AI Program Manager

Description

This role reports directly to the CFO and works in close partnership with Operations, IT, and Executive Leadership.

At Columbia, this is a chance to step into something real: executive support, actual budget, and the opportunity to help build an AI program from the ground up. As AI Program Manager, you’ll help shape how AI gets used inside a $500M general contractor that competes successfully against firms much larger than we are.

Construction management is a great industry for this kind of work—it’s complex, collaborative, and full of practical, day‑to‑day decisions where better tools can make a real difference. It’s also still early in its digital and AI journey. And even with broader economic uncertainty, the industry is still busy, with strong demand across multiple business sectors including Manufacturing, Technology, Healthcare, Corporate, Academic, and Hospitality.

This is a great time to apply AI in ways that can have a clear, practical impact on how projects are pursued, managed, and delivered. You’ll work directly with leaders who have spent decades building this company and who genuinely want to get this right. If you’re excited by the idea of building something meaningful in a new industry, this is a chance to leave a real mark.

At Columbia Construction, we don’t just build buildings—we build relationships, trust, and excellence into every square foot. For over 100 years, we’ve redefined what it means to be a construction partner by leading with integrity, collaboration, and a hands‑on approach.

As AI Program Manager, you’ll help shape and drive Columbia’s AI strategy at a defining moment for our company and our industry. This is a new role, created to bring deliberate focus to how we adopt, govern, and get value from AI across every part of the business—from the project site to the back office.

You’ll help set the vision, build the program, and make AI genuinely useful to the people doing the work: project managers, estimators, superintendents, and the teams supporting them. You’ll start as a department of one, with executive sponsorship, real budget, and the runway to grow the function as the work justifies it.

This role is ideal for a motivated, passionate leader with a track record of driving meaningful change and implementing solutions in new industry environments—someone who can quickly learn how a business operates, translate that understanding into practical solutions, and bring the entrepreneurial drive to put their fingerprints on something meaningful.

This is a player‑coach role. You will personally build prototype solutions while also establishing the strategy, governance, and roadmap that guide Columbia’s AI program.

• Develop and own Columbia’s AI strategy in close partnership with executive leadership, grounded in what the business actually needs rather than what is trending, and make confident recommendations about where to invest, what to pilot, what to scale, and what to set aside.
• Stand up and run a citizen development program that gives our people sanctioned tools, clear guardrails, and the support to build solutions that fit their workflows.
• Identify, evaluate, and pilot AI tools and platforms—both construction‑specific and broader enterprise—and build hands‑on prototypes (custom GPTs, automations, light integrations) when that is the fastest path to value.
• Bring understanding of data structure, quality, and governance to every AI initiative, with a willingness to partner with IT and Data Governance to understand Columbia’s current data foundation and how it can support AI development.
• Establish the policies, training, and governance that let people use AI confidently without putting client data, contractual obligations, or the company at risk.
• Build company‑wide AI fluency through communication, training, and direct support, so staff at every level—field, office, and leadership—feel comfortable, curious, and confident in how AI fits into their work.
• Partner with department leaders across operations, preconstruction, estimating, accounting, marketing, business development,…