IT Project Manager

Opportunity Information:

 

Title:                    Project Manager

Location:          Oak Brook, IL (Chicago Metro Area), 5 days per week in-person

Reports to:      PMO Manager

 

Position Overview

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.

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.

Enterprise AI Project Execution

• 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 escalate 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.

Financial & Vendor Management

• 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.

PMO Practice & Leadership

• 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 project management practices.

Required Qualifications & Skills

• 10+ years of progressive project management experience delivering complex IT and enterprise technology projects, including leading cross-functional teams and implementation partners.
• Demonstrated experience managing the implementation of enterprise AI projects, such as generative AI, agentic AI, machine learning, AI-enabled process automation, or advanced analytics solutions, from pilot through production.
• Experience with projects leveraging enterprise AI end user tools including Claude, Copilot, etc.
• Experience with enterprise AI platforms and services such as AWS Bedrock, Microsoft Azure AI Foundry/Azure OpenAI, Google Vertex AI, other agentic platforms and repositories, and AI gateways such as Kong.
• Experience delivering AI and technology projects that integrate with enterprise systems, for example Oracle Fusion, Salesforce, Workday, ServiceNow, IBM i (iSeries), and enterprise data platforms such as Snowflake or Databricks.
• Working understanding of AI concepts and the AI solution lifecycle, including large language models, prompt engineering, retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), AI agents, model evaluation, and AI risk considerations.
• Proven track record managing large-scale projects from initiation to completion on time, on budget, and to scope.
• Strong experience with Agile / Scrum, hybrid, and waterfall methodologies.
•  Strong expertise in Jira and Confluence project management tools required, preferred experience in Microsoft Project, Smartsheet or other similar tools.
• Experience managing project budgets, vendor SOWs, and implementation partners.
• Strong risk, issue, and change management skills, including organizational change and user adoption.
• Excellent communication, leadership, and stakeholder management skills, with strong presentation skills and the ability to convey complex technical topics clearly to executive and non-technical audiences.
• Proven ability to influence and drive results without direct authority in a fast-paced, cross-functional environment.
• Exceptional organizational, problem-solving, and decision-making skills, with a high level of attention to detail.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience in the automotive aftermarket or other high-volume wholesale distribution, supply chain, or logistics environments.
• Experience delivering AI capabilities embedded in enterprise platforms (e.g., Salesforce, ServiceNow, Oracle Fusion, Workday).
• Familiarity with AI governance and Responsible AI frameworks (e.g., NIST AI RMF).
• Experience working within a PMO in a geographically dispersed, multi-site environment.
• Experience operating within a parent-company or portfolio-company governance structure.

Education / Certifications

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, Business Administration, or a related field, or equivalent work experience.
• PMP (Project Management Professional) certification required.
• Agile certification (e.g., PMI-ACP, CSM, SAFe) preferred; AI-related certifications (e.g., Azure AI, AWS AI/ML, PMI-CPMAI) are a plus.

Location Type: On-Site Pay Range: USD $120,000.00 - USD $140,000.00 /Yr.