AI Engagement Manager

About the Job

• Own the full AI engagement arc from first discovery through sustained workflow adoption, serving as the external partner's single point of contact across every phase while driving scope, timelines, milestones, and escalations.
• Drive requirements and delivery precision: shape engagement structure, align on objectives, translate partner needs into a clear execution plan, and track against it with rigor.
• Champion continuous quality by overseeing testing and feedback loops, tracking adoption progress, and managing change management work.
• Hold the R&D feedback loop: ensure field learnings flow back to R&D and that R&D delivers on agreed roadmap commitments.
• Build playbooks: identify reusable patterns across engagements and turn them into scalable delivery frameworks.
• Own engagement economics: track the full cost structure of every active engagement, maintain a running view of cost-to-deliver, and surface cost/benefit signals.

This is a field-first role. Travel is part of the job — expect to be on-site at partner locations during key engagement phases, with travel that could reach 50%+ at peak.

Minimum Qualifications

• 8+ years in technical project management, enterprise engagement management, or a related field with a track record of delivering complex, multi-stakeholder technical programs end to end to external enterprise clientele.
• Demonstrated experience managing programs across the full software development lifecycle — from requirements definition and scoping through build, test, and launch.
• Technical fluency sufficient to hold credible conversations with partner engineering teams, understand AI/ML implementations and integration dependencies.
• Experience building and maintaining engagement cost models — tracking resource utilization, time allocation, and cost inputs across concurrent programs.
• Exceptional communication, organizational, and time management skills; expert in facilitating highly productive internal and external meetings.
• Comfort operating in ambiguous, fast-moving environments where structure doesn't yet exist.
• Proficiency across program management tools (Jira, Asana, Smartsheet), collaboration and documentation platforms (Confluence, Google Workspace), and executive-level presentation tools (PowerPoint, Google Slides).
• Bachelor's degree in Technology, Engineering, Business, or related field, or equivalent practical experience.
• Willingness to travel ~50% within North America.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience managing AI, data platform, or systems integration deployments at enterprise scale.
• Background in retail tech, e-commerce, operations, or CPG.
• Experience working at the intersection of engineering, product, and commercial teams.
• Familiarity with agentic AI platforms, LLM APIs, or RAG-based systems.
• Familiarity with CRM tools (Salesforce), BI and reporting platforms (Tableau, Looker, Power BI), and workshop facilitation tools (Miro, Lucidspark).
• PMP or equivalent program management credentials.
• Prior work in a forward-deployed, embedded, or startup environment.