Project Management Lead

EPITEC is hiring a Project Management Lead in Urbandale, IA, for a 15-month assignment focused on process improvement in AI product development. The role involves enhancing engineering processes, developing KPIs, and ensuring alignment across teams while maintaining enterprise architecture. Candidates should have a relevant degree and 3+ years of experience in project management, with skills in agile methodologies and tools like Jira and Azure DevOps.
ob Title: Project Management Lead – Process Improvement for Enabling AI

Location: Urbandale, IA

Assignment Length: 15 Months

Pay Rate: $60.00/hour

Position Summary:

We are seeking a highly analytical and forward-thinking Capabilities Lead for Data Science to support initiatives that enhance our emerging AI-focused product development lifecycle. This individual will focus upon process improvement, systems engineering, and enterprise architecture. It will be pivotal for accelerating the definition, measurement, analysis, design, and verification of innovative products by aligning technical systems with business goals and optimizing cross-functional workflows.

Key Responsibilities:

Process Improvement & Optimization

- Identify, analyze, and improve existing engineering and R&D processes to enhance efficiency, quality, and speed.

- Develop and implement metrics and KPIs to measure process performance and drive continuous improvement.

- Facilitate root cause analysis and corrective action planning.

Process Improvement

- Lead the lifecycle management process for projects across various stages including capturing information required to document the business and technical details needed to ensure alignment across teams.

- Support coordination for research related to go to market planning, risk assessments, and design verification activities.

- Ensure traceability of product requirements through monitoring and system validation.

Enterprise Architecture

- Design and maintain enterprise-level architecture frameworks that support scalable and sustainable product development.

- Align IT systems, tools, and data flows with engineering and business strategies.

- Collaborate with cross-functional teams to ensure architectural consistency and integration.

-Help maintain delivery plans and online or offline project progress tracking documents.

Accelerating R&D

- Support agile and lean product development methodologies.

- Communicate project milestones and outcomes to key business stakeholders.

- Manages project timelines and ensures delivery across cross-functional teams.

- Coordinates with various departments to align project objectives and deliverables

- Tracks project progress and implements corrective actions as necessary to meet deadlines.

- Integrate systems thinking into early-stage research and concept development.

Qualifications:

- Bachelor or Master’s degree in Business Intelligence, Information Technology, Systems Engineering, Industrial Engineering, Computer Science, Information Systems, or a related field.

- 3+ years of experience in project management or process improvement

-Experience with agile process management eg. Scrum Master, PMP, SAFe,

- Familiarity with project management using tools such as Jira, Rally, Github, Azure DevOps.

- Familiar with software development lifecycle and best practices in industries that focus on data, analytics, digital engineering.

- Experience working in an Agile (or similar) structured work environment and with coordinating work across multiple teams.

- Excellent analytical, oral and written communication, and stakeholder engagement skills.

Preferred Qualifications:

- Experience with systems thinking and mapping delivery process across functional teams.

- Certification with process management techniques (e.g., CSEP, Lean Six Sigma, TOGAF).

-Certified with agile process management eg. Scrum Master, PMP, SAFe,

- Familiarity with the software development lifecycle and with data technologies (eg. programming languages such as Python, SQL)

- Experience with tools such as DataBricks, Google BigQuery, AWS, ESRI or other GIS tools.

- Experience in R&D-focused environments that have a physical product component (eg. aerospace, defense, medical devices, or advanced manufacturing).