Senior Manager, AI Program Management

Ford Motor Company • Dearborn, MI

11h • $141,700 - $268,300 • Hybrid

About The Position

This role owns the operating system that keeps the AI Big Bet portfolio on track: an automated governance dashboard fed by the bet teams’ own systems, the weekly activity report, the review calendar, and value tracking. You are the person who knows where every bet stands, who owns what, what value has actually landed, and what is at risk before it becomes a surprise. The ideal candidate has led technology or AI-driven transformation programs, has tracked and defended value realization with Finance, writes clearly for executive audiences, and is comfortable working directly with directors and VPs across functions.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree
• 7+ years of experience in program management, PMO, or transformation roles in a large organization
• Direct experience leading technology, digital, or AI-driven transformation programs from plan through delivery
• Experience tracking value realization in partnership with Finance, including defending or pushing back on reported value
• Hands-on experience running an operating cadence — recurring reviews, status reporting, and executive materials — for a multi-workstream portfolio
• Experience applying stage-gate or governance criteria across multiple programs and holding teams to them
• Experience aligning cross-functional stakeholders, including Finance, HR, Legal, and technical teams, on shared decisions
• Experience spotting at-risk programs early and building recovery plans with program owners
• Strong written communication: short, plain, and ready for an executive reader
• Hands-on experience building automated dashboards and connecting them to source systems (Power BI or similar, SharePoint, Jira or equivalent), including defining KPIs with the teams that own the data

Nice To Haves

• Experience in automotive, technology, or another large enterprise with a complex, matrixed operating structure
• Experience in a PMO, governance office, or transformation office for a technology or innovation portfolio
• Firsthand view of how AI or agentic initiatives typically stall or fail, and what it takes to recover them
• Familiarity with how legal, data governance, and risk functions (like GDIA) fit into technology program decisions
• Experience preparing portfolio materials for a CEO, Board, or ELT-level audience
• Experience leading or mentoring program analysts

Responsibilities

• Build and run the AI Governance Dashboard: define the KPIs each bet is measured on, agree them with the bet teams, and stand up automated data feeds from their systems so status, milestones, and value update without manual chasing
• Hold bet teams to a consistent standard for what they report and when, and close the gaps where teams track the same thing in different ways
• Own the weekly portfolio activity report: scope, DRIs, and 1-week / 30-day / 90-day milestones, written by the accountable people and published on a fixed cadence
• Apply the portfolio governance standards and stage-gate criteria across all Enterprise and Functional AI Bets, and improve them when they stop working
• Own the AI Portfolio review calendar and produce the CEO, Board, and ELT materials that come out of it
• Track value realization across the portfolio with Finance: reconcile reported value against validated value, keep the benefits tracker current, and challenge numbers that don’t hold up
• Track adoption and changed ways of working across bets, not just delivery milestones, so the portfolio is measured on outcomes
• Manage cross-bet dependencies and blockers, resolve them at the working level where possible, and escalate the rest with a clear fact base and a recommendation
• Flag at-risk bets early using agreed G/Y/R criteria, and build and track path-to-green recovery plans with bet owners
• Coordinate the working-level network of bet program leads and DRIs; may lead a small team of program analysts

Benefits

• Immediate medical, dental, vision and prescription drug coverage
• Flexible family care days, paid parental leave, new parent ramp-up programs, subsidized back-up child care and more
• Family building benefits including adoption and surrogacy expense reimbursement, fertility treatments, and more
• Vehicle discount program for employees and family members and management leases
• Tuition assistance
• Established and active employee resource groups
• Paid time off for individual and team community service
• A generous schedule of paid holidays, including the week between Christmas and New Year’s Day
• Paid time off and the option to purchase additional vacation time.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Manager