Technical AI Program Manager

Company Description

Who We Are

AIR Communities owns and operates best-in-class apartment communities in major markets across the country. We are committed to operational excellence, innovation, and delivering exceptional experiences for our residents and team members.

Job Description

About the Role

The Technical AI Program Manager connects the enterprise's growing demand for AI solutions with the technical and functional teams who deliver them. You'll field new AI requests, analyze them, and shape directional solutions before handing them to delivery teams. You'll also track AI spending and value delivered, giving the organization a clear basis for investment decisions. This role combines leadership, technical expertise, program management excellence, and organizational change management to accelerate AI adoption across the enterprise.

You bring real world computer science and engineering fundamentals and have shipped things — but you've grown into a well-rounded professional who holds your own with executives as easily as with architects. You pressure-test every request against what matters, not what's most interesting to build.

Innovation Strategy. We drive measurable value across our real estate portfolio by improving the resident experience, elevating team performance, and delivering superior financial outcomes. You'll make every request to that bar:

• Does this improve the resident’s experience?
• Does this improve team experience?
• Does this drive measurable financial results?

AI Strategy. We accelerate business value by combining best-in-class external solutions, scalable approved platforms, and proprietary capabilities. You'll guide stakeholders through:

• When to use an external AI solution
• When to use an approved internal platform
• When to build customs

You'll apply the same discipline to AI initiatives themselves: if it doesn't create value, improve efficiency, or strengthen competitive advantage, it doesn't move forward.

What You'll Do

Intake & Triage

• Field incoming AI requests from across the enterprise.
• Assess each one fast: what's the real problem, who's affected, how urgent, what's the rough shape of a solution.
• Route requests a quick answer, a scoped pilot, or a full program.
• Maintain a transparent pipeline of AI requests, decisions, priorities, and next steps.

Solution Shaping

• Partners with functional and technical stakeholders — data science, platform engineering, security, legal/compliance, business leaders — to sketch directional solutions delivery teams can pick up with confidence.
• Decide between external, approved platform, and custom-build paths based on the AI strategy and the problem's fit.
• Translate business asks into technical requirements, and technical constraints into business terms.
• Lead planning, execution, and governance of AI initiatives from concept through production deployment.

Program & Portfolio Management

• Track the AI portfolio: status, owners, blockers, outcomes.
• Keep initiatives scoped to the value they deliver; push back on scope creep and over-engineering.
• Align stakeholder groups when priorities or dependencies collide.
• Flag initiatives that drift from resident experience, team experience, or financial return.

Accountability and Tracking

• AI Governance and Adherence
• Own visibility into AI spends across tools, platforms, compute, and vendors.
• Build and maintain ROI, adoption, and value reporting for each initiative.
• Report leadership on what's working, what's not, and where to invest.

Synthesis & Communication

• Turn technical and business input into decision-ready narratives for engineers, functional leads, and executives.
• Keep documentation and status updates simple and current.

Qualifications

What You Bring

8+ years of experience spanning software engineering and technical program/product delivery, ideally including direct work with AI/ML systems.

Technical Background

• CS/engineering foundation and hands-on delivery experience, ideally including AI/ML systems in production.
• Enough AI/ML fluency — model types, data pipelines, integration patterns, failure modes — to hold credible technical conversations.
• Comfort evaluating technical tradeoffs and risk at a directional level.
• Collaborate with architects and engineering teams on solution design and technical architecture.
• Ensure delivery follows established engineering, security, and operational standards.
• Oversee AI platform scalability, reliability, and operational readiness.

Program & Business Acumen

• Track record managing cross-functional programs with competing priorities.
• Experience owning spend tracking and turning it into ROI narratives leadership can act on.
• Comfort moving forward on incomplete information.
• Drive alignment among business leaders and technology teams.
• Provide executive-ready updates on program health, risks, opportunities, decisions needed, and investment recommendations.

Executive Presence & Stakeholder Leadership

• Synthesize messy input into clear, actionable narratives fast.
• Building trust across engineers, functional leaders, and executives; adapt your style without losing substance.
• Judge every option by relevance and outcomes, not technical sophistication.
• Make reasonable calls under uncertainty and adjust as you learn more.
• Communicate with confidence in writing and in the room.
• Bring people along; say "not ready" as readily as "let's move."

Nice to Have

• Experience with AI governance or responsible AI frameworks.
• FinOps or cloud cost management experience applied to AI/ML.
• Background blending technical PM, solutions architecture, or technical product management.

Success Looks Like

• New requests get a credible response and a clear path within days not weeks without sacrificing rigor.
• Every active initiative traces back to resident experience, team experience, or financial outcome.
• Stakeholders trust you as an honest broker on technical reality and on when to buy, use a platform, or build.
• Leadership has a current, trustworthy view of AI spend and ROI.
• Initiatives are sized to the value they create — no under-investment, no over-engineering.

Additional Information

Benefits

• An anticipated base salary between $170,000-$190,000 plus annual bonus. Salary will be offered depending on skills and experience.
• Paid time off including vacation, sick time, and 14 holidays.
• Medical, dental, vision, and life insurance options, HSA/FSA plans, short and long-term disability paid by the company.
• An Apartment Benefit option is available to live on-site at the community you are working
• 401(k) plan with up to 6% employer match.
• Paid parental leave of up to 16 weeks.
• Tuition assistance program and up to 100% reimbursement for job-related certifications and licenses.
• 15 hours of paid time annually for community service.
• Commuter benefits and pet insurance.
• Consumer discounts on various products and services.
• Opportunities for ongoing professional development, leadership training, and career growth.

Application Deadline: The initial deadline for applications is 9/28/2026. Applications submitted after this date may still be considered on a rolling basis until the position/program is filled. We encourage all interested candidates to apply as early as possible. If a final decision has not been made by the initial deadline, subsequent applications will be reviewed as they are received.

Candidates extended an offer will be required to undergo pre-employment screening that includes checking references, a four-panel drug screening that excludes marijuana testing, employment verification & criminal background check.

AIR values diversity and provides equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants for employment. AIR prohibits discrimination and harassment of any type without regard to race, color, religion, age, sex, national origin, disability status, genetics, protected veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state or local laws.