Here are 12 AI Jobs that Don’t Require a PhD or an Engineering Degree
Over the years, I’ve hosted many AI & emerging tech events and there’s one question that comes up a lot. Do I need to be an engineer or have a PhD to get a job in AI?
Lack of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math) talent or the “STEM pipeline issue” is often cited by the tech industry to explain away its lack of diversity without acknowledging the self-selection bias that’s pervasive in this male-dominated industry. Given the proliferation of coding camps and with AI narratives in the media dominated by tech bro’s, it’s easy to assume that all AI roles require engineering expertise or advanced degrees in STEM .
While there is a clear need for more investment in critical fields like STEM where women and BIPOC have been historically underrepresented, there is also an urgent need to reduce the barriers for those from non-engineering and non-academic disciplines.
As AI adoption grows across diverse industries and functional areas, it is creating new opportunities for those outside the tech bubble to build the future of AI. Here are 12 companies across technology, healthcare, finance, travel, and other industries that are actively recruiting for AI roles that do not require an engineering degree. Check them out if you’re looking for a new role in AI where your functional expertise, multi-disciplinary background, and industry experience are an asset.
1) AI/ML Strategy & Execution Manager [JP Morgan Chase, New York]
Description: The AI Management team is seeking a talented candidate to join a small team to lead transformational improvements to process, technology, and organizational constructs supporting AI / ML across the firm.
Required Minimum Experience And Education: 5–10+ years of experience in consulting, business management, analytics, or hands-on program management in a complex and dynamic environment
Preferred Experience and Skills: Experience in Financial Services industry; An interest in AI and Machine Learning; familiarity with AI/ML concepts would be beneficial
2) Emerging Technology Product Owner — Artificial Intelligence [Humana, Work at Home — Kentucky]
Description: The Emerging Technology Product Owner assists in the analysis of the requirements for the enterprise and applying emerging technologies to support long-term business objectives. Responsible for researching, collecting, and disseminating information on emerging technologies and key learnings throughout the enterprise.
Required Minimum Experience And Education: Bachelor’s degree in Communication, Technology or Business-related concentration or suitable experience; Minimum 3 years of related experience in Health Care or Health Care technology
Preferred Qualifications: Master’s Degree; Member/Consumer Experience design experience; Experience with Watson AI or other AI platforms; PMP and / or Six Sigma certification
Description: As a member of Capital One’s Enterprise Innovation Business Counsel team, you’ll apply your legal, strategic, and analytical skills to programs and initiatives driving Capital One’s most innovative technology and solutions.
Required Minimum Experience And Education: Juris Doctor from an accredited law school; Active member in good standing of at least one state bar; At least 5 years of law firm or in-house legal experience
Preferred Qualifications: Personal interest in technology; 2+ years of experience in machine learning/artificial intelligence, either in-house or at a law firm; 6+ years of law firm or in-house legal experience; Experience counseling and negotiating AI/ML research and university agreements.
Description: We are looking for a Senior Product Manager with platform product management experience to partner closely with the technology and data science teams to be part of building the Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning (AI&ML) platform.
Required Minimum Experience And Education: Previous experience and interest in or around Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning practices so that you can better understand how the model lifecycle works and contribute directly to our work building the platform that can manage that flow; Bachelor’s, Master’s, or Equivalent Experience; Strong Product Management experience owning multiple product areas including developing the product strategy, roadmap, and go-to-market plan.
Preferred Experience and Skills: Technical degree preferred otherwise relevant experience is applicable.
5) AI Acceleration Strategy — Manager [JP Morgan Chase, New York]
Description: The Firmwide AI Management team is seeking a talented candidate to lead AI/ML strategy projects and partner with data, technology, business, and product leaders across the firm.
Required Minimum Experience And Education: 5–10+ years of experience in consulting, business management or hands-on program management in a complex and dynamic environment; Strategic mindset with deep intellectual curiosity; Exceptionally strong client management and executive-level communication skills
Preferred Experience and Skills: Experience in Financial Services industry; Extensive knowledge in AI/ML
6) Sales Executive — GPS Strategy and Analytics, Artificial Intelligence & Data [Deloitte, Virginia]
Description: Deloitte is seeking a top-performing Sales Executive (SE) within its Strategy and Analytics practice to pursue digital transformation, AI, analytics, data, and intelligent automation opportunities within the DS&J sector.
Required Minimum Experience And Education: Existing knowledge of the analytics, robotics, and artificial intelligence market is a must; Bachelor’s degree required; Proven consistent track record of delivering over $15–20 million of new sales revenue per annum with demonstrated year-on-year growth in revenue
Preferred Experience and Skills: Master’s degree and/or consulting delivery experience preferred.
7) Director Analyst, Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning [Gartner, Virginia]
Description: Gartner Analysts are industry thought leaders who create must-have research, market predictions and best practices for a broad range of world-leading organizations. A Director possesses a keen eye for identifying gaps, problems, and solutions within the market they serve.
Required Minimum Experience And Education: Bachelor’s degree or equivalent experience; 10 years of industry related experience; Demonstrate analytical skills, applying conceptual models, recognizing patterns while drawing and defending conclusions; Significant applicable experience in the related industry discipline and deep knowledge of a particular market.
Preferred Experience and Skills: 12 years of experience within the field of AI/ML or data management in at least one of the above-mentioned areas; Graduate degree in a related field
8) Partner Business Manager — Artificial Intelligence — SecOps [Microfocus, Texas]
Description: This role focuses exclusively on the ArcSight UEBA/AI/ML capabilities. The purpose of this role is to target the top CrowdStrike partners and develop and nurture a strategic/mutually beneficial relationship with them and their ecosystem partners to drive additional revenue with joint sales efforts.
Required Minimum Experience And Education: University or bachelor’s degree; Typically, 12+ years or more of selling experience at end-user account or partner level; Experience as successful account/business manager; Selling to CxO and decision-maker level; Understanding of the value and capabilities of AI and ML, being able to explain the concepts and the differences; Understand the use-cases for AI/ML and explain the value.
Preferred Experience and Skills: Advanced degree or MBA preferred.
9) Lead — Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning [WEF, San Francisco, California]
Description: The Lead will work closely with the Platform Head to support strategy and operations for the overall platform and service of our Affiliate Centre which have chosen AI. Also, they will work with other Platforms across the house to drive value and impact.
Required Minimum Experience And Education: Master’s (or higher) degree in Public Policy, Management, Artificial Intelligence or other technology, or similar fields; 7+ years of experience in private or public sector, including working on or consulting / business development related to relevant Artificial Intelligence related topics or technology policy and development
Experience crafting public policy on Artificial Intelligence (such as regulations, standards, guidelines, or other policy tools), ideally inside or with governments or global organizations or direct experience in technology applications or technology policy
10) Artificial Intelligence — Program Product Ownership [CVS, Michigan]
Description: Manage the stakeholders, work and deliverables of multiple, complex projects or programs, through to implementation, that impact multiple processes, systems, functions, and products. Length of project may run multiple years in duration.
Required Minimum Experience And Education: Bachelor’s degree in Nursing, Computer Science, Business Administration, Engineering, or related discipline with information technology focus — or equivalent experience
Preferred Qualifications: Experience implementing and subject matter expertise surrounding artificial intelligence solutions; PM experience in the Healthcare industry; Experience in a technical environment (Product Delivery, Data Science); Project Management Professional (PMP) certification; Certified Business Analyst Professional (CBAP) certification; Experience with project management tools such as Rally, Jira, Confluence; Six Sigma and/or Lean certification
11) Sr. Technical Product Owner, Artificial Intelligence [Delta — Atlanta, GA or Minneapolis, MN]
Description: As a Technical Product Owner for AI, within the Communications, AI, and Automation portfolio, you will work on initiatives across the entire business; initiatives range from our complex global operation to the digital customer experience.
Required Minimum Experience And Education: 5 or more years of experience in related field or any combination or equivalent education, experience, and formal training that allows the candidate to meet the requirements of the job. Experience as a Product Owner for a technical product.
Preferred Qualifications: Bachelor’s degree in computer science, engineering discipline, economics, business, or equivalent experience.
12) AI Evangelist [Dataiku, Washington]
Description: As an AI Evangelist, you’ll help customers accelerate their journey towards leveraging AI to achieve their business goals. You’ll help customers identify opportunities for innovation by leveraging your expertise in the analytics, machine learning and artificial intelligence space.
Required Minimum Experience And Education: Demonstrated leadership and technical expertise in the field of AI or a closely related field; At least 8 years of professional experience.
The number of non-engineering roles in AI/tech are still growing at a relatively slow pace for several reasons. One is that despite the hype, many companies are still in the “build and test” phase where they believe they need more technical expertise instead of governance or ethics-related expertise. Another reason is that the “newness” of these roles is leading many hiring managers/recruiters into assigning more value to advanced technical degrees while undervaluing the importance of multidisciplinary expertise and relevant industry experience, which filters out many qualified candidates in the process.
The bottom line is this, if we are serious about building and deploying responsible AI solutions, we need to challenge our antiquated ideas about AI expertise and make it easier for with more talented folks with non-(stereo)typical backgrounds to join this space.
If you currently work in and/or are recruiting for non-engineering roles in AI, leave a comment or reach out via email (DiversityinAI at gmail dot com).
