Overview:
Insight Global Consulting is seeking a Project Manager to lead complex consulting engagements for clients across the automotive industry, including OEMs, Tier 1 and Tier 2 suppliers, mobility companies, manufacturing organizations, dealer and aftersales operations, and automotive technology partners.
This role is responsible for end-to-end delivery of strategic business, operational, and technology initiatives across an automotive portfolio. Successful candidates will lead cross-functional teams, manage executive stakeholder relationships, oversee project financials, and drive successful customer outcomes across multiple client engagements.
This is not a traditional automotive operations role. Rather, the Project Manager serves as a trusted advisor and delivery leader for programs that may include digital transformation, EV and mobility transformation, manufacturing and supply chain optimization, connected vehicle initiatives, dealer and customer experience modernization, PMO implementation, systems modernization, procurement transformation, reporting and analytics initiatives, operational excellence programs, and enterprise technology deployments. A successful candidate is a strategic project or program leader who has operated inside an automotive, mobility, manufacturing, or supplier organization and understands how those businesses function across operations, product lifecycle, technology, procurement, quality, finance, PMO, and service delivery.
Responsibilities:
Program & Portfolio Delivery
- Lead multiple concurrent client engagements ranging from $500K to multi-million-dollar programs.
- Manage scope, schedule, budget, risks, dependencies, and stakeholder communications across project portfolios.
- Establish governance frameworks, executive reporting cadences, and program management standards.
- Drive program planning, resource forecasting, delivery execution, and successful project outcomes.
- Ensure adherence to contractual commitments, KPIs, SLAs, and client success measures.
Client Leadership
- Serve as the primary delivery contact for client executives, program sponsors, and steering committees.
- Facilitate executive business reviews, status meetings, risk reviews, and strategic planning sessions.
- Build trusted advisor relationships with client leadership teams.
- Identify opportunities to improve program outcomes, operational efficiency, and business value.
Transformation & Strategic Initiatives
Lead automotive consulting engagements such as:
- Automotive Digital Transformation Programs
- EV, Battery, and Mobility Transformation Initiatives
- Manufacturing Operations and Plant Modernization
- Supply Chain, Logistics, and Procurement Transformation
- Dealer, Aftersales, Warranty, and Customer Experience Modernization
- Product Lifecycle, Engineering, and Launch Readiness Programs
- ERP, CRM, PLM, MES, and Enterprise Systems Deployments
- Data Governance, Reporting, and Business Intelligence Projects
- AI Readiness, Automation, and Advanced Analytics Initiatives
- Quality, Compliance, and Operational Excellence Programs
- PMO Design, Portfolio Governance, and Change Management Programs
Risk & Financial Management
- Manage engagement financial performance, forecasting, and profitability.
- Monitor program risks, issues, dependencies, and mitigation strategies.
- Drive change control governance and scope management.
- Escalate delivery concerns and implement corrective actions when necessary.
Team Leadership
- Lead cross-functional consulting teams including project managers, business analysts, PMO analysts, architects, engineers, technical SMEs, and client resources.
- Coach and mentor project managers and emerging program leaders.
- Foster a culture of accountability, continuous improvement, and client-centric delivery.
Qualifications:
Required Qualifications
Experience
- 10+ years of project and program management experience.
- 5+ years managing large-scale enterprise, transformation, manufacturing, supply chain, technology, or automotive-related programs.
- Demonstrated success delivering strategic business and technology initiatives.
- Experience leading complex programs involving multiple stakeholders, workstreams, and vendors.
- Consulting, professional services, or client-facing delivery experience.
Required Industry Experience
- 8+ years of program and project management experience within automotive OEMs, suppliers, mobility companies, manufacturing organizations, dealer operations, aftersales/service organizations, or related automotive technology environments.
- Demonstrated experience leading cross-functional business, operations, technology, product lifecycle, manufacturing, supply chain, or transformation initiatives within an automotive environment.
- Experience partnering with manufacturing operations, engineering, product, supply chain, procurement, quality, dealer operations, service delivery, finance, IT, PMO, and executive leadership teams.
- Experience managing programs that span multiple business functions rather than a single project discipline.
- Strong understanding of how automotive organizations plan, fund, govern, launch, operate, and optimize programs across product development, manufacturing, supply chain, commercial operations, dealer networks, and customer lifecycle functions.
Candidates are not expected to be automotive engineers or plant operators but must understand how automotive organizations operate, make investment decisions, manage transformation, and deliver measurable business outcomes.
AI Fluency & AI-Enabled Project Delivery
A significant portion of this role may involve delivering AI-related consulting engagements for automotive clients, including RAG implementations, AI-enabled engineering workflows, knowledge management solutions, automation initiatives, predictive analytics, and integration of AI tools into product development, manufacturing, quality, service, and operational processes.
Preferred AI Fluency
- High-level understanding of enterprise AI concepts, including generative AI, large language models, RAG, prompt design, model evaluation, AI governance, data readiness, and human-in-the-loop workflows.
- Ability to translate business and engineering use cases into clear project scope, requirements, workstreams, milestones, risks, and success measures.
- Familiarity with the types of data, content, and systems commonly involved in AI initiatives, including engineering documentation, requirements repositories, design standards, drawings, service records, manufacturing data, quality data, and internal knowledge bases.
- Ability to lead conversations with technical teams, data scientists, architects, engineering SMEs, security, legal, compliance, and business stakeholders without needing to be a hands-on AI engineer.
- Understanding of common AI implementation risks, including poor data quality, unclear ownership of source content, hallucination risk, model performance limitations, security and access control concerns, change adoption challenges, and unclear ROI measurement.
AI Project Management Expectations
- Define and manage AI project phases such as discovery, use case prioritization, data and content assessment, solution design, prototype development, pilot execution, validation, production readiness, deployment, and adoption.
- Ensure AI initiatives have clear business objectives, measurable outcomes, decision owners, escalation paths, acceptance criteria, and go/no-go checkpoints.
- Coordinate cross-functional workstreams across business process design, data engineering, system integration, security review, model or tool evaluation, testing, stakeholder training, and change management.
- Create governance for AI solution validation, including user acceptance testing, SME review, accuracy thresholds, feedback loops, issue triage, and continuous improvement after launch.
- Partner with client stakeholders to manage expectations around what AI can and cannot do, ensuring that project plans address operational adoption, responsible use, and long-term sustainment.
- Track AI-specific risks and dependencies separately from general project risks, particularly around data access, security approval, source system integration, content quality, model performance, stakeholder trust, and adoption readiness.
Program Management Expertise
Experience delivering initiatives such as:
- Automotive Digital Transformation
- Enterprise Applications, CRM, ERP, PLM, MES, and Dealer Systems
- PMO Governance and Portfolio Management
- Supply Chain, Logistics, and Procurement Programs
- Manufacturing Operations and Plant Modernization
- Business Process Improvement
- Data, Analytics, and Connected Vehicle Insights
- Operational Excellence, Quality, and Compliance
- AI, Automation, and Predictive Analytics
- Organizational Change Management
- EV, Battery, Mobility, and Product Launch Readiness Programs
Technical Knowledge
Preferred familiarity with:
Project & Portfolio Management
- Microsoft Project
- Primavera P6
- Smartsheet
- Jira
- Azure DevOps
Automotive, Manufacturing & Enterprise Platforms
- SAP / S/4HANA
- Salesforce Automotive Cloud or CRM platforms
- Siemens Teamcenter or comparable PLM platforms
- Manufacturing Execution Systems (MES)
- Dealer Management Systems (DMS)
- Warranty, service, and aftersales platforms
Productivity & Analytics
- Microsoft 365
- Power BI
- SharePoint
- Visio
- Excel Advanced Analytics
Program Governance
- Risk Management
- Financial Forecasting
- Change Control
- Executive Reporting
- PMO Frameworks
- Portfolio Governance
Preferred Certifications
- PMP
- PgMP
- PMI-ACP
- Lean Six Sigma Green Belt or Black Belt
- Prosci Change Management
- Scrum Master Certification
- SAFe Certification
Ideal Previous Employers:
- Ford Motor Company
- General Motors
- Stellantis
- Toyota
- Honda
- Nissan
- Hyundai Motor Group
- Volkswagen Group
- Mercedes-Benz
- BMW Group
- Tesla
- Rivian
- Lucid Motors
- Magna International
- Aptiv
- Bosch Mobility
- Continental
- Denso
- ZF Group