Program Manager - AI Transformation

**Job Title: Program Manager - AI Transformation

Location** Des Moines, IA - Hybrid Job Type: W2 , Contract Duration: 12+ Months

• Day-to-Day Responsibilities:

• Translate AI priorities into clear work plans, milestones, deliverables, owners, and target dates.

• Lead day-to-day execution across multiple initiatives, pilots, and operational readiness activities.

• Maintain integrated project plans, action logs, decision trackers, risk and issue logs, and dependency maps.

• Coordinate activities across Operations, Product, Technology, Risk, Compliance, Finance, change management, and other partners.

• Facilitate working sessions, document decisions, and drive timely completion of follow-up actions.

• Identify execution gaps, competing priorities, resource constraints, and delivery risks before they affect outcomes.

• Escalate issues with a clear summary of the impact, available options, and recommended action.

• Coordinate business requirements, testing, implementation readiness, communications, training dependencies, and transition into ongoing operations.

• Prepare concise executive updates that highlight progress, risks, decisions, dependencies, and next steps.

• Establish repeatable execution routines, templates, and governance practices that can scale across ULO AI initiatives.

• Must-Have Skills:

• Substantial experience leading complex business execution, project management, operational planning, or transformation initiatives.

• Demonstrated success managing multiple cross-functional workstreams with competing priorities and interdependent deliverables.

• Experience converting ambiguous objectives into structured plans, clear ownership, and executable actions.

• Strong project-management discipline, including milestone management, risk identification, dependency tracking, decision management, and status reporting.

• Experience influencing and driving accountability across teams without direct authority.

• Strong facilitation and stakeholder-management skills.

• Excellent written and verbal communication, including the ability to create concise, executive-ready materials.

• Ability to work independently, anticipate needs, resolve problems, and maintain momentum in a rapidly changing environment.

• Experience working within a large, complex, or regulated organization.

• Strong proficiency with PowerPoint, Excel, Word, Teams, and standard project-management tools.

• Nice-to-Have Skills:

• Experience supporting AI, automation, digital transformation, process redesign, or technology implementation.

• Experience in financial services, consumer lending, servicing, collections, contact centers, or operations.

• Experience supporting pilots, proofs of concept, business requirements, testing, implementation readiness, and post-launch transition.

• Experience partnering with Operations, Product, Technology, Risk, Compliance, Finance, and change-management teams.

• Candidate Profile

Critical Candidate Attributes Prioritize Candidates Who Demonstrate

• Hands-on execution: Personally develops plans, runs working sessions, tracks commitments, and drives issues to resolution. The candidate should not rely on others to create the structure or manage the details.
• Structured problem-solving: Can quickly organize unclear or incomplete information into decisions, actions, owners, dates, and measurable outcomes.
• Cross-functional leadership: Builds alignment across business, technology, and control partners, even when ownership or priorities are unclear.
• Proactive risk management: Identifies risks and dependencies early, determines their potential impact, and brings forward practical recommendations.
• Executive communication: Clearly explains what is on track, what is at risk, what decision is needed, and what happens next.
• Operational orientation: Understands how new solutions affect processes, employees, customers, controls, capacity, and day-to-day operations.
• Adaptability: Maintains execution discipline while adjusting quickly as priorities, timelines, requirements, or delivery approaches change.

What Success Looks Like The contractor will be successful when:

• Each initiative has clear deliverables, owners, milestones, dependencies, and decision points.
• Leaders have a concise and reliable view of progress, risks, outcomes, and required decisions.
• Cross-functional issues are identified early and resolved or escalated quickly.
• Working sessions consistently result in clear actions, owners, and dates.
• Pilots and implementations have coordinated operational-readiness plans.
• Teams experience fewer missed handoffs, unclear accountabilities, and unresolved dependencies.
• Reusable planning, reporting, and governance practices are established for future initiatives.

Vendor Screening Requirements Please recommend candidates who can provide specific examples of personally leading complex execution.

Resumes And Candidate Summaries Should Clearly Address

• Ambiguity: An initiative where the candidate received broad direction and created the execution structure.
• Complexity: A program involving multiple workstreams, stakeholders, and dependencies.
• Accountability: How the candidate drove commitments without directly managing the people completing the work.
• Risk management: A significant delivery risk the candidate identified early and helped resolve.
• Implementation: Experience coordinating testing, readiness, deployment, or operational transition.
• Executive support: An example of simplifying complex program information for senior leaders.
• Business impact: The measurable result achieved through the candidate s execution leadership.
• Relevant transformation: Experience with AI, automation, technology implementation, or operational change.

Candidates to Prioritize Prioritize Candidates Who Have

• Personally owned execution across complex initiatives.
• Created structure where plans, ownership, or requirements were initially unclear.
• Worked effectively across Operations and Technology.
• Managed senior stakeholders and prepared decision-ready materials.
• Demonstrated strong follow-through and attention to detail.
• Balanced delivery speed with risk, control, and operational-readiness requirements.

Candidates to Avoid Do not prioritize candidates whose experience is primarily limited to:

• Scheduling meetings and taking notes.
• Collecting status updates without challenging or validating them.
• Maintaining project trackers without actively driving execution.
• Producing presentations without owning the underlying work.
• Providing high-level strategy without translating it into operational plans.
• Technical AI development without relevant business execution or operational leadership experience