AI Technical Project Manager

We are seeking a highly skilled and experienced Technical AI Project Manager to lead and oversee the planning, execution, and successful delivery of software and AI development projects. The ideal candidate will have a strong background in managing multiple complex software development initiatives, ensuring they are completed on time, within scope, and on budget. A strong technical foundation, exceptional organizational skills, and the capacity to communicate effectively across technical and non-technical teams are essential for this position.

Department 

The Technology Division at Success Academy is the chief provider of technology infrastructure, application services, security, and support. The Division partners with teams across the organization to equip students, teachers, leaders, and staff with the innovative technology tools and know-how necessary to achieve academic and operational excellence.

The Technical AI Project Manager will be a key contributor to our mission of driving innovation across the organization. This role will be responsible for building and managing end-to-end project plans, monitoring and reporting progress, effectively managing scope and dependencies, proactively mitigating risks, and ensuring that projects are delivered within time, cost, and quality specifications. This role will be part of a highly collaborative team of professionals with a wide range of skills, including DevOps engineering, data engineering, software engineering, RPA engineering, and project management.

About the Role

• Acts as project lead, managing cross-functional teams with responsibilities for project schedule and performance.
• Ensures that business outcomes are defined, approved, and delivered. Be responsible for benefits realization and ensure that benefits are delivered in the best way possible.
• Supports strong governance, aligned with the overall governance, and ensures that timely decisions are taken.
• Communicates regularly and effectively the project roadmap and milestones with project executive stakeholders.
• Directly contributes to project definition, development, and/or enhancement efforts, including cost management/avoidance, schedule estimation and tracking, contract performance management, risk management, requirements analysis, and quality assurance activities.
• Performs analysis of business and user needs, documentation of requirements, and translation into proper requirements specifications.
• Utilizes expert communication skills needed to direct skilled technical resources and report on the technical progress, issues, and problem areas, as well as write and review technical documents.
• Answers technical questions regarding products and services and may take part in putting together proposals, configurations, and product plans.
• Prepares affected business areas for transition to a new way of working, potentially implementing new business processes.

Responsibilities

• Lead the end-to-end planning, execution, and delivery of software development and AI/ML projects.
• Collaborate with stakeholders to define project scope, goals, and deliverables that support business objectives, specifically translating business needs into technical requirements for software and AI solutions.
• Create and maintain detailed project plans, schedules, and roadmaps, including technical milestones for development, testing, and deployment phases.
• Monitor and track project progress, adjusting plans as necessary to ensure technical milestones are met and dependencies are managed effectively.
• Identify and mitigate technical risks (e.g., scalability issues, data quality, model performance, integration challenges) and resolve issues to keep projects on track.
• Facilitate communication and collaboration between cross-functional teams (software engineering, data science, AI/ML engineering, design, QA, product).
• Provide regular project status updates to stakeholders and upper management, clearly articulating technical progress and potential roadblocks.
• Manage project budgets, timelines, and resource allocations for technical teams.
• Ensure that all project documentation, including technical specifications, architecture diagrams, and model documentation, is complete, up-to-date, and accessible.
• Foster an agile development environment, leading sprint planning, daily standups, and retrospectives, with a focus on technical sprint goals and deliverables.
• Ensure that the development process aligns with best practices in software engineering, data governance, and responsible AI development.
• Drive continuous improvement of project management processes and tools, integrating best practices for technical project delivery.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Business Management, or a related field.
• 5+ years of experience in software project management, ideally in a mid-to-senior capacity, with a proven track record of delivering complex technical projects.
• Proven experience managing full software development life cycles (SDLC) from concept to deployment.
• Strong understanding of software development methodologies (Agile, Scrum, Kanban, or Waterfall).
• PMP, PRINCE2, or Scrum Master certification preferred.
• Experience working with tools such as Jira, Asana, Trello, Confluence, Monday.com, or similar project management software.
• Strong business analysis skills, with a focus on working with a diverse group of users to understand and solve problems.
• Ability to manage multiple projects simultaneously and prioritize tasks in a fast-paced, technically demanding environment.
• Strong problem-solving skills with the ability to make informed technical decisions under pressure.
• Proficiency in budgeting, forecasting, and resource management for engineering teams.
• Experience working with remote teams and managing distributed projects is a plus.
• Familiarity with software development practices and technical concepts, including cloud infrastructure, APIs, and version control (e.g., Git).

Desired Skills

• Experience in managing projects in cloud environments (AWS, Azure, GCP), including an understanding of cloud-native services for compute, storage, and data.
• Knowledge of DevOps practices and CI/CD pipelines, with an understanding of how to optimize release cycles for software and AI models.
• Familiarity with software testing and quality assurance processes, including automated testing and performance testing.
• Strong organizational skills with attention to detail, particularly in managing complex technical dependencies.
• Any candidate who has been part of the development team and has spent time as a developer is ideal for this role and is desired.

Technical Skills for Software Development

• Understanding of common programming languages such as Python, Java, JavaScript, C#, or Go.
• Familiarity with database technologies (e.g., SQL, PostgreSQL, MongoDB, Cassandra).
• Knowledge of front-end and back-end frameworks (e.g., React, Angular, Node.js, Spring Boot, Django, Flask).
• Experience with API design, development, and integration (RESTful, GraphQL).
• Understanding of microservices architecture and distributed systems.
• Familiarity with containerization technologies (Docker, Kubernetes).
• Knowledge of security best practices in software development (e.g., OWASP Top 10).

Technical Skills for AI Development

• Familiarity with machine learning frameworks (e.g., TensorFlow, PyTorch, scikit-learn).
• Familiarity with AWS Bedrock and its available foundation model.
• Understanding of data science concepts, including statistical modeling, data preprocessing, feature engineering, and model evaluation metrics.
• Experience with data pipelines and ETL processes for machine learning (e.g., Apache Spark, Kafka, Talend).
• Knowledge of MLOps practices for deploying, monitoring, and managing machine learning models in production.
• Familiarity with natural language processing (NLP) or computer vision (CV) concepts if relevant to the projects.
• Understanding of responsible AI principles, including fairness, interpretability, and privacy.
• Experience with big data technologies and data warehousing solutions.