Technical Product Management Senior Specialist

Job Description

Job Description:

The Senior Specialist, AI Delivery Management is an end-to-end delivery lead within the APEX E2E Delivery Management team in Prague. This hands-on role owns AI engagements from intake through production and handover, often managing multiple workstreams in parallel. You will lead delivery across the SDLC, coordinate the build team, manage risks, dependencies, and budget, and work closely with customers to ensure releases are ready.

Key Responsibilities:

1. End-to-End Delivery Execution

• Lead assigned engagements end to end: refine scope, build the team, plan, manage and escalate, validate results, deploy to production, hand off to the run team and capture feedback.
• Build an integrated delivery plan with milestones and dependencies, and keep a current log of risks, assumptions, issues and dependencies (RAID).

• Take each engagement through the playbook exit checks: sponsor, value and owner named; scope and AI quality bar signed by the business; working software every two to three weeks; users confirm fit for purpose; the IT owner accepts the hand-over.

• Set and hold an input cutoff for each release and confirm the long-term owner and funding before build starts.

• Track effort, cost and budget for your engagements and flag variances early.

2. Technical and SDLC Oversight

• Plan and coordinate the SDLC for each engagement: requirements and user stories, design reviews, build, testing including user acceptance testing, release, deployment and support hand-over, with the validation deliverables required for GxP-regulated solutions.

• Understand the architecture of the solutions you deliver, such as generative AI assistants and agents, retrieval-augmented generation, machine learning models, data pipelines, APIs and cloud services, well enough to spot technical risk, question estimates and design choices, and explain trade-offs to customers.

• Check for existing products and reusable assets before anything new is built, and apply the Build shop's frameworks and standards for quality, security, privacy and responsible AI.

3. Customer & Stakeholder Partnership

• Be the single point of contact for your customers from the first conversation to hand-over, and manage expectations on scope, time and quality.
• Help customers define the right problem before moving to a solution, using discovery, design thinking and process analysis, and bring in Mosaic for deeper business analysis, process intelligence and UX work.
• Facilitate workshops, demos and steering meetings, and write clear scope agreements, updates and hand-over documents.

4. Team Orchestration

• Lead the multidisciplinary team on each engagement (developers, solution architects, data scientists, analysts and designers from Mosaic, the Build shop and teams outside APEX) without line authority.
• Work with Build shop leads to secure the right skills at the right time, and resolve conflicts in priorities or dependencies before they affect delivery.
• Share lessons learned and reusable assets with other E2E Delivery Leads, and support colleagues who are new to the role.

5. Governance & Reporting

• Post a weekly Jira update for each engagement for the APEX leadership team, with an honest confidence level and the risks that need attention.
• Keep the engagement page, charter and RAID log current so portfolio reporting reflects the real state of delivery.
• Follow APEX intake and prioritization, and raise capacity conflicts early with the trade-offs needed for a decision.

Experience and Skills:

Essential:

• University degree (Bachelor's or Master's) in Computer Science, Engineering, Information Systems, Data Science or a related field, or equivalent practical experience.
• At least 5 years in software, data or IT delivery roles, such as developer, test engineer, business or systems analyst, scrum master or technical project manager, including at least 2 years leading delivery of software projects through the full SDLC into production.
• Practical experience delivering AI, machine learning, generative AI, automation or data solutions, from build and testing through release.
• Working knowledge of agile delivery (Scrum or Kanban), backlog management, environments and release management, testing and defect management, and hand-over to support teams.
• Experience building and managing integrated plans, RAID logs, budgets and effort forecasts.
• Enough technical depth to discuss architecture, integration, data, security and non-functional requirements with engineers and to identify delivery risk.
• Strong stakeholder management and facilitation skills, with experience working directly with business customers.
• Fluent English, written and spoken, including explaining technical topics in plain language.
• Experience working in a matrix organization with geographically distributed teams and contractors.

Desirable:

• Delivery in a regulated environment (GxP, computerized system validation) or in pharmaceutical or life sciences.
• Hands-on use of Jira and Confluence, and familiarity with cloud platforms such as AWS or Azure.
• Project or agile certification (for example PMP, PRINCE2, PMI-ACP, Professional Scrum Master or SAFe).
• Background in design thinking, discovery or business consulting.  

Additional location(s) Compensation Information:

Required Skills:

AI Implementation Planning, Artificial Intelligence (AI), Atlassian JIRA, Cloud Computing, Computer System Validation (CSV), Data Engineering, Delivery Management, Design Applications, Generative AI, MOSAIQ, RAID Controllers, Release Management, SDLC Project Management, Software Configurations, Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC), Solution Architecture, System Designs, System Integration, Systems Development Lifecycle (SDLC), Testing

Preferred Skills:

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Merck & Co., Inc., Rahway, NJ, USA, also known as Merck Sharp & Dohme LLC, Rahway, NJ, USA, does not accept unsolicited assistance from search firms for employment opportunities. All CVs / resumes submitted by search firms to any employee at our company without a valid written search agreement in place for this position will be deemed the sole property of our company.  No fee will be paid in the event a candidate is hired by our company as a result of an agency referral where no pre-existing agreement is in place. Where agency agreements are in place, introductions are position specific. Please, no phone calls or emails. 

Employee Status:

Regular

Relocation:

No relocation

VISA Sponsorship:

No

Travel Requirements:

10%

Flexible Work Arrangements:

Hybrid

Shift:

Not Indicated

Valid Driving License:

No

Hazardous Material(s):

n/a

Job Posting End Date:

11/27/2026

*A job posting is effective until 11:59:59PM on the day BEFORE the listed job posting end date. Please ensure you apply to a job posting no later than the day BEFORE the job posting end date.