Director, Program Delivery

Job Description

Director, Program DeliveryWhat is the opportunity?RBC's AI Group is scaling rapidly to deliver on our $1 billion AI ambition, deploying transformative AI solutions across credit, fraud detection, market intelligence, pricing optimization, and generative AI applications. As the AI Solutions portfolio expands across multiple lines of business, we need a strategic leader who can blend technical depth with program execution excellence to drive delivery at scale.Reporting to the Senior Director, Program Delivery, the Director, Program Delivery will lead the execution of one of RBC's most strategic and complex AI initiatives. You will be accountable for translating business objectives into executable delivery plans and ensuring successful implementation across research, engineering, platform, and business teams.This role requires a unique blend of technical understanding, program leadership, and stakeholder management. You will serve as the primary delivery leader for a major AI initiative, driving alignment across multiple teams, managing risks and dependencies, and ensuring the initiative delivers measurable business value.Your responsibilities include:Initiative Leadership & Delivery

• Own end-to-end delivery accountability for a strategic AI initiative from planning through production deployment and value realization.

• Develop and maintain delivery roadmaps, milestones, dependency plans, and execution strategies to ensure successful outcomes.

• Coordinate activities across AI Research, AI Solutions Engineering, platform teams, governance partners, and business stakeholders.

• Drive execution against committed timelines, budgets, scope, and business objectives.

• Ensure delivery teams remain focused on achieving measurable business outcomes while maintaining high standards of quality and reliability.

Program Governance & Execution

• Establish effective governance processes including status reviews, risk management, issue resolution, and executive reporting.

• Monitor initiative health through delivery metrics, OKRs, KPIs, and operational dashboards.

• Identify and proactively resolve delivery bottlenecks, technical dependencies, and organizational challenges.

• Facilitate decision-making and escalation management to maintain delivery momentum.

Technical Leadership & Collaboration

• Partner with engineering leaders, architects, and product teams to understand technical requirements, constraints, and delivery dependencies.

• Balance business priorities, technical quality, and delivery timelines when supporting key implementation decisions.

• Ensure technical risks are identified, communicated, and mitigated throughout the delivery lifecycle.

• Develop a strong understanding of the AI solution architecture, data ecosystem, platform capabilities, and operational requirements supporting the initiative.

• Translate technical concepts into clear business language and business requirements into actionable delivery plans.

Stakeholder Management

• Serve as the primary delivery point of contact for senior business stakeholders and technology partners supporting the initiative.

• Build trusted relationships across business, engineering, platform, and governance teams.

• Manage stakeholder expectations through transparent communication and proactive issue management.

• Prepare executive-level updates and materials for steering committees and leadership forums.

• Foster alignment and accountability across all participating teams.

Team Leadership

• Foster a culture of ownership, accountability, collaboration, and continuous improvement.

• Enable teams to operate effectively within a fast-paced and highly complex environment.

Risk, Financial & Resource Management

• Manage initiative budgets, forecasts, resource plans, and vendor engagements.

• Ensure effective utilization of resources while balancing delivery commitments and organizational priorities.

• Identify and mitigate risks that could impact timelines, scope, quality, or business outcomes.

• Track financial performance and value realization against approved business cases and objectives.

• Drive timely issue resolution and escalation management across participating teams.

You're an ideal candidate if you have:

• 7+ years of experience delivering large-scale technology solutions in software engineering, data engineering, platform engineering, AI, or related domains.

• 3+ years of experience leading complex programs, strategic initiatives, or technology transformations.

• Experience delivering AI, machine learning, data, cloud, or platform solutions into production environments.

• Strong understanding of software delivery lifecycle, Agile methodologies, and modern engineering practices.

• Able to lead large cross-functional teams and influence stakeholders across business and technology organizations.

• Experience managing initiative budgets, delivery plans, risks, dependencies, and executive communications.

• Strong analytical, organizational, and problem-solving capabilities.

Nice to Have:

• Background as a software engineer, platform engineer, or distinguished engineer who transitioned into delivery leadership.

• Project Management Professional (PMP), Agile, SAFe, or Scrum Master certifications.

• Experience driving cultural transformation and organizational change in engineering organizations.

• Understanding of generative AI, foundation models, MLOps, and AI solution delivery at enterprise scale.

• Experience managing programs with budgets of $5M+ and cross-functional teams of 20+ people across multiple workstreams.

What's in it for you?

• Become part of a team that thinks progressively and works collaboratively. We care about seeing each other reach full potential;

• A comprehensive Total Rewards Program including bonuses and flexible benefits, competitive compensation, commissions, and stock options where applicable;

• Leaders who support your development through coaching and managing opportunities;

• Ability to make a difference and lasting impact from a local-to-global scale.

About RBC BorealisRBC Borealis is the driving force behind Royal Bank of Canada’s AI and data innovation. As part of Canada’s largest financial institution, we bring together a team of architects, engineers, scientists, and product experts on a mission to revolutionize finance through world-class research, solutions, and a resilient data platform. With locations across Toronto, Waterloo, Montreal, Calgary, and Vancouver, we’re at the forefront of AI research and platform development. With a focus on cutting-edge research in areas like time series forecasting, causal machine learning, and responsible AI, we are seamlessly integrating AI research and data engineering, to solve critical challenges in the financial industry. We are building intelligent, and scalable, data-driven solutions that will help communities thrive and drive innovation for our customers across the bank.