AI Operations Program Lead

Cengage Group; Salt Lake City (UT); On-site; USD 117,000 - 187,000; Full time

Job summary

Cengage Group in the United States is seeking a Program Manager, AI Operations to direct the management of AI initiatives, ensuring on-time delivery and governance across operations.

You will coordinate vendor risk assessments, AI intake, vendor approvals, and governance artifacts while partnering with Legal, Privacy, Security, Procurement, Product, Engineering and Operations to scale AI enablement.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in business, information systems, program management, technology, or related field.
• 5+ years of experience in program management, operations, governance, compliance operations, or cross-functional technology delivery.
• Demonstrated experience managing enterprise operational programs or cross-functional initiatives.
• Working knowledge of FERPA, GDPR, CCPA, and other privacy/data protection regulations.
• Experience coordinating contracts, DPAs, MSAs, or vendor governance processes.
• Strong attention to detail and operational rigor.
• Excellent collaboration with Legal, Procurement, Security, Product, Engineering, and Business teams.
• Ability to move quickly without compromising rigor.
• Strong written and verbal executive communication skills including status reporting, meeting facilitation, and operational updates.

Responsibilities

• Manage the operational cadence for enterprise AI initiatives, pilots, vendor onboarding, and governance activities.
• Conduct and coordinate vendor risk assessments for AI tools, platforms, and integrations.
• Coordinate the third-party AI intake process including security, privacy, and contract review.
• Build and maintain the criteria matrix for AI vendor approvals and connector decisions.
• Partner with Procurement on AI contracts, DPAs, and commercial terms.
• Maintain the approved AI vendor list and periodic reassessment cadence.
• Establish and maintain program governance artifacts including intake workflows, decision logs, action tracking, status reporting, and executive updates.
• Coordinate collaborators across AI Enablement, Legal, Privacy, Security, Procurement, Product, Engineering, and Operations teams.
• Track program achievements, dependencies, risks, and operational readiness across AI initiatives.
• Support operational scaling of AI enablement activities including onboarding, documentation, communications, and process standardization.

Skills

Program management

Cross-functional delivery

Governance & compliance

Privacy knowledge

Executive communication

Vendor governance

Education

Bachelor's degree

Job description

Cengage Group in the United States is seeking a Program Manager, AI Operations to direct the management of AI initiatives, ensuring on-time delivery and governance across operations.

You will coordinate vendor risk assessments, AI intake, vendor approvals, and governance artifacts while partnering with Legal, Privacy, Security, Procurement, Product, Engineering and Operations to scale AI enablement.