Project Manager / Strategy Lead

The Project Manager / Strategy Lead is a consulting-minded leader who shapes and delivers this engagement — running discovery and workshops, defining the AI and automation strategy with client executives, and translating it into disciplined, measurable delivery.  You will orchestrate cross-functional teams spanning Automation Engineers, AI Engineers, Data Scientists, Architects, and business stakeholders — driving delivery with rigor, managing client relationships with credibility, and navigating the complexity of an enterprise Automation and AI program with composure and clarity. The ideal candidate brings consulting experience, the structured thinking of a seasoned PM, and the contextual fluency to hold meaningful conversations with AI Architects and C-suite executives alike. 

 

Key Responsibilities: 

1. Strategy, Discovery & Program Leadership  

• Lead strategy and advisory engagements for Financial Services clients — framing the business problem, shaping the AI and automation roadmap, and building the business case that secures executive sponsorship. 
• Design and run discovery — stakeholder interviews, current-state process assessments, and opportunity sizing — to identify and prioritise high-value AI and automation use cases. 
• Plan and facilitate client workshops (visioning, design thinking, use-case prioritisation, and future-state design) that move senior stakeholders from ambition to an agreed plan. 
• Translate the strategy into governed delivery — establishing the PMO structure, governance forums, and reporting cadences. Define and manage the integrated program plan across all workstreams (RPA, Agentic Workflows,Generative AI, Data Science, Data Engineering), tracking milestones, dependencies, and critical path.   
• Run project planning, reviews, and RAG with technical leads; maintain velocity metrics and remove blockers.   
• Ensure all deliverables are tracked against scope, schedule, budget, and quality criteria, with proactive escalation of deviations.   
• Maintain program documentation — charter, WBS, RACI, status reports, and decision logs — to the highest standards.  

1. Program Management 

• Manage program risks, issues, dependencies, and change control, with clear ownership, mitigation plans, and timely escalation. 

• Serve as the primary client contact, align business and technical stakeholders, and communicate program status, decisions, and priorities to senior leadership. 

• Own resource planning, team capacity, budgets, forecasts, commercial performance, and financial risk across the program. 

1. Automation and AI Program Context & Digital Fluency  

• This role requires a consulting-minded leader with hands-on fluency across modern AI and automation delivery — capable of holding credible, substantive conversations with AI Engineers, Architects, Data Scientists, and RPA developers on feasibility, timelines, and technical dependencies.  

• Oversee delivery of intelligent automation and RPA workstreams — understanding bot lifecycle management, exception handling frameworks, orchestration platforms, and the interplay between RPA, AI, and enterprise systems.  

• Understand the unique delivery dynamics of agentic AI programs — including multi-agent orchestration, tool-use design, prompt engineering cycles, and the governance considerations around autonomous decision-making systems.  

• Adapt PM practices to the non-linear, iterative nature of ML and AI delivery — managing experimentation phases, data dependency risks, model validation cycles, and the transition from prototype to production.  

• Act as a translator and bridge between business stakeholders who think in outcomes and technical teams who think in architectures — facilitating shared understanding and aligned decision-making across both worlds. 

 

Qualifications 

• 5-7 years of combined consulting and project / program management experience, including at least 3-5 years in a management consulting, strategy, or advisory role, and a track record of leading large-scale digital transformation, automation, or AI/ML programs. 
• Demonstrated experience managing enterprise Financial Services engagements in a consulting or system integrator environment — ideally at a global technology firm.
• Demonstrated ability to lead strategy and discovery work — facilitating executive workshops, structuring ambiguous problems, synthesising findings into clear recommendations and roadmaps, and building business cases.
• Hands-on use of AI tools (e.g., Microsoft Copilot, ChatGPT, Claude) to speed up discovery, analysis, and deliverable creation. 
• Strong understanding of AI/ML delivery lifecycles — including model development, MLOps, and LLM integration — sufficient to manage technical teams and client expectations effectively. 
• Proven track record of managing cross-functional teams of 15+ people across multiple concurrent workstreams. 
• Hands-on experience with Agile, Scrum, and SAFe delivery frameworks; comfortable operating in hybrid Agile-Waterfall environments. 
• Experience with program financials — budget ownership, P&L tracking, and commercial/contract management. 
• Exceptional communication, workshop facilitation, and executive presentation skills — able to adapt style for engineering teams, business sponsors, and C-suite audiences. 
• Proficiency with delivery tooling: JIRA, Confluence, MS Project

 

Nice to have qualifications

• Prior experience managing AI, Generative AI, or Automation based programs in a client-facing delivery context.  

• Experience managing distributed offshore-onshore delivery teams across multiple time zones.  

• Knowledge of pre-sales processes — ability to contribute to proposals, effort estimates, and client solution presentations.  

• Bachelor's or Master's degree in Engineering, Computer Science, Business Administration, or relevant experience; an MBA is a plus  

• PMP, PRINCE2, PgMP, or equivalent program management certification is preferred; Agile certifications (SAFe SP, CSM) are a plus.