Project Manager – Innovation & Emerging Technology (AI POC)

About the role

Cinergie Digital is seeking a Project Manager to lead the end‑to‑end delivery of a proof‑of‑concept (POC) pipeline for AI and emerging‑technology initiatives within a large enterprise IT function. The role covers intake, sprint‑based execution, vendor coordination, stakeholder demos and graduation of successful POCs into funded production programmes.

Key responsibilities

• Own intake, qualification and prioritisation of POC requests across business and IT.
• Run sprint cadences for POC execution alongside architecture and engineering teams.
• Coordinate vendors and partners on scope, commercials, access and deliverables.
• Prepare and run stakeholder demos and quarterly reviews with clear go/no‑go recommendations.
• Manage graduation of successful POCs into business‑funded implementation through a formal business‑case and stage‑gate process.
• Track fund utilisation and report KPIs such as throughput, graduation rate and cost per POC.
• Maintain delivery governance including RAID logs, decision records, dependencies and reporting.

Required profile

• 5–8 years of project or technical programme management experience, including work on innovation, R&D or emerging‑technology portfolios.
• Comfortable with ambiguity and fast kill/scale decisions; treats POCs as experiments with defined success criteria.
• Strong communicator able to deliver executive briefings, demos and decision‑ready reporting.
• PMP, PRINCE2 or Scrum certification is an advantage; degree in a technical discipline.

Required skills

• Agile/Scrum delivery management for short‑cycle, experimental work.
• Exposure to AI/ML or emerging‑technology programmes (e.g., generative AI, automation, data platforms).
• Vendor and partner coordination, including scoping, onboarding and performance monitoring.
• Governance and reporting: budget tracking, KPI dashboards and quarterly reporting.