AI PROJECT MANAGER
LOCATION: SAN DIEGO, CA (HYBRID)
DURATION: 6-MONTH CONTRACT
PAY: 108-113 USD per hour
Job Responsibilities:
In this role, you will manage and support a portfolio of enterprise AI initiatives, driving projects from intake through pilot and production.
Key responsibilities include:
· Managing and prioritizing multiple AI initiatives across R&D, Commercial, Manufacturing, and Corporate functions, including:
o Enterprise search and conversational assistants.
o Document Q&A and document intelligence.
o Report drafting and meeting intelligence.
o Request triage and workflow automation.
o Agentic AI and multi-step automation capabilities.
· Sequencing an active AI roadmap against available team and pod capacity.
· Making and documenting prioritization decisions regarding initiatives that proceed, defer, or stop.
· Driving AI initiatives from intake through pilot and production, including scope, milestones, dependencies, risks, and launch activities.
· Removing blockers and coordinating delivery across small technical and business-focused pods.
· Leading the delivery of agentic AI and multi-step automation capabilities, including human-in-the-loop controls, escalation paths, guardrails, monitoring, and rollback provisions.
· Partnering with Legal, Security, IT, Compliance, and other stakeholders to ensure governance and approvals are incorporated into delivery plans.
· Managing implementation partners and SaaS vendors against SOWs, timelines, and committed deliverables.
· Developing and executing adoption plans for each AI capability, including pilot cohort design, utilization tracking, and user enablement.
· Preparing status updates, decision materials, and steering communications for VPs and executive leadership.
Essential Duties and Job Functions:
· Manage project delivery activities from initial intake through pilot and production deployment.
· Maintain project scopes, milestones, dependencies, risks, decisions, and launch plans.
· Establish and maintain a transparent prioritization model that connects business value, delivery requirements, and available pod capacity.
· Document and communicate roadmap changes, prioritization decisions, and scope adjustments.
· Coordinate AI Policy Review Committee submissions and ensure required governance activities are completed on schedule.
· Engage Legal, Security, IT, Compliance, and other governance stakeholders early in the project lifecycle.
· Evaluate AI workflows to determine which processes are appropriate for autonomous or agentic execution.
· Define human review checkpoints, escalation paths, monitoring requirements, guardrails, and rollback procedures for agentic AI solutions.
· Coordinate implementation across enterprise AI and automation platforms and technical teams.
· Monitor vendors and implementation partners to ensure delivery aligns with SOW requirements and committed timelines.
· Establish pilot programs and measure utilization and adoption against defined targets.
· Coordinate enablement activities alongside AI literacy initiatives.
· Track and report production adoption rather than relying solely on deployment or launch metrics.
· Develop executive-level status reports, decision documents, steering materials, and other communications.
· Establish delivery cadences, intake processes, and documentation practices that can be sustained by the internal team following completion of the engagement.
Knowledge & Skills:
· Strong project management, delivery, documentation, communication, and interpersonal skills.
· Strong understanding of enterprise AI, generative AI, automation, and machine learning delivery.
· Practical experience with agentic AI workflows, including tool use, orchestration, multi-step execution, and human-in-the-loop controls.
· Working knowledge of enterprise AI and automation platforms such as Claude, Microsoft 365 Copilot, Glean, Power Automate, and UiPath, or comparable technologies.
· Ability to evaluate AI platform and vendor capabilities and translate technical concepts into practical business requirements.
· Understanding of data and analytics delivery, including how data readiness and platform architecture impact AI outcomes.
· Strong understanding of AI governance, risk management, security, compliance, and approval processes.
· Experience working with Legal, Security, IT, Compliance, and other cross-functional stakeholders.
· Strong vendor and stakeholder management skills, including experience managing SOWs and implementation timelines.
· Strong analytical, organizational, problem-solving, and critical-thinking skills.
· Ability to manage competing priorities and make effective tradeoff decisions in a fast-paced environment.
· Strong executive-level written and verbal communication skills.
· Ability to work independently and operate effectively within a lean team environment.
· Familiarity with Microsoft technologies, including Azure, Fabric, Entra ID, SharePoint, and Teams.
· Understanding of data governance concepts, including data classification, data ownership, stewardship, and access frameworks.
· Ability to establish productive relationships with internal teams, external vendors, and implementation partners.
Education & Experience:
· Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Engineering, Business, or a related field.
· 5+ years of experience managing technical delivery or enterprise technology projects.
· Demonstrated experience leading AI or machine learning initiatives from concept through production at enterprise scale.
· Direct experience delivering generative AI initiatives such as enterprise search, document intelligence, conversational assistants, or similar solutions.
· Practical experience delivering agentic AI or multi-step automation capabilities.
· Experience delivering projects in a regulated environment where Legal, Security, and Compliance approvals are part of the critical path.
· Experience with AI governance or AI review committee processes preferred.
· Experience in biopharma, life sciences, or another regulated industry preferred.
· Familiarity with GxP or MNPI considerations preferred.
· Experience with vendor management, SOW administration, or contract management preferred.
· PMP, Agile, or equivalent certification is a plus.
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