Sr. Director, Technical Program Management AI/ML

Paramount•New York, NY

3d•$141,000 - $211,000

About The Position

The Senior Director of Technical Program Management (AI) will closely collaborate with engineering management. They will manage the development and improvement of AI-driven platforms, systems, and capabilities. These innovations will support various products and improve customer experiences. This role operates at the intersection of technology, product, and business strategy, where AI concepts are translated into scalable, production‑grade systems that deliver measurable impact. The Senior Director will oversee a portfolio of AI/ML investments, lead a team of senior program management leaders, and serve as a trusted advisor to executive stakeholders. The ideal candidate brings solid systems thinking, deep technical judgment, and the flexibility required to lead in highly experimental, fast‑moving AI environments.

Requirements

12 + years of experience in Program Management, Technical Program Management, or similar roles.
Substantial work with AI/ML or data-focused engineering teams.
Proven experience leading portfolio‑level programs spanning multiple teams and product areas.
Experience working successfully in uncertain environments, focused on innovation.
Solid people management experience, including managing managers.
Deep knowledge of agile, lean, and iterative delivery models, with the ability to adapt them to non‑traditional workflows.
Great communication skills and ability to manage stakeholders.

Nice To Haves

AI/ML & Data Fluency (Conceptual, Not Hands‑On Coding)
Familiarity with machine learning lifecycle concepts: data sourcing, feature engineering, training, evaluation, deployment, and monitoring.
Familiarity with experimentation frameworks (A/B testing, offline vs. online evaluation, model iteration loops).
Knowledge of model performance metrics and tradeoffs (accuracy, latency, bias, explainability).
Experience supporting applied ML use cases such as: Personalization and recommendation systems, Search and ranking, Content knowledge and metadata generation, Generative AI for text, image, or video.

Responsibilities

Manage the entire AI/ML portfolio, including long-term planning, investment prioritization, and outcome evaluation.
Translate organizational strategy into roadmaps that balance experimentation, platform development, and product delivery.
Establish and track portfolio-level success metrics connecting model performance, adoption, and business outcomes.
Own prioritization and sequencing decisions across AI/ML initiatives, including acceleration, pivoting, or stopping work.
Balance near-term product impact with long-term platform and capability development.
Act as a final escalation point for cross-team conflicts involving technical direction, dependencies, or resource allocation.
Oversee the full portfolio of AI/ML projects from ideation and experimentation through production deployment and iteration.
Enable delivery models supporting high-volume experimentation, rapid learning cycles, and continuous improvement.
Establish operating mechanisms (planning rhythms, reviews, metrics) for autonomy, accountability, and senior management visibility.
Support a systems thinking approach, managing complex dependencies across data pipelines, overseeing model development, infrastructure, and experimentation frameworks, and handling integration with downstream processes.
Evolve program structures to support collective planning during ideation and design, followed by self-directed execution across multiple workstreams.
Surface risks, dependencies, and integration challenges early and transparently to senior management, along with recommended mitigation strategies and decision points.