Senior Program Manager, AI Program Delivery & Operations

Description

About the SMB Agentic AI Sales Team

We are the SMB AI Transformation Team — a high-speed innovation unit designed to rapidly explore, prototype, and scale new AI capabilities that reduce administrative work and help our sales teams spend more time with customers. Our 2026 target: $5M revenue and a 50% uplift in rep productivity.

We aren't just building tools. We're building the underlying architecture for durable, scalable AI-enabled workflows across TELUS SMB. And we need someone to make sure we deliver on the promise.

The team consists of cross-functional product builders, data scientists, engineers, and operations leaders working in agile two-week sprints. You'll sit at the center of this team as the operational backbone, keeping the organization aligned on what we're building, when we're shipping, and whether we're delivering the promised business value.

The impact you'll make and what we'll accomplish together

As a Senior Program Manager, you are the operational backbone and the keeper of the promise. While our team rapidly discovers, prototypes, and iterates, you ensure we're building toward a quantified business outcome and delivering it on time, on scope, and with measurable ROI.

You'll oversee delivery of 3–5 concurrent AI-enabled tools/workflows on a 12-month delivery roadmap targeting go-live between Q2–Q4 2026. Current scope includes AI-powered proposal generation, lead scoring automation, sales rep productivity tools, and workflow automation capabilities. Each tool requires cross-functional coordination across Marketing, Sales, Engineering, and GTM operations.

You will own the full-cycle business case: pre-launch you defend the bet with rigorous financial modeling and assumption validation. Post-launch you track whether we delivered it. You run the governance, maintain the RACI, identify what's blocked, surface options, and escalate strategic calls to leadership. You are the person who ensures chaos doesn't become the default.

You report directly to the Manager, SMB AI Transformation, and own all program governance and operational decisions. Strategic decisions, including scope changes, timeline trade-offs are escalated to the Executive Steering Committee monthly. You work directly with Directors in Marketing, Sales, and Engineering as program partners and drive alignment across their organizations.

You will be the operational steward of a new way of working — one where AI is central to how we operate. You're not just managing a program; you're helping shape how TELUS builds and scales AI-enabled workflows

How you'll do it:

Think AI-First About the Future of Work.

You believe that AI will fundamentally reshape how we work. You're not just managing a program; you're helping define how TELUS builds and scales AI-enabled workflows. You ask hard questions: What's the right operating model? How do we measure what matters? What practices will we need to sustain as we scale? You bring that forward-thinking lens to every decision.

Own Full-Cycle Business Case Ownership. Build pre-launch financial models quantifying revenue opportunity, rep productivity gains, time-to-value, and resource requirements. Stress-test assumptions with finance leadership and defend estimates under CFO-level scrutiny. Post-launch: own ROI tracking, assumption validation, and variance reporting. This is your north star — everything else serves it.

Run Program Governance & Operations.

You own program governance including:

• Weekly standup syncs across all workstreams to identify blockers and maintain momentum

• Bi-weekly Steering Committee meetings (VP-level decision forum) to resolve dependencies and make strategic trade-off decisions

• Monthly executive business reviews on program health, spend variance, timeline, and ROI performance

• Quarterly board-ready updates on progress to 2026 revenue and productivity targets

You define and enforce readiness standards for each new launch and agile release milestone:

• Product: Feature parity validated against requirements

• Quality: Test coverage >90%, architecture and code reviewed by Engineering

• Security: Privacy & Security reviews complete, testing passed

• Operability: Runbooks documented, support and GTM handoff validated

You gate release decisions against these standards. No tool ships until it meets the bar across all dimensions.

Lead with Conviction on Rigor. 

You're passionate about doing AI-enabled work the right way: with proper governance, clear milestones, and measurable outcomes. You push back on shortcuts that look fast but create debt. You advocate for the standards and practices that will matter when this scales across the company.

Build Executive Transparency.

Monthly exec updates on program health, timeline, and business case performance. Quarterly ELT ready decks on progress to 2026 targets. You own the narrative that builds confidence in the program and maintains stakeholder alignment across the organization.

Qualifications

You're the missing piece of the puzzle if:

• 5+ years of hands-on program/project management experience managing 3+ concurrent workstreams with significant cross-functional dependencies and evolving scope. You've lived through the full lifecycle from ambiguity (discovery, learning, iterating) to rigor (control, gating, governance). Relevant backgrounds include: product development, infrastructure/technology programs, enterprise transformation initiatives, or innovation/R&D programs. What matters is that you've managed complexity at scale and know how to scale governance as a program grows

• Demonstrated fluency with financial modeling and business case development. You've built and defended financial models with CFO-level scrutiny. You stress-test assumptions under challenge, build 3-year DCF models, perform sensitivity analysis, and track actual outcomes against projections. You're comfortable talking about ROI, NPV, payback period, and variance reporting. You've defended a financial estimate and lost a battle but won respect for your rigor

• Exceptional communication and executive presence. You own monthly executive updates and quarterly board-ready presentations. You can distill complex program status into clear narratives, defend estimates under scrutiny, and communicate tradeoffs to senior leadership. You write with clarity and precision — your RACIs, decision logs, governance frameworks, and status reports are models that teams follow

• Proven ability to negotiate and influence across peer-level leaders and above without direct authority. You have specific examples of programs where you resolved conflicts between competing priorities (Product vs. Sales vs. Finance), drove alignment across skeptical stakeholders, and held teams accountable despite lacking formal authority over them. You command respect through clarity and credibility, not title

• Rigorous about standards and governance. You believe that how we build now matters for what we can build later. You advocate for the right governance, quality, security, and operability standards — not because you love process, but because you're thinking about scale and sustainability. You know how to say "no" and back it up with data and principle

• Biased toward documentation and clarity. You think in RACIs, decision logs, and governance frameworks. You believe that what gets written actually gets done. Your documentation is not theater; it's the operating system that enables the team to move fast with confidence

Nice to Have

• Hands-on familiarity with AI/machine learning concepts, emerging AI products, or technology-driven transformation initiatives. You're intellectually curious about what's actually possible with AI and how to build responsibly. You don't need to be a data scientist, but you should be able to discuss how AI changes operating models and organizational workflows

• Experience managing programs with significant financial investment ($3M+) and ELT-level visibility

• Background in agile/scrum program delivery and sprint-based development practices

• Experience with program management tools (Jira, Smartsheet, Monday.com, or equivalent) and financial modeling tools

• Track record of post-program analysis and organizational learning — you've run post-mortems, documented lessons learned, and used them to improve future programs

Why Come Work With Us

• High-Impact, High-Visibility Work. You will be part of one of the most visible AI initiatives at TELUS, working with a compact team of exceptional talent on a program targeting significant revenue and productivity impact. Your work will directly shape how TELUS scales AI across the enterprise

• Direct Authority & Trust. You own the program operations and governance. Leadership won't micromanage the how; they will ask you about the what and hold you accountable for the outcome. You have autonomy to build the governance model you believe in

• Strategic Influence. You report directly to VP-level leadership and sit at the center of major organizational decisions. You influence strategy and operating model, not just execution

• Operate at Scale. You're managing a multi-million dollar investment and helping shape how a major enterprise scales a new capability. You'll develop deep expertise in how large organizations move and how to embed standards and practices that stick

• Modern Tools & Practices. We operate with agile practices, transparent RACIs, and data-driven decision making. No legacy process theater. You have the autonomy to build the operational practices and tools you believe in

• Flexible Work. We provide the tools and technology needed to work from wherever you're most productive

• Standard TELUS Benefits. Performance bonuses, matched pension, and training budget to keep your program management and financial acumen sharp