Senior Assistant Director / Assistant Director (AI Transformation), SNDG

The Smart Nation Group – Digital Government (SNDG), under the Ministry of Digital Development and Information (MDDI), is at the forefront of the Singapore Government’s digital transformation. We shape and implement strategies and policies to achieve our vision of a Digital Government that is Digital to the core, and serves with heart. This includes building long-term digital capabilities for the public sector, driving innovation across Government agencies, and ensuring digital services are user-centric, secure and resilient. This position partners government agencies to redesign key workflows with AI solutions, to result in measurable improvements in public-sector outcomes. This role leads a small pod to work alongside agency leaders and users, take ownership of open-ended problems, and remain accountable until a redesigned workflow has demonstrated credible value. The job has two main aspects: • Co-accountable to solve problems within Government agencies. The candidate will be the accountable leader for each agency engagement—identifying impactful problems, defining what success looks like, and building and iterating towards a measurable outcome. They must have the judgment to distinguish meaningful transformation from an attractive AI demonstration, and the conviction to narrow, pivot or stop work that will not create sufficient impact. • Leader of AI-native transformation. The candidate will lead a small pod that combines product, consulting and engineering capabilities to be deployed into agencies. They will create clarity from ambiguity, set the direction and pace of iteration, and use AI-native tools and methods to achieve impact within 3-6 months. Thereafter, the candidate will ensure that agencies can adopt, own and extend the redesigned workflow, and that lessons from each engagement become reusable patterns for future AI transformation across government. Key responsibilities • Achieve measurable impact by transforming workflows using AI. • Act as the accountable party to agency sponsors, making the decisions and trade-offs required to maintain focus and momentum and achieve impact • Build the team’s AI transformation operating model into a distinctive and repeatable government capability Preferred Qualifications – Ideal candidate will have many of these skills/experiences: Product management experience • Demonstrated impact in building and managing products • Strong stakeholder-management and influencing skills, with experience working directly with senior sponsors, operational leaders, technology teams and end users Culture • Strong work ethic in taking ownership and accountability to solve the problem • Willingness to try new approaches, fail and improve, and try again • Biased towards action and not afraid to challenge the status quo • A desire to learn and continuously improve • Resourceful; ability to work independently to get things done in a fast-paced environment Optional requirements: • Software engineering or designer experience • Willingness to deal with ambiguity • Start-up mindset, willing to find ways to generate value for stakeholders