Program Manager, AI Adoption Service

About ECI

ECI is the leading global provider of managed services, cybersecurity, and business transformation for mid-market financial services organizations across the globe. From its unmatched range of services, ECI provides stability, security and improved business performance, freeing clients from technology concerns and enabling them to focus on running their businesses. More than 1,000 customers worldwide with over $3 trillion of assets under management put their trust in ECI.

At ECI, we believe success is driven by passion and purpose. Our passion for technology is only surpassed by our commitment to empowering our employees around the world.

Program Manager – AI Adoption Service

Job Description

Role Summary

The Program Manager (AI Adoption Service) is a client-facing delivery lead responsible for translating strategy into execution across AI adoption engagements. This role functions as a hybrid Program Manager / Project Manager, combining cross-workstream coordination and stakeholder alignment with hands-on ownership of day-to-day project execution. The individual in this role serves as the operational backbone of the engagement—owning scope, schedule, RAID, stakeholder communications, decision tracking, and delivery coordination across multiple workstreams—while ensuring readiness, enablement, governance, and adoption activities remain aligned to client objectives, contractual deliverables, and measurable business outcomes.

Key Responsibilities

• Project planning & controls: Build, maintain, and actively manage the integrated project plan across workstreams, milestones, dependencies, owners, and critical path items; proactively address slippage, sequencing issues, and resource conflicts to keep delivery on track.
• Day-to-day project ownership: Act as the de facto project manager for the team by driving weekly priorities, coordinating deliverables, following up on open actions, and ensuring work moves forward between formal status meetings.
• Client leadership & facilitation: Serve as the day-to-day client lead for execution; facilitate working sessions, steering meetings, and status reviews; drive alignment across IT, security, compliance, business stakeholders, and executive sponsors.
• Cross-functional delivery orchestration: Coordinate delivery across internal SMEs and client resources spanning adoption/change management, technical architecture, security/compliance, data readiness, Copilot Studio/agents, and end-user enablement.
• Deliverables management: Own the delivery calendar for workshops, training sessions, communications, assessments, and reporting deliverables; ensure each output has clear ownership, review cycles, due dates, dependencies, and acceptance criteria.
• Status reporting & executive communication: Produce weekly status updates and executive-ready readouts that summarize progress, milestone health, key accomplishments, risks/issues, upcoming decisions, and remediation plans.
• RAID & change control: Maintain RAID logs, action and decision registers, and escalation paths; manage change requests and scope adjustments in alignment with the SOW, timeline, dependencies, and commercial impact.
• Team coordination & accountability: Keep internal and client team members aligned on priorities, decisions, deadlines, and next steps; ensure meetings end with clear owners and timelines, and follow through to closure.
• Adoption measurement: Partner with internal and client stakeholders to define success measures, establish baselines, and track KPIs such as usage, training participation, scenario adoption, stakeholder satisfaction, and business value indicators.
• Readiness & remediation tracking: Monitor progress against readiness findings and remediation actions tied to governance, security, technical prerequisites, and organizational change activities so adoption blockers are surfaced and resolved early.
• Continuous improvement: Capture lessons learned, improve templates and playbooks, and help standardize repeatable delivery methods that support a scalable AI adoption services model.
• Engagement growth support: Identify renewal, expansion, and adjacent-service opportunities; coordinate the operational inputs required for proposals, change orders, and updated SOWs.

Required Qualifications

• 5+ years of experience as a client-facing Project Manager, Program Manager, or delivery lead managing technology initiatives in consulting, professional services, or managed services environments.
• Demonstrated success owning day-to-day project execution, including scope, schedule, communications, RAID, dependency management, deliverables tracking, and—where applicable—budget oversight against SOW-defined commitments.
• Strong experience acting as the operational point person across internal teams and client stakeholders, with the ability to drive alignment, decisions, follow-through, and accountability in complex environments.
• Working knowledge of Microsoft 365 platforms including Teams, SharePoint, OneDrive, and Exchange, with familiarity in Microsoft 365 Copilot concepts, rollout considerations, and adoption challenges.
• Comfort partnering with security, compliance, governance, and technical stakeholders while managing delivery risk in regulated or risk-sensitive environments.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills with the ability to convert detailed project status into clear executive summaries, steering updates, client-facing communications, and team action plans.
• Proficiency with PM tooling such as Microsoft Project, Planner, Teams, Excel, and related collaboration/reporting tools, along with disciplined project hygiene across meeting notes, action logs, decision logs, and status reporting.
• Ability to manage ambiguity, adapt to evolving client priorities, and maintain delivery momentum while balancing structure with flexibility.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience delivering adoption and change management programs, including champions networks, role-based training, communications plans, office hours, and end-user support models.
• Experience with Microsoft Purview, DLP, information protection, retention, or related governance/compliance toolsets that influence AI readiness and deployment decisions.
• Exposure to AI enablement initiatives such as Microsoft 365 Copilot, Copilot Studio, automation, agents, prompt libraries, and value realization frameworks.
• Experience building or operationalizing KPI dashboards, adoption scorecards, or executive reporting for technology transformation programs.
• PMP, PgMP, Prosci, or equivalent certification, or demonstrably equivalent experience leading structured enterprise delivery programs.
• Experience in financial services, asset management, private equity, hedge funds, or other highly regulated industries.

Success Metrics

First 90 Days

• Establish core program and project governance across assigned engagements, including status cadence, RAID process, action and decision tracking, change control, stakeholder map, and executive reporting templates.
• Successfully onboard and assume day-to-day delivery ownership of 1–3 active client engagements or internal pilots, with documented scope, timeline, workstream structure, success measures, and escalation paths.
• Produce consistent, executive-ready weekly status reporting that gives leadership and clients clear visibility into progress, risks, decisions needed, dependencies, and next steps.
• Create structure and accountability for the team by ensuring deliverables, action items, and decisions are clearly tracked, assigned, and progressed between meetings.
• Stand up adoption and readiness reporting with defined baselines, target measures, and recurring review cadence for usage, participation, scenario adoption, and remediation progress.
• Demonstrate strong delivery management by keeping key milestones on track, surfacing risks early, and driving timely resolution of blockers before they materially affect delivery commitments.

Ongoing

• Maintain a high standard of on-time, on-scope delivery across active engagements, with clear visibility into milestone health, dependencies, resourcing needs, and client decisions required to stay on plan.
• Consistently operate as the team’s day-to-day project lead, ensuring priorities are clear, follow-ups are actioned, and delivery momentum is maintained across internal and client stakeholders.
• Maintain strong project hygiene, including current RAID logs, action and decision registers, meeting summaries, stakeholder communications, and change control documentation.
• Drive measurable adoption outcomes by improving active usage, training completion, scenario adoption, stakeholder engagement, and other client-defined value metrics over the life of the engagement.
• Reduce delivery risk by proactively identifying blockers, managing escalations appropriately, and ensuring readiness or governance gaps are tracked through remediation.
• Earn positive feedback from clients and internal stakeholders based on responsiveness, clarity of communication, meeting effectiveness, and overall delivery confidence.
• Support renewal and expansion efforts by identifying logical next steps, documenting unmet opportunities, and helping translate successful outcomes into follow-on proposals or SOW updates.
• Contribute to service maturity by improving templates, delivery artifacts, playbooks, and reporting approaches that make the AI Adoption Service more repeatable and scalable.

Work Location & Travel

Hybrid/remote with occasional travel to client sites as needed for workshops, executive briefings, and key program milestones.

ECI’s culture is all about connection - connection with our clients, our technology and most importantly with each other. In addition to working with an amazing team around the world, ECI also offers a competitive compensation package and the base salary range for this role is $150,000-$160,000 with a 15% target bonus, plus flexible PTO, health benefit eligibility the first of the month, life insurance, pet insurance, 401K and so much more! If you believe you’d be a great fit and are ready for your best job ever, we’d like to hear from you!!

Love Your Job, Share Your Technology Passion, Create Your Future Here!

ECI is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration consistent with applicable law.

ECI’s culture is all about connection - connection with our clients, our technology and most importantly with each other. In addition to working with an amazing team around the world, ECI also offers a competitive compensation package and so much more! If you believe you would be a great fit and are ready for your best job ever, we would like to hear from you!