Head of Secure Data & AI Transformation (f/m/d)

Step out of your comfort zone, excel and redefine the limits of what is possible. That's just what our employees are doing every single day – in order to set the pace through our innovations and enable outstanding achievements. After all, behind every successful company are many great fascinating people.

In a spacious modern setting full of opportunities for further development, ZEISS employees work in a place where expert knowledge and team spirit reign supreme. All of this is supported by a special ownership structure and the long-term goal of the Carl Zeiss Foundation: to bring science and society into the future together.

Join us today. Inspire people tomorrow.

Diversity is a part of ZEISS. We look forward to receiving your application regardless of gender, nationality, ethnic and social origin, religion, philosophy of life, disability, age, sexual orientation or identity.

Apply now! It takes less than 10 minutes.

Welcome to ZEISS – a company that combines innovation and responsibility! Our corporate functions are diverse and make a decisive contribution to the strategic orientation and sustainable success of ZEISS.

As the Head of Secure Data & AI Transformation you are responsible for leading the global corporate function that ensures ZEISS can harness the transformative power of data and AI technologies while safeguarding its critical assets, maintaining compliance, and upholding ethical standards.

Your Role

• By leading efforts to embed resilience and defensibility into AI operations and leverage AI to enhance cyber security capabilities, this position enables ZEISS to proactively address emerging risks and to protect sensitive information. The role is crucial for aligning data and AI initiatives with the organization's strategic goals, fostering innovation, and ensuring that security remains a strategic imperative as part of the digital transformation.

• Strategy & Leadership: set the strategic direction and target operating models for secure data and AI transformation across ZEISS, ensuring that AI- and data initiatives are aligned with corporate goals and grounded in a security‑by-default and security-by-design mindset. Collaborate with relevant stakeholders to ensure the ZEISS organization and its business units can focus on leveraging the technology at speed and scale while guided by reliable boundaries.

• Secure & Compliant AI Governance: take ownership of AI governance, requirements and enablement for the ZEISS organization to leverage the potential AI technology in a secure, ethical and compliant way to ensure regulatory compliance and risk reduction. Apply AI risk & impact assessments that evaluate potential risks, benefits, and compliance implications of AI systems before and during deployment and maintain an AI registry to address regulatory requirements and effectively exercise governance.

• AI Security Engineering & Threat Defense: ensure that the ZEISS organization is protected from evolving AI-specific cyber threats (e.g., prompt injections, unauthorized model access and reinforcement-learning vulnerabilities) throughout the entire lifecycle of internally developed and commercially available AI models. Drive efforts and enable AI/MLOps teams and pipelines to prevent, detect, and respond to adversarial activities by embedding appropriate security controls.

• AI-enhanced Cyber Operations: drive innovation to enhance the cyber security posture of ZEISS by identifying and leveraging (agentic) AI-powered technologies that strengthen compliance, detection, response, and preventive security aligned with the overall cyber security architecture and strategy. Collaborate with security architects and adjacent cyber security teams (GRC, Strategy & Technology, Cyber Defense, Culture, Ecosystems) to drive AI-enhancements.

• AI Research & Innovation: responsible for driving cutting-edge advancement in secure, compliant, and ethical AI adoptions. By engaging in research partnerships and exploring emerging threats, attack paths, and vulnerabilities in AI ecosystems, and piloting next-generation AI technologies (e.g., agentic AI systems), the team ensures rapid business availability of new technologies while minimizing security risks and maintaining compliance.

• Foundational Data Backbone: take ownership for a robust data governance framework that ensures the integrity, security, and compliance of data used by AI across the organization. This includes creating transparency to track the origin, and transformation of data consumed by AI systems. It also lays the foundation for an integrated and scalable approach to (agentic) AI across ZEISS by establishing relevant standards (e.g., MCP) for authorized, trusted and verified data sources.

• Leadership & Development: functionally and disciplinarily leading a global team with high strategic relevance, this role fosters a culture of collaboration, innovation, and accountability within their team. The role involves leading and developing a high-performing global team, providing clear direction, mentorship, and opportunities for professional growth. By promoting an inclusive and empowering environment, this leadership position is a role model for ZEISS values and strategic goals, while driving engagement and motivation across the organization, cultivating strong relationships with stakeholders to achieve shared success.

• Advanced degree in Data Science, Information Technology, Artificial Intelligence, Computer Science, Information Security, Data Engineering, Machine Learning, or a related discipline (Bachelor's or Master's degree) or an equivalent mix of education and professional experience.

• Proven professional experience across data platforms, ML/AI systems, or information security withrelated senior or leadership roles across global organizations.

• One or more relevant and current information security certifications from an established organization (such as CISSP, CISM, NIST AI RMF Practitioner or other related).

• Proven experience in defining and executing enterprise‑wide strategies for secure and compliant AI adoption to drive a secure digital transformation.

• Demonstrated expertise with AI governance frameworks, standards, regulatory requirements (e.g., EU AI Act), and ethical AI principles.

• Hands‑on expertise with integration of security-by-design along the AI/ML solution lifecycle, including defending against AI‑specific threats such as prompt injection, model extraction, data poisoning, and adversarial attacks.

• Sound understanding of security architecture, GRC, cyber defence, and security engineering to effectively drive AI governance across the organization and align AI-enhance with the broader cyber security strategy.

• Demonstrated innovation-driven mindset and ability to explore, evaluate, and pilot next‑generation AI technologies, including agentic AI and advanced ML methods.

• Strong expertise in establishing enterprise data governance frameworks that ensure data quality, lineage, integrity, and security for AI systems.

• Experience in functionally and disciplinarily leading international and global teams within a business or technical environment, demonstrating a proven track record of strategic planning, team development, and operational excellence.