Principal AI Program Manager

About the role

This role is the operational backbone of the Enterprise AI Center of Excellence (AI CoE), housed within the Office of the CIO. You will drive the day-to-day coordination, governance, and delivery of AI initiatives across the enterprise - translating between technical teams, business stakeholders, and executive leadership while helping mature the CoE as a durable capability. ESSENTIAL DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES: CoE Operations & Governance Run the CoE's operating cadence - workstreams, deliverables, status reporting, and steering committee rhythms Own the enterprise AI portfolio view: initiative tracking, dependencies, risks, and projected value Build and maintain intake, prioritization, and stage-gate processes for AI investment decisions Develop the AI roadmap with the CoE Program Lead, aligned to enterprise strategy Co-develop the transformation strategy with Head of AI COE and translate objectives into discrete initiatives Develop and maintain integrated roadmap Ensure accountability to committed milestones and stage gates Delivery & Stakeholder Engagement Drive end-to-end delivery across data engineering, data science, app dev, infrastructure, security, and business teams Partner with business units to identify use cases, build business cases, and define success metrics Track and report ROI across the portfolio to the CIO and C-suite Responsible AI & Enablement Embed responsible AI guardrails (bias, transparency, privacy, compliance) in partnership with Legal, Risk, and InfoSec Build out CoE enablement assets - playbooks, AI literacy programs, and shared tooling standards Drive adoption through change management, communications, and training Required 0- 10+ years in program management, technology strategy, or management consulting 0- 3+ years managing AI/ML or advanced analytics programs Strong grasp of the AI/ML lifecycle - data prep through MLOps and monitoring Executive communication skills; able to make technical topics actionable for senior leaders Experience with AI governance or responsible AI frameworks Bachelor's degree in a relevant field or equivalent experience Preferred Experience in a CoE, CIO/CTO office, or enterprise PMO Familiarity with generative AI platforms (LLMs, copilots, AI agents) at enterprise scale Management consulting background (Big 4, MBB, or boutique advisory) PgMP, PMP, SAFe, or equivalent certification Cloud AI/ML platform experience (SageMaker, Azure AI, Vertex AI) WD is committed to providing equal opportunities to all applicants and employees and will not discriminate against any applicant or employee based on their race, color, ancestry, religion (including religious dress and grooming standards), sex (including pregnancy, childbirth or related medical conditions, breastfeeding or related medical conditions), gender (including a person's gender identity, gender expression, and gender-related appearance and behavior, whether or not stereotypically associated with the person's assigned sex at birth), age, national origin, sexual orientation, medical condition, marital status (including domestic partnership status), physical disability, mental disability, medical condition, genetic information, protected medical and family care leave, Civil Air Patrol status, military and veteran status, or other legally protected characteristics. We also prohibit harassment of any individual on any of the characteristics listed above. Our non-discrimination policy applies to all aspects of employment. We comply with the laws and regulations set forth in the " Know Your Rights: Workplace Discrimination is Illegal " poster. Our pay transparency policy is available here . WD thrives on the power and potential of diversity. As a global company, we believe the most effective way to embrace the diversity of our customers and communities is to mirror it from within. We believe the fusion of various perspectives results in the best outcomes for our employees, our company, our customers, and the world around us. We are committed to an inclusive environment where every individual can thrive through a sense of belonging, respect and contribution. WD is committed to offering opportunities to applicants with disabilities and ensuring all candidates can successfully navigate our careers website and our hiring process. Please contact us at jobs.accommodations@wdc.com to advise us of your accommodation request. In your email, please include a description of the specific accommodation you are requesting as well as the job title and requisition number of the position for which you are applying. Based on our experience, we anticipate that the application deadline will be 07-01-2026 (3 months from posting), although we reserve the right to close the application process sooner if we hire an applicant for this position before the application deadline. If we are not able to hire someone from this role before the application deadline, we will update #LI-RR1 Compensation & Benefits Details An employee's pa

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