Senior Program Manager — AI Automation & Ops Excellence

Excelerate; San Diego (CA); On-site; USD 110,000 - 138,000; Part time

Benefits offered by this job

Benefits Eligible

Job summary

Excelerate is seeking a Program Manager & AI Automation Lead to drive a high-impact initiative focused on operational excellence and automation of manual processes. You will blend hands-on technical program management with the design, build, and delivery of AI-agent-driven automation as core project deliverables.

The role combines technical program management and agentic automation delivery, requiring leadership of complex cross-functional work while personally building automation that improves

Qualifications

• 7+ years of technical program management experience in platform, infrastructure, or high-scale technology environments.
• Hands-on experience delivering AI-agent-driven automation connected to live data and workflows.
• Built automation and workflows yourself, including API integrations to tools like Jira and Smartsheet, dashboards and tracking systems, with AI/agent tools.
• Experience with AI governance, including validation controls, auditability, and human-in-the-loop processes.
• Excellent executive communication and the ability to drive cross-functional delivery through influence.
• Strong operational knowledge of incident management, SDLC, and distributed systems; identity, security, or authorization experience is a plus.
• Highly proactive and comfortable operating in fast-moving, complex technology environments.

Responsibilities

• Lead program execution across 55+ production services with executive reviews, incident and RCA tracking, readiness activities, and cross-functional initiatives.
• Establish program scope, milestones, dependencies, deliverables, and success measures across multiple teams.
• Identify and prioritize opportunities to automate manual program processes.
• Design, build, and productionize AI-agent automation, including ticketing/routing, cross-platform reconciliation, telemetry, reporting, and automated follow-up workflows.
• Direct multiple AI agents toward defined outcomes, with context, acceptance criteria, validation, and human-in-the-loop processes.
• Ensure automation is reliable, auditable, and maintainable with documentation and runbooks.
• Communicate program progress, risks, decisions, and outcomes to senior technology leadership.
• Build strong cross-functional relationships and drive commitments through influence and proactive communication.

Skills

Technical program management

AI automation

Executive communication

Cross-functional collaboration

Agility

Automation governance

Problem solving

Tools

Jira

Smartsheet

Claude

Agent frameworks

Job description

Excelerate is seeking a Program Manager & AI Automation Lead to drive a high-impact initiative focused on operational excellence and automation of manual processes. You will blend hands-on technical program management with the design, build, and delivery of AI-agent-driven automation as core project deliverables.

The role combines technical program management and agentic automation delivery, requiring leadership of complex cross-functional work while personally building automation that improves