IT Project Manager

Worldpac is seeking an experienced Project Manager to join our Project Management Office (PMO) and lead the delivery of complex, cross-functional enterprise projects, with a strong focus on accelerating Worldpac's enterprise AI program across our high-volume wholesale distribution and automotive aftermarket business. This role will manage the end-to-end planning and execution of AI and technology initiatives, from initiation through deployment, adoption, and benefits realization.

Working closely with the Director AI Product Management, AI Engineering, Data, Infrastructure, Security, and business stakeholders, the Project Manager ensures AI initiatives are appropriately scoped, resourced, governed, and delivered on time, on budget, and to the expected business outcomes. The ideal candidate is a seasoned project leader who combines strong project management discipline with hands-on experience implementing enterprise AI solutions, and who can lead teams and influence stakeholders without direct authority.

This role requires being onsite 5 days per week.

Key Responsibilities

Project Planning & Delivery

• Lead the end-to-end delivery of large, complex enterprise AI and technology projects, including initiation, planning, execution, monitoring and control, deployment, and closure.
• Develop and maintain project charters, scope statements, integrated project plans, schedules, resource plans, and budgets aligned with PMO standards and governance.
• Manage project scope, schedule, cost, quality, and dependencies, using change control to manage scope changes and trade-offs.
• Apply Agile, hybrid, and waterfall delivery approaches as appropriate, facilitating sprint planning, stand-ups, reviews, and retrospectives for AI delivery teams.
• Coordinate cross-functional teams, including AI engineers, data engineers, architects, developers, infrastructure, security, QA, vendors, and business subject matter experts.
• Partner with the Director AI Product Management, who owns AI product strategy, priorities, and success criteria, to translate approved AI initiatives into executable project plans.
• Plan and manage the delivery of AI solutions such as generative AI assistants, agentic AI workflows, retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) solutions, AI-enabled process automation, AI enterprise tools, and AI capabilities embedded in enterprise platforms.
• Coordinate delivery activities, including data readiness, model and platform selection, prompt and agent development, AI gateway and integration work, model evaluation, human-in-the-loop controls, and user acceptance testing.
• Manage pilot and proof-of-concept efforts through to production, including scaling, hypercare, and transition to support.
• Ensure AI projects follow Worldpac's AI governance requirements, working with the AI Governance Committee, Architecture Review Board (ARB), Cybersecurity, Legal & Compliance, and Data Governance to obtain required reviews and approvals.

Risk, Issue & Change Management

• Proactively identify, assess, and mitigate project risks and issues, including AI-specific risks such as data quality, accuracy, security, privacy, and responsible AI considerations.
• Maintain RAID logs (risks, assumptions, issues, dependencies) and elevate cross-functional barriers through established PMO escalation paths.
• Partner with business leaders, training, and change management resources to drive user readiness, communication, and adoption of AI solutions.

Stakeholder Management & Reporting

• Serve as the primary point of contact for project status, providing clear, concise reporting to stakeholders, steering committees, the PMO Manager, and IT leadership.
• Prepare and present project status, risks, financials, and decisions to executive audiences using PMO dashboards and reporting tools.
• Facilitate project meetings, workshops, and decision-making forums, documenting decisions and action items to ensure accountability.
• Track project budgets, forecasts, and actuals, including AI platform, model usage, and implementation partner costs, in partnership with the PMO and Finance.
• Manage implementation partners and vendors against SOWs, ensuring accountability for scope, quality, timelines, and deliverables.
• Apply and help continuously improve PMO standards, methodologies, templates, and tools, including practices tailored to AI project delivery.
• Capture lessons learned and best practices from AI projects to build repeatable delivery playbooks.
• Mentor Associate Project Managers and project team members, providing guidance on…