Senior Director, VCO/Plan AI Platform Strategy & Integration
Houston, TX, US, 77042
Phillips 66 & YOU - Together we can fuel the future
The Senior Director serves as an executive partner to VCO, Planning, Refining, Midstream, Commercial, and IT leadership. The role brings an enterprise perspective to platform and investment decisions, challenges assumptions, evaluates build, buy, and partner alternatives, and creates the organizational capabilities required to move from pilots to scaled, supportable products.
This leader owns the vision, strategy, roadmap, investment priorities, operating model, and delivery outcomes for the VCO/Plan AI Platform, including the cross-platform integration strategy with Operations AI.
The VCO/Plan AI Platform supports planning intelligence, LP accuracy, scenario planning, value-chain decision support, and more transparent collaboration across planning, VCO, trading, and related functions. The role integrates with the Operations AI Platform, anchored by MyOperations, where planning and operational data or workflows need to connect to create business value.
Within enterprise AI, data, architecture, cybersecurity, and responsible AI guardrails, this role translates business strategy into a coherent VCO/Plan platform and integration portfolio that is reusable, secure, resilient, and capable of delivering measurable margin and commercial outcomes while connecting effectively to operational capabilities where appropriate.
At Phillips 66, Lead Forward is our leadership approach. It defines how leaders show up, make decisions, and support their teams while delivering results in a complex, fast‑changing environment. Leaders who lead other leaders are expected to scale strong leadership across teams. This includes coaching leaders, aligning work to strategy, and breaking down barriers so teams can work together effectively. You’ll guide others through change, encourage sound decision making, and ensure accountability for results.
What You’ll Do
Leadership Mandate
- Set the multi-year vision and strategic direction for the VCO/Plan AI Platform and its integration points with Operations AI.
- Establish clear platform boundaries, shared capabilities, investment principles, and decision rights across business and IT.
- Own VCO/Plan portfolio outcomes, including value realization, adoption, reliability, risk posture, and the pace from idea to production; jointly manage integration outcomes with Operations AI leadership.
- Build and lead a high-performing organization of product, engineering, data, AI/ML, and platform leaders.
- Represent the VCO/Plan AI Platform with executive leadership, governance bodies, business stakeholders, and strategic partners.
Platform Strategy and Portfolio Leadership
- Define and continuously evolve the strategy and product delivery roadmap for the VCO/Plan AI Platform, including dependencies and integration points with Operations AI.
- Translate business strategies into platform capabilities, product roadmaps, investment cases, and measurable outcomes.
- Create a balanced portfolio of foundational capabilities, high-value use cases, modernization work, and targeted innovation.
- Establish portfolio prioritization and sequencing for VCO/Plan, balancing near-term value with platform health, reuse, resilience, and long-term strategic advantage, while coordinating cross-platform dependencies with Operations AI.
- Maintain clear trade-offs, dependencies, capacity assumptions, and decision records for executive review.
- Drive a common platform strategy where shared data, model, integration, experience, monitoring, and governance capabilities are built once and reused where appropriate.
VCO/Plan AI Platform
- Set the strategic direction for AI-enabled planning and value-chain optimization capabilities, in partnership with VCO, Planning, Commercial, Refining, and Regional Optimization leaders.
- Guide the evolution of capabilities such as LP accuracy monitoring, model and data drift detection, scenario planning, scenario comparison, LP output synthesis, natural-language inquiry, and decision-ready recommendations.
- Ensure the platform strengthens the connection between planning, VCO, trading, and operations while preserving the LP and other economic engines as authoritative decision systems.
- Lead platform decisions required to move from use-case pilots to a scalable planning intelligence platform, including modernization, integration, vendor capabilities, and cutover decisions.
Executive Partnership and Value Realization
- Establish shared outcomes with business product owners and executives.
- Define value hypotheses, baselines, KPIs, and adoption measures before investment and delivery decisions are made.
- Report portfolio progress, realized value, risks, and decisions required to executive sponsors and governance forums.
- Build trust with business leaders by presenting clear options, implications, recommendations, and evidence rather than only technical status.
Architecture, Technology, and Innovation
- Set architectural direction for the VCO/Plan AI Platform.
- Lead build, buy, partner, and modernization decisions using a disciplined framework that considers value, speed, differentiation, total cost of ownership, risk, security, and long-term maintainability.
- Evaluate emerging AI, GenAI, agent, optimization, and industrial technology capabilities and determine where they can create differentiated business value.
- Maintain a model- and vendor-aware platform strategy that supports rapid innovation without creating avoidable lock-in or duplicative solutions.
- Ensure architecture and technology choices align with enterprise data, architecture, cybersecurity, privacy, and platform standards.
Product and Delivery Excellence
- Establish product management and delivery practices that move ideas from discovery through production and scaled adoption.
- Set expectations for hypothesis-driven discovery, iterative delivery, experimentation, product analytics, working demonstrations, and clear Definitions of Done.
- Establish a consistent operating model across VCO/Plan business product owners, AI platform leads, product managers, engineering, data, data science, UX, change management, subject-matter experts, and Operations AI partners.
- Ensure portfolio and delivery teams surface feasibility concerns, dependencies, staffing gaps, and risks early, with options and recommendations.
- Create a repeatable path from rapid pilot to resilient, supportable, enterprise-grade product.
Organization, Talent, and Operating Model
- Design and lead the organization required to manage the VCO/Plan AI Platform and its integration capabilities at scale.
- Build a team with clear accountabilities across VCO/Plan product, architecture, engineering, data, AI/ML, platform operations, and adoption.
- Attract, develop, and retain high-performing leaders and technical talent; set clear expectations for performance, collaboration, and continuous improvement.
- Establish workforce, sourcing, and capability strategies that appropriately balance internal talent, strategic partners, managed services, and vendors.
- Create an environment where leaders challenge assumptions, make decisions with appropriate speed, and remain accountable for outcomes after go-live.
Platform Operations, Risk, and Responsible AI
- Ensure the VCO/Plan platform meets appropriate standards for availability, performance, scalability, observability, disaster recovery, incident management, and operational support.
- Establish monitoring, retraining, model refresh, human-in-the-loop, and incident-response expectations for AI-enabled capabilities.
- Champion responsible AI, model governance, process safety, cybersecurity, data privacy, auditability, and regulatory alignment.
- Ensure users can understand, validate, accept, override, and escalate AI-supported recommendations where appropriate.
- Maintain clear run ownership and operational accountability for every VCO/Plan production capability and every integration boundary with Operations AI.
Team and Operating Model
- The role leads the VCO/Plan platform and product teams and coordinates a connected set of integration initiatives with Operations AI.
- Each use case is delivered through a cross-functional pod led jointly by a Business Product Owner and an AI Platform or Product Lead.
- Business Product Owners own the business problem, backlog, prioritization, feature approval, and value realization.
- AI platform and product leaders own technical feasibility, architecture, model and technology choices, build plans, and technical delivery.
- The Senior Director provides VCO/Plan portfolio direction, resolves cross-platform trade-offs with the Operations AI Platform owner, ensures shared capabilities are reused where appropriate, and escalates major risks and decisions through the appropriate governance forums.
What You'll Bring - Required
- Legally authorized to work in the job posting country
- Bachelor's degree
- 7 or more years of progressive experience in product, platform, technology strategy, digital transformation, data and AI, in the Oil & Gas industry
- Travel up to 5% of the time
What Makes You Stand Out - Preferred
- Experience setting strategy and delivering complex, mission-critical platforms across multiple business domains or operating environments
- Experience owning an enterprise product or platform portfolio, including investment prioritization, roadmaps, operating models, value realization, and executive governance
- Experience translating business strategy into scalable technology, data, and AI capabilities that deliver measurable outcomes across production environments
- Experience shaping enterprise technology strategy and architecture across cloud platforms, APIs and microservices, data and event platforms, AI/ML and GenAI, cybersecurity, observability, model operations, and resilient production environments, including modernization, sourcing, vendor, build-versus-buy, and partner decisions
- Experience in executive leadership, stakeholder influence, organizational development, and building high-performing teams
- MBA or advanced technical degree
- Certifications in product management, Agile/SAFe, cloud, data, or AI
- Value Chain Optimization, refining planning, LP modeling, crude and feedstock selection, scenario planning, trading, or commercial decision support
- Refining and/or Midstream operations, maintenance, reliability, process engineering, pipeline or terminal operations, or control-room environments
- Industrial data integration, including historians, time-series data, laboratory and assay data, control-system interfaces, asset models, and knowledge graphs
- Scaling AI/ML and GenAI use cases from pilot to production, including model monitoring, drift detection, explainability, human-in-the-loop controls, and adoption
- Designing and operating platforms with high availability, clear service objectives, robust incident management, and 24x7 operational requirements
- Leading modernization of legacy planning, optimization, or operational technology environments
- Managing strategic technology partners and delivery partners with measurable value-for-cost outcomes
Compensation Range
This position has a base salary range of $173,261 - $314,600.
At Phillips 66, we are committed to pay transparency and competitive, equitable compensation. Each role is assigned a salary grade with a defined pay range, benchmarked against industry peers. Where a candidate offer falls within the posted range depends on the candidate's experience, skills, and alignment with the role’s requirements. Offers are made to ensure internal equity and market competitiveness. Our compensation programs are designed to reward performance and support career growth.
Total Rewards
At Phillips 66, providing access to high quality programs and care for you and your family is important to us. Maintaining a culture of well-being — physical, emotional, social, and financial — is essential for a high-performing organization. When we are at our best, we are poised to deliver exceptional results — personally and professionally. Benefits for certain eligible, full-time employees include:
- Annual Variable Cash Incentive Program (VCIP) bonus
- 8% 401k company match
- Cash Balance Account pension
- Medical, Dental, and Vision benefits with an annual company contribution to a Health Savings Account for employees on HDHP
- Total well-being programs and incentives, including Employee Assistance Plan, well-being reimbursement, and backup family care services
Learn more about Phillips 66 Total Rewards.
Phillips 66 has more than 140 years of experience in providing the energy that enables people to dream bigger and go farther, faster. We are committed to improving lives, and that is our promise to our employees and our communities. We are sustained by the backgrounds and experiences of our diverse teams, which reflect who we are, the environment we create and how we work together. We have been recognized by the Human Rights Campaign, U.S. Department of Labor and the Military Times for our continued commitment to inclusive practices and policies in the hiring and retention of those in the LGBTQ+ community and military veterans. Our company is built on values of safety, honor and commitment. We call our cultural mindset Our Energy in Action, which we define through four simple, intuitive behaviors: We work for the greater good, cultivate an environment of trust, seek different perspectives and pursue excellence.
Learn more about Phillips 66 and how we are working to meet the world's energy needs today and tomorrow, by visiting phillips66.com.
To be considered
In order to be considered for this position you must complete the entire application process, which includes answering all prescreening questions and providing your eSignature on or before the requisition closing date of 11/30/2026.
Candidates for regular U.S. positions must be a U.S. citizen or national, or an alien admitted as permanent resident, refugee, asylee or temporary resident under 8 U.S.C. 1160(a) or 1255(a)(1). Individuals with temporary visas such as E, F-1, H-1, H-2, L, B, J, or TN or who need sponsorship for work authorization now or in the future, are not eligible for hire.
Phillips 66 is an Equal Opportunity Employer
Nearest Major Market: Houston