seat at the table for diligence, investment, and value creation
• Competitive base, bonus, and carry
• Comprehensive benefits and relocation support for the right candidate
• A Nashville‑based team that takes the work seriously and itself less so

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