Manufacturing
Deployment record
In the tracker →- Organisation
- Hayward Holdings
- System
- VP, Enterprise Architecture & AI Innovation
- Stage
- Hiring
- Function
- AI strategy and governance
- 01Hayward Holdings is seeking a VP of Enterprise Architecture & AI Innovation to lead its AI strategy and technology direction from its headquarters in Charlotte, North Carolina.
- 02The company operates facilities in multiple locations, including Tennessee, Arizona, Rhode Island, Georgia, Canada, Spain, France, Australia, and China, and has seen a 6% increase in net sales to $260.1 million in the third quarter.
- 03The new VP will oversee the enterprise innovation program, vendor evaluations, and team building, requiring over 15 years of technology experience and 10 years in architecture or AI leadership.
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- 04Hayward's products are already connected through IoT-enabled platforms, and the company aims to integrate its systems and AI strategies under a unified architecture.
- 05The approach of placing AI under enterprise architecture is uncommon for manufacturers of Hayward's size, with potential risks related to workload and integration challenges.
Hayward Holdings
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On 29 October, Hayward Holdings posted a role titled VP, Enterprise Architecture & AI Innovation at its Charlotte, North Carolina headquarters. The NYSE-listed maker of pool pumps, filters, heaters, sanitisers, lighting and automation runs facilities in Tennessee, Arizona, Rhode Island and Georgia, plus Canada, Spain, France, Australia and China. Some 64 people had clicked apply within four days.
The brief is broad. The hire will set enterprise-wide technology direction and standards and lead "the company's end-to-end AI agenda, including AI strategy, technology and platform direction, governance, responsible AI, risk and privacy, adoption, and value realization." The same person runs the enterprise innovation program, evaluates vendors and partners, and builds a team of enterprise architects, solution architects, AI leaders and innovation staff. The ad asks for 15 or more years in technology and 10 or more leading architecture, transformation, AI or innovation groups.
A new CIO and a connected product line
The role follows a leadership change in technology. Juliana Lino became Hayward's chief digital and information officer in July 2026, according to her LinkedIn profile, after four years as VP of data and analytics for connected devices at GE HealthCare and nearly eight years at Whirlpool covering IoT, digital twins, product engineering systems and SAP. She is the natural person to call on what the new VP builds first.
Hayward's products already generate data. Its pool lines are linked through the IoT-enabled SmartPad platform, and its OmniX system puts control logic inside pumps, heaters and lights, managed from a phone app. Competitor Pentair runs its own connected-pool app. With about 85% of North America residential pool sales coming from the aftermarket, the installed base of connected equipment is where service, replacement and pricing insight could come from.
The plants are the other half of the opportunity. Hayward makes much of what it sells in its own facilities, and in the third quarter net price offset inflation and tariffs. Demand forecasting for a seasonal business, quality inspection on pumps and heaters, maintenance planning and sourcing decisions under shifting tariffs all sit between operations, engineering and IT, which is the ground an enterprise architect has to connect.
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The business is growing steadily. Hayward's third-quarter results showed net sales of $260.1 million, up 6%, a 47.9% gross margin and raised full-year guidance. CEO Kevin Holleran credited "disciplined execution and the resilience of our installed base aftermarket business model."
Why architecture, and why it is contested
Placing AI under enterprise architecture is an unusual call for a manufacturer of Hayward's size. Peers such as WAI Global have chosen a business-led, IT-governed AI office, while Stadler US put its AI lead in business transformation and Safariland hired a specialist to train process owners. Architecture teams are often seen as gatekeepers that slow pilots, and the people closest to AI value tend to sit on plant floors, in engineering and in the product team led by Kevin Gallagher, rather than in a standards function.
The counter-argument is strong. Gartner predicts more than 40% of agentic AI projects will be cancelled by the end of 2027 because of cost, unclear value or weak risk controls, which are problems an architecture-led model is designed to catch early. For a company running systems across plants on four continents, plus device data from SmartPad and OmniX, integration and data standards may decide whether AI scales at all. Deployed's manufacturing desk has seen Honeywell take a similar platform-first route at far larger scale.
Disciplined execution and the resilience of our installed base aftermarket business model.
The risk is overload. One VP owning standards, AI strategy, governance, innovation, vendor selection and team building is a lot for a single seat, and the ad lists no budget or reporting line. Eric Sejourne's global operations group and Gallagher's engineering team will need to see early wins in their own work.
Five questions for Juliana Lino
- Q1Which plant or product use case gets AI first, and how will its value be measured?
- Q2Will SmartPad and OmniX device data feed the AI roadmap from day one?
- Q3How will an architecture-led model avoid slowing pilots in operations and engineering?
- Q4Does the new VP report to you, and what budget comes with the role?
- Q5How will Hayward's sites in Europe, Australia and China share one AI governance model?
Hayward has spent years connecting its pool equipment. Its next step is connecting the company's own systems and AI choices under one architecture. If the new VP can show early results in a plant and in the connected-product business, the architecture-first model will have a strong case at other mid-cap manufacturers.
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