Project Management Lead - Talent Pipeline

APPLY; Canada; Hybrid; CAD 110,000 - 160,000; Full time

Job summary

APPLY is seeking a Project Management Lead based in Canada to oversee multi-track digital initiatives in a hybrid/remote-friendly setup. You will manage programs up to $5M annually, coordinate delivery across disciplines, and steer AI-enabled, agentic workflows with a focus on outcomes and client satisfaction.

You will balance high-level strategy with hands-on delivery, coaching teams in Agile, Waterfall, and agentic approaches, while aligning stakeholders to measurable results and value

Qualifications

• 8–15 years leading end-to-end digital solution delivery in consulting or agency environments for enterprise clients, including multi-track programs.
• Proven ability to build trusted relationships with senior client leadership (Director, VP, C-suite).
• Expertise in Agile, Kanban, waterfall and agentic delivery frameworks, with the judgment to select and coach the right approach for each engagement.
• Strong commercial acumen across program budgets, forecasting, fixed-price and T&M agreements, and proposal estimates.
• Previous experience delivering small-to-medium programs or portfolios (up to $5M annual revenue) from kickoff through closure as a trusted senior delivery partner.

Responsibilities

• Lead small-to-medium programs and portfolios (up to $5M annual revenue) with multiple tracks of work, providing day-to-day delivery direction to the Project Managers aligned to your program and running individual tracks yourself where needed.
• Develop, maintain, and execute program delivery plans, including milestones, deliverables, dependencies, and resource allocation across all tracks.
• Proactively manage risks, issues, dependencies, assumptions, and decisions across programs and projects to resolution.
• Enforce project management best practices and refine or establish processes to address gaps.
• Oversee team capacity planning in collaboration with discipline leads, and act as backfill for your Project Managers when needed.
• Keep the program knowledge base organized, current, and usable by the whole team.
• Coach teams on Waterfall, Kanban, Agile and Agentic delivery methods, selecting the right approach for each engagement and its stage.
• Establish delivery guardrails for agentic engagements, ensuring human review and approval for all AI‑assisted outputs across workstreams.
• Structure work between AI agents and team members with clear review gates, risk logs, and permission boundaries.
• Align senior client stakeholders to an agentic operating model, emphasizing outcome‑based metrics, transparent AI usage, and fast review cycles.
• Report on outcome as well as activity at program level — time to value, delivery velocity against a human‑only baseline, and measurable value validation.
• Champion reusable and scalable prompts, skills, agents, and automations across the Project Management discipline.
• Cultivate and manage direct client relationships at middle-management and executive levels, acting as the senior delivery voice on your programs.
• Communicate program status, risks, and trade‑offs clearly to internal teams and external stakeholders, delivering difficult news early and constructively.
• Provide guidance on complex and challenging client situations, diffusing tension and choosing a path to resolution.
• Partner with Client Services and account leadership to identify growth opportunities, bringing commercial awareness to every delivery conversation.
• Contribute to RFPs, pitches, and proposals for new and existing clients.
• Develop and present program delivery approaches to prospective clients, including timelines, ways of working (including agentic delivery models), resourcing plans, and budget estimates.
• Collaborate with other disciplines to create standardized delivery approaches for common service offerings.
• Experience contributing to pitches, RFPs, or delivery approaches for new business.

Skills

Project management

Agile

Waterfall

Kanban

Client relations

Budgeting

AI delivery

Leadership

Tools

JIRA

Confluence

Notion

Smartsheet

Google Workspace

Job description

ABOUT APPLY

APPLY is the Agentic Customer Experience (ACx) partner for the world’s most ambitious consumer and entertainment brands. We bring together deep domain expertise across Retail, CPG, Sports, and Media with AI-native delivery capability, designing and delivering agentic solutions that turn CX vision into commercial reality. We are the partner of choice for brands like Arc’teryx, NFL, Lululemon, and Kraft Heinz. For more information, visit applydigital.com.

APPLY TALENT PIPELINE:

Interested in joining the APPLY team, but don’t see an open role you connect with?

When new opportunities open up at APPLY, we’ll check our Pipeline. If your profile is a fit, we’ll get in touch for an interview.

LOCATION: APPLY is hybrid/remote friendly. The preferred candidate should be based in Canada, working in hours that align to PT or ET.

THE ROLE

As a Project Management Lead at APPLY, you will sit at the intersection of delivery, people, and growth, owning multi-track programs and portfolios across digital strategy, products, platforms, and marketing. You set and enforce delivery standards to ensure transparent, predictable, and commercially sound execution.

With a background in digital agency or consultancy environments, you have a track record of running large digital programs and leading delivery practitioners. You seamlessly navigate between high-level program strategy and granular workstream details, resolve complex challenges, and earn the trust of teams and leadership.

You are also, unapologetically, an AI-forward delivery leader. APPLY delivers through an agentic model in which human practitioners work alongside AI agents across the project lifecycle, and the Project Management Lead is accountable for making that model work at program and team level: defining the guardrails your teams operate within, owning the review gates across workstreams, and keeping human judgment at the centre of everything that leaves our door. You are hungry for all things AI, you enjoy pulling apart your team’s processes to make them better, and you bring others with you as this landscape keeps moving.

RESPONSIBILITIES

Program & Portfolio Management

• Lead small-to-medium programs and portfolios (up to $5M annual revenue) with multiple tracks of work, providing day-to-day delivery direction to the Project Managers aligned to your program and running individual tracks yourself where needed.

• Develop, maintain, and execute program delivery plans, including milestones, deliverables, dependencies, and resource allocation across all tracks.

• Proactively manage risks, issues, dependencies, assumptions, and decisions across programs and projects to resolution.

• Enforce project management best practices and refine or establish processes to address gaps.

• Oversee team capacity planning in collaboration with discipline leads, and act as backfill for your Project Managers when needed.

• Keep the program knowledge base organized, current, and usable by the whole team.

• Coach teams on Waterfall, Kanban, Agile and Agentic delivery methods, selecting the right approach for each engagement and its stage.

Agentic & AI-Enabled Delivery Leadership

• Establish delivery guardrails for agentic engagements, ensuring human review and approval for all AI‑assisted outputs across workstreams.

• Structure work between AI agents and team members with clear review gates, risk logs, and permission boundaries.

• Align senior client stakeholders to an agentic operating model, emphasizing outcome‑based metrics, transparent AI usage, and fast review cycles.

• Report on outcome as well as activity at program level — time to value, delivery velocity against a human‑only baseline, and measurable value validation.

• Champion reusable and scalable prompts, skills, agents, and automations across the Project Management discipline.

Client & Stakeholder Management

• Cultivate and manage direct client relationships at middle-management and executive levels, acting as the senior delivery voice on your programs.

• Communicate program status, risks, and trade‑offs clearly to internal teams and external stakeholders, delivering difficult news early and constructively.

• Provide guidance on complex and challenging client situations, diffusing tension and choosing a path to resolution.

• Partner with Client Services and account leadership to identify growth opportunities, bringing commercial awareness to every delivery conversation.

Business Development

• Contribute to RFPs, pitches, and proposals for new and existing clients.

• Develop and present program delivery approaches to prospective clients, including timelines, ways of working (including agentic delivery models), resourcing plans, and budget estimates.

• Collaborate with other disciplines to create standardized delivery approaches for common service offerings.

• Experience contributing to pitches, RFPs, or delivery approaches for new business.

REQUIREMENTS

Project Management Excellence

• 8–15 years leading end-to-end digital solution delivery in consulting or agency environments for enterprise clients, including multi-track programs.

• Proven ability to build trusted relationships with senior client leadership (Director, VP, C-suite).

• Expertise in Agile, Kanban, waterfall and agentic delivery frameworks, with the judgment to select and coach the right approach for each engagement.

• Strong commercial acumen across program budgets, forecasting, fixed‑price and T&M agreements, and proposal estimates.

• Previous experience successfully delivering small-to-medium programs or portfolios (up to $5M annual revenue) from kickoff through closure as a trusted senior delivery partner and partner with Client Services to secure portfolio expansion opportunities.

• Ability to demonstrate measurable value and maintain baseline margin targets while proactively mitigating scope, timeline, and commercial risks.

• Strong ability to mobilize and guide teams through ambiguity in an AI‑driven environment, ensuring smooth adoption and execution of agentic delivery workflows.

• Experience with modern digital ecosystems (Composable/Headless CMS, E-commerce/Commerce, Loyalty, Personalization, Analytics).

• Strong proficiency in industry‑standard project management and collaboration tools including Claude, Gemini, Co‑pilot, JIRA, Confluence, Notion, Instagantt, Smartsheet, and Google Suite.

• Deep knowledge of the full software development lifecycle, CI/CD, and related delivery workflows across product, design, development, and QA.

• Knowledge of technical concepts including AI, machine learning, data analytics, cloud computing, and platform integrations.

• Demonstrable critical thinking, creative problem‑solving, and willingness to take ownership of complex challenges.

Communication & Soft Skills

• Communication Excellence: Exceptional written and verbal communication, tailored across audiences from steering committees to delivery teams with clarity and transparency.

• Interpersonal Intelligence: High emotional intelligence, navigating conflict with empathy, practicing compassionate candor, and influencing stakeholders without formal authority.

• Leadership & Mindset: Strong accountability for program outcomes, customer‑centric mindset, and adaptability to coach teams in a fast‑changing AI landscape.

• Sound Judgment: Experience‑based judgment to guide teams, address complex challenges, and serve as a trusted voice in decision‑making.

AI & Agentic Delivery

As APPLY operates on an agentic model, hands‑on AI fluency is essential, and as a Lead you set the bar for your team. You will use these tools daily, coach others in them, and comfortably lead discussions around agentic workflows with clients and internal teams.

• Hands‑on experience using LLMs and AI workflows to accelerate planning, documentation, and reporting, alongside strong