Ai Program Manager Jobs in Phoenix, AZ (NOW HIRING)

Ascensus is the leading independent technology and service platform powering savings plans across America, providing products and expertise that help nearly 16 million people save for a better today and tomorrow.

Section 1: Position Summary

The Senior Manager, Agentic AI Delivery will be a critical leader within Ascensus' Transformation team, accountable for end-to-end delivery of an enterprise portfolio of agentic AI initiatives from opportunity discovery and value case through design, build, launch, adoption, and measured outcomes. This role partners with executive business leaders, product and engineering teams, data/AI practitioners, and risk/compliance to design and deliver reliable, secure, and scalable AI agent solutions that materially improve customer experience, associate productivity, and operational performance. The Senior Manager establishes the delivery strategy, operating model (governance, ways of working, metrics), and ensures that AI agent deployments meet quality, accuracy, and timeliness to value while achieving committed business outcomes.

Section 2: Job Functions, Essential Duties and Responsibilities

Agentic AI Program Management and Delivery

• Portfolio ownership and roadmap: Own an enterprise portfolio of agentic AI use cases; shape multi-quarter roadmaps tied to business strategy, scalability and measurable outcomes; define success metrics (value, quality, portability) and manage trade-offs across initiatives.
• Opportunity discovery and solution framing: Define agentic framework to conduct end-to-end discovery (diagnostics, data/system constraints, user journeys) to identify high-value agentic opportunities; translate pain points into agentic AI solutions (tools/actions, guardrails, autonomous or human-in-the-loop) and delivery plans.
• Value case, funding, and benefits realization: Build and defend business cases (cost, revenue, CX improvement); secure executive alignment; establish benefits measurement (baseline, attribution, measurement) and manage realization through adoption and continuous improvement.
• Delivery leadership (Agile / hybrid): Coordinate with cross-functional squads (product, AI engineering, data science, architecture, operations) and external partners to deliver pilots and scaled deployments; manage scope, dependencies, risks, and delivery quality; run executive steering and agentic AI program governance.
• Risk, compliance, and responsible AI: Partner with Responsible AI leader to implement controls for data handling, model/vendor risk, explainability, and operational resilience; ensure appropriate guardrails (policy, content filtering, escalation paths) for production agent use.
• Go-live, adoption, and change leadership: Lead launch planning, training, communications, and hypercare; drive stakeholder readiness and measurable adoption; establish feedback loops and a backlog for post-launch enhancements across business units.

Executive stakeholder management and cross-functional leadership

• Serve as a trusted advisor to executives and senior leaders, translating agentic AI capabilities into practical operating model changes, investment decisions, and delivery commitments.
• Lead executive steering committees and governance forums; produce concise materials for C-suite audiences.
• Proactively manage interlocks across IT, Operations, Service, Sales, and Produc
• Drive vendor and platform decisions (build/buy/partner), contract scope, and performance management to ensure delivery outcomes.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities

• Responsible for protecting, securing, and proper handling of all confidential data held by Ascensus to ensure against unauthorized access, improper transmission, and/or unapproved disclosure of information that could result in harm to Ascensus or our clients.
• At Ascensus we are guided by our Core Values of People Matter, Quality First and Integrity Always. They inspire us every day to prioritize an environment of respect for those we serve and one another and should be visible in your actions on a day-to-day.

Supervision

• Agentic AI Delivery Principal

Section 3: Experience, Skills, Knowledge Requirements

• Bachelor's Degree required; MBA or equivalent advanced degree preferred.
• 8+ years in digital transformation, product/program management, or consulting; 4+ years delivering AI/ML and generative AI solutions in production; 1+ year delivery agentic AI solutions in production
• Experience leading multiple concurrent workstreams and managing complex stakeholder environments.
• Demonstrated experience delivering agentic AI solutions (LLM-powered copilots/agents) including use-case discovery, evaluation, deployment, and post-launch iteration; strong understanding of RAG, tool/function calling (MCP/API), autonomous AI, human-in-the-loop, and prompt/config management.
• Program leadership: proven ability to establish governance, operating cadence, executive communications, and delivery metrics; track value realization and drive decisions across risk, scope, timeline, and investment.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills; ability to synthesize complex topics into clear executive-ready materials.
• Strong leadership presence with the ability to influence without authority, lead senior stakeholder forums, and mentor/coach cross-functional team members.
• Hands-on orientation: comfort working directly with product/engineering and data teams on backlog shaping, acceptance criteria, testing, and release readiness.
• Metrics-driven mindset with strong analytical skills, including benefits tracking, experimentation, and continuous improvement.
• Ability to operate in a fast-paced environment while managing multiple large-scale initiatives and senior stakeholders.

For all virtual remote positions, in order to ensure associates can effectively perform their job duties with no distractions, we require an uninterrupted virtual workspace and there is also an expectation of family care being in place during business hours. Additionally, there is an internet work speed requirement of 25 Mbps or better for individual use. If more than one person is utilizing the same internet connection in the same household or building, then a stronger connection is required.If you are unsure of your internet speed, please check with your service provider. Note: For call center roles specifically, it is a requirement to either hardwire your equipment directly to the internet router or ensure your workstation is in close proximity to the router. Please ensure that you are able to meet these expectations before applying.

Be aware of employment fraud. All email communications from Ascensus or its hiring managers originate from @ascensus.com or @futureplan.com email addresses. We will never ask you for payment or require you to purchase any equipment. If you are suspicious or unsure about validity of a job posting, we strongly encourage you to apply directly through our website.