AI Project Manager (Contract)

Airbus•Herndon, VA

2d•Onsite

About The Position

Airbus North America Information Management (IM) is seeking a Lead AI Project & Portfolio Manager to join the AI and Analytics domain. This key role is responsible for leading priority AI initiatives from Proof of Concept (PoC) to industrialization, while simultaneously facilitating the coordination and tracking of the North American AI project portfolio. As a Project Lead, you will champion execution standards, coordinate closely with other Project Managers, and serve as a principal facilitator for the AI Center of Excellence (CoE). You will act as a critical bridge between senior leadership, technical specialists, and business departments, ensuring that Airbus Americas successfully drives organizational adoption of key AI capabilities.

Requirements

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, Business Administration, Project Management, or a related field.
Minimum of 6 years of Enterprise IM Project Management experience, with experience supporting or leading complex technical initiatives.
Proven experience managing the end-to-end implementation of AI/ML projects, including leading PoCs from initial data qualification to production-grade deployment (industrialization).
Experience supporting or managing multi-project program tracks or facilitating portfolio-level tracking.
Experience collaborating with, supporting, or sharing best practices with other Project Managers or business analysts.
Demonstrated experience facilitating community-of-practice activities, such as a Center of Excellence (CoE), champion networks, or corporate training initiatives.
Strong familiarity with gate-based corporate structures (e.g., Airbus LBIP or equivalent) and Agile frameworks (SAFe/Scrum).
Strategic Opportunity Framing: Ability to evaluate technical viability, data readiness, and ROI of new AI proposals, in collaboration with technical specialists, to make highly informed investment recommendations.
Portfolio Governance: Competency in project portfolio coordination techniques, including resource tracking, health monitoring, and status reporting.
AI Delivery Competency: Deep understanding of the AI lifecycle (data collection, MVP testing, scaling, MLOps, and post-production monitoring) specifically applied to Generative and Agentic AI.
Peer Support & Collaboration: Natural ability to share best practices, collaborate effectively with other PMs, and align execution standards to drive team quality.
Change Management & Literacy Advocacy: Passion for driving organizational adoption, with proven capabilities in organizing educational events and fostering cross-department communities.
Active Listening & Translation: Exceptional ability to distill complex, technical AI and mathematical concepts into plain business logic for senior non-technical stakeholders.
Stakeholder Navigation & Consensus: Highly skilled in building trust, resolving conflicts, and driving alignment between business units and technical delivery teams.
Presentation & Influence: Confident presentation skills to pitch business cases, present portfolio health metrics, and justify project selection choices to executive Steering Committees.
Proficiency in project and portfolio tracking suites.

Nice To Haves

Master's degree or advanced professional certification (e.g., PMP, SAFe SPC/POPM).
Prior experience in high-tech, aerospace, manufacturing, or innovation environments.
Experience working with international teams and managing parent-company dependencies (e.g., Europe-US coordination).
Project Management Professional (PMP), Agile/SAFe Certification (e.g., SAFe Agilist, SAFe Product Owner/Product Manager).
Familiarity with enterprise data security, data governance frameworks, and cloud deployment pipelines (GCP/Azure).
Familiarity with enterprise data ecosystems (e.g., Palantir Foundry / Skywise).

Responsibilities

Manage the end-to-end implementation, deployment, and industrialization of high-value AI solutions, with a strong focus on Generative AI and Agentic AI applications.
Support the upstream ingestion pipeline of new AI ideas; review, qualify, and prioritize proposed AI use cases to select and recommend the right initiatives for Airbus investment.
Apply Airbus LBIP (Lifecycle Business Improvement Process) gates and SAFe (Scaled Agile Framework) structures to guarantee project quality, compliance, and standard alignment from initiation through to operations.
Secure technical readiness by defining scope, deployment strategies, operating models, and structured transition plans.
Support portfolio-level tracking for North American AI initiatives, maintaining visibility of active and pipeline projects to monitor progress, track budgets, and report status metrics to leadership.
Provide guidance, advice, and onboarding support to other domain Project Managers on AI-specific management activities and delivery standards.
Periodically review the project plans, risk registers, and key deliverables of other Project Managers to ensure delivery consistency and execution quality.
Coordinate and facilitate the activities of the North American AI Center of Excellence (CoE) to build local capability and foster an AI-first corporate culture.
Design, organize, and manage AI training programs, workshops, and upskilling sessions for both technical teams and business counterparts.
Coordinate, nurture, and maintain the AI Champions Network, aligning key business advocates and driving community-led adoption initiatives across all sites.
Secure organizational change management by overseeing the delivery of user manuals, documentation, and tailored enablement strategies.
Other duties as assigned.