Director, Program Management — Data & AI

Burtch Works • chicago, il, United States • $150 - $190 / year • 2d ago

Key Responsibilities

Program Governance & Operational Excellence

Own the end-to-end program management framework for the Data & AI organization, ensuring all workstreams are tracked, risks are surfaced early, and commitments are met.
Establish and enforce Jira standards, workflows, and reporting practices across AI Engineering, Data Engineering, UX Design, Product Management, and Data Governance teams.
Define and implement agile delivery practices—including sprint planning, retrospectives, and backlog hygiene—tailored to the needs of each function within the Data & AI org.
Build and maintain a unified program dashboard that provides real-time visibility into portfolio health, milestone status, resource allocation, and blockers for senior leadership.
Drive accountability across a team of ~100 professionals, ensuring commitments are documented, tracked, and honored—escalating when they are not.

OKR & KPI Management

Partner with the Senior Director, Product Management and Data & AI leadership to define, cascade, and track organizational OKRs and KPIs each quarter.
Establish a cadence of structured reviews—weekly stand-ups, monthly business reviews, and quarterly OKR check-ins—that keep the organization focused and aligned.
Proactively identify when teams are off-track and facilitate swift corrective action, surfacing issues with data and proposing solutions, not just problems.
Produce clear, concise reporting to senior leadership and firm stakeholders on program status, risks, and organizational health.

Team Leadership & Development

Lead, mentor, and grow a team of Program Managers (currently two), with the latitude to expand the team as organizational complexity demands.
Set clear performance expectations, provide consistent coaching and feedback, and foster a culture of precision, accountability, and continuous improvement.
Serve as a model for rigorous program management discipline, establishing standards that elevate the entire organization's operational maturity.
Partner closely with functional leads—Engineering, Design, Product, and Governance—to embed program management practices within each discipline.

Cross-Functional Coordination & Stakeholder Management

Serve as the connective tissue across the Data & AI organization, breaking down silos and ensuring cross-functional dependencies are actively managed and resolved.
Serve as the conduit to the IT organization to build out any joint product work plans, timelines, and milestones which the Data & AI organization is dependent on for major product initiatives.
Facilitate alignment between program delivery and strategic priorities, translating organizational goals into actionable execution plans.
Act as a trusted advisor to the Senior Director, Product Management and Data & AI leadership on matters of execution, capacity, and operational risk.
Build credibility across the firm—with attorneys, practice group leaders, and business stakeholders—through reliable delivery and transparent communication.

Process Improvement & Tooling

Continuously evaluate and improve program management processes, tools, and rituals to reduce friction and increase throughput across the organization.
Drive adoption of Jira, Aha!, Confluence and other collaboration tools as the sources of truth for work planning, tracking, and reporting.
Identify systemic inefficiencies and implement scalable solutions that allow the Data & AI organization to move faster with greater predictability.

Candidate ProfileRequired Qualifications

Bachelor's degree in Business, Engineering, Computer Science, or a related field.
Minimum of 10 years of program or project management experience, including at least 5 years in a senior or leadership capacity at a high-performing organization.
Demonstrated experience managing large, cross-functional programs (100+ person organizations or equivalent scope) with measurable accountability outcomes.
Deep proficiency with Jira, Confluence, and roadmapping tools—including workflow configuration, reporting, and driving org-wide adoption of standards.
Proven expertise implementing and scaling agile delivery practices across multi-disciplinary technology teams.
Track record of building and maintaining OKR/KPI frameworks and driving organizational accountability to them.
Experience directly managing and developing program management professionals.
Exceptional organizational skills and an almost obsessive attention to detail—you catch what others miss and you don't let things slip.
Strong executive presence with the communication and influencing skills to engage senior leadership and firm stakeholders with confidence and clarity.
Comfortable making the difficult call: holding teams accountable, escalating blockers, and driving decisions when momentum stalls.
Demonstrated ability to operate effectively in a matrixed, fast-paced environment with competing priorities and evolving requirements.

Preferred Qualifications

Master's degree in Business Administration, Engineering, or a related field.
PMP, PgMP, SAFe, or equivalent program management certification.
Experience in a law firm, professional services, or similarly complex enterprise environment.
Familiarity with AI, data engineering, or data governance domains and the unique delivery challenges they present.
Experience managing geographically dispersed teams across multiple time zones.

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