The posting
AI & Business Transformation Analyst Innovation & Business Transformation Position Overview The AI & Business Transformation Analyst supports the Director of Innovation & Business Transformation in identifying, evaluating, organizing, and advancing high-value AI, innovation, and transformation opportunities across BlueLinx. This role combines structured problem-solving, business analysis, process mapping, AI-enabled opportunity assessment, initiative coordination, portfolio support, and executive-ready communication. As a force multiplier for the function, the Analyst helps translate ambiguous business needs and emerging AI capabilities into clear problem statements, process views, analyses, recommendations, decisions, actions, and measurable next steps. The ideal candidate is a high-potential, technology-savvy problem solver with strong analytical, communication, and consulting-style capabilities. This role supports selected initiatives without serving as a traditional project administration function. Key Responsibilities Business Analysis and Process Mapping
Document current-state processes, workflows, roles, decisions, systems, pain points, and handoffs. Create clear process maps, swim lanes, SIPOCs, and other practical views that help teams understand how work occurs today. Facilitate structured discovery sessions and translate stakeholder input into concise problem statements and future-state considerations. Identify process friction, manual activity, decision delays, data gaps, and opportunities for simplification, automation, or new capabilities. Maintain organized process documentation that supports opportunity evaluation, solution design, adoption, and transition.
Opportunity and Portfolio Support
Maintain a current portfolio inventory of AI, innovation, and business transformation opportunities and selected in-flight initiatives. Track initiative status, sponsors, owners, milestones, dependencies, stakeholders, risks, decisions, and near-term next steps to support portfolio visibility and follow-through. Gather the information needed to evaluate an opportunity, including the business problem, intended outcome, sponsor, owner, value hypothesis, readiness, dependencies, and capacity needs. Support initiative prioritization using defined enterprise value, strategic alignment, speed, readiness, confidence, complexity, dependency, and resource criteria. Prepare working summaries and executive portfolio reporting that distinguish immediate priorities from the broader opportunity backlog and surface key opportunities, risks, dependencies, and decisions. Keep portfolio information accurate and decision-ready without assuming project ownership or enterprise PMO responsibilities.
Selected Initiative Coordination
Support the Director in quarterbacking selected cross-functional priorities at leadership direction. Track commitments, owners, decisions, milestones, risks, dependencies, barriers, and near-term next steps for selected work. Coordinate follow-up across business, technology, data, external partners, and other stakeholders. Prepare concise status views focused on progress, expected impact, barriers, and decisions needed. Promptly escalate incomplete information, stalled decisions, or emerging barriers.
Insight, Analytics, and Value Support
Gather and analyze business, operational, financial, adoption, and customer information needed to support recommendations. Coordinate baseline metric collection and help define value hypotheses, KPIs, success measures, and practical methods for benefits tracking. Track adoption, benefits, and business outcomes for selected implemented solutions and support consistent value-realization reporting. Use Excel, Power BI, Microsoft 365 Copilot, and other approved tools to organize information and create decision-useful insights. Validate data definitions, assumptions, sources, and reported outcomes with the appropriate business and technical owners. Translate complex information into clear business language for leaders and cross-functional teams.
Executive and Stakeholder Communication
Prepare executive updates, leadership presentations, meeting materials, summaries, and concise status views for recurring reviews and governance forums. Maintain action-item and decision tracking, including clear owners, due dates, open questions, and required follow-up. Coordinate follow-up across business, technology, data, external partners, and other stakeholders to keep priority work moving. Support recurring updates and leadership reviews for the Director, CEO, ELT, and other governance forums as requested. Consolidate stakeholder input into themes, opportunities, risks, decisions, open questions, and follow-up actions. Maintain organized working files and knowledge repositories so decisions and context are easy to retrieve. Communicate progress and follow-ups with accuracy, discretion, and appropriate urgency.
AI, External Innovation, and Capability Support
Support AI opportunity intake and evaluation by documenting the business need, intended users, expected value, readiness, risks, dependencies, and recommended next step. Track adoption of selected AI solutions, collect structured user feedback, and summarize usage patterns, barriers, and improvement opportunities. Support business readiness assessments by identifying process, data, technology, stakeholder, training, and change-enablement needs. Identify and document reusable AI use cases, lessons learned, and best practices that can accelerate responsible adoption across the business. Track relationships and activity with selected universities, suppliers, customers, startups, strategic partners, vendors, and industry organizations. Capture useful external insights and connect them to defined BlueLinx business needs and opportunities. Assist with meeting preparation, follow-up, capability comparisons, and proof-of-concept documentation. Help maintain visibility into emerging AI technologies, vendors, and practical use cases while connecting exploration to defined business needs, responsible-use expectations, and measurable value.
Position Scope and Working Relationships
Span of Control: No direct reports are anticipated. The role works through cross-functional teams, business owners, technology and data partners, and external organizations. Decision-Making: Works independently on assigned analysis and coordination, with regular alignment on priorities, scope, assumptions, and expected outputs. Financial Authority: No financial approval authority. Supports fact-based recommendations, value assessments, and business-case inputs. Confidentiality: Handles executive, business, employee, vendor, and strategy information with sound judgment and discretion. Travel: Periodic travel to BlueLinx locations, customer or supplier meetings, conferences, and partner locations may be required. Primary Relationships: Director, Innovation & Business Transformation; CEO and ELT support as directed; business and functional leaders; IT and data teams; initiative owners; and external partners.
Qualifications Education and Experience
Bachelor’s degree required. Relevant fields may include business, analytics, economics, engineering, operations, supply chain, information systems, finance, or a related discipline. Demonstrated structured problem-solving, analytical, communication, and technology capabilities through professional experience, internships, co-ops, academic projects, case competitions, research, or other rigorous applied work. No fixed number of years is required. Experience translating ambiguous business needs into structured analysis, recommendations, presentations, or action plans is preferred. Experience in consulting, corporate strategy, business transformation, analytics, operations, technology, or another rigorous problem-solving environment is highly valued. Experience in distribution, building products, supply chain, commercial operations, finance, or technology-enabled transformation is helpful but not required.
Knowledge, Skills, and Capabilities
Structured Thinking: Breaks ambiguous business questions into clear issues, assumptions, information needs, and next steps. Process Mapping: Creates clear, accurate process views using Visio, PowerPoint, Lucidchart, or similar tools. Analytical Capability: Uses Excel and basic analytics confidently; Power BI or similar visualization experience is preferred. Project Coordination: Maintains actions, decisions, milestones, risks, dependencies, and follow-up without overcomplicating the work. AI, Technology, and Digital Fluency: Rapidly learns and responsibly applies approved AI and digital tools to research, analyze, synthesize, automate, prototype, and improve business work. Executive Communication: Produces concise, accurate, visually clear materials and adapts communication for leadership and working-team audiences. Curiosity, Coachability, and Learning Agility: Seeks feedback, asks thoughtful questions, tests assumptions, adapts quickly, and develops new business and technology knowledge with limited direction. Collaboration and Judgment: Builds trust, follows through, handles sensitive information appropriately, and knows when to escalate. Consulting-Style Problem-Solving: Frames problems, develops hypotheses, synthesizes evidence, and converts findings into practical recommendations and actions. High-Potential Mindset: Combines initiative, intellectual curiosity, humility, resilience, and a clear desire to grow through feedback and increasingly complex assignments.
