Senior Program Manager, Google DeepMind Impact Accelerator

The role of the Program Management Team is to shape and accelerate the delivery of GDM’s highest priorities. We do this through translating strategy into program plans, implementing efficient ways of working, and developing successful teams to drive end-to-end delivery of our GDM objectives. We provide focus for our teams through co-developing goals and priorities, continually anchoring teams back to these. We always pursue sustainable ways to optimize our work, striving to ensure we cultivate an environment where people can be both highly collaborative and deeply creative, making responsible and groundbreaking progress at pace. We build positive relationships with teams, bringing clarity to ambiguity and providing stability during change.

In addition, our program management expertise structures complex projects, and we continuously deepen our technical knowledge, working alongside researchers and engineers to ensure all our work is advancing towards our mission!

Artificial Intelligence could be one of humanity’s most useful inventions. At Google DeepMind, we’re a team of scientists, engineers, machine learning experts and more, working together to advance the state of the art in artificial intelligence. We use our technologies for widespread public benefit and scientific discovery, and collaborate with others on critical challenges, ensuring safety and ethics are the highest priority.

The Google DeepMind Impact Accelerator (GDI) has a unique role in GDM, to develop solutions and resources built on GDM's technologies and expertise that extend the benefits to humanity. We are a path to real world impact, beyond Alphabet products and services or making our research public.

As a Senior Program Manager, you will drive the success of all strategic initiatives within the Google DeepMind Impact Accelerator. You will partner with senior leadership across the team, Google DeepMind, Google, and Alphabet to develop strategy into actionable programs, ensuring alignment with organizational goals. You will partner with Pillar  Leads and the wider GDI team to effectively drive goals forwards, applyexpert program and portfolio management methodologies, and guide teams through complex, ambiguous environments. You will establish the ways of working in the team, setting norms and processes to provide clarity and consistency. You will also lead and develop a team of Program Managers, fostering a culture of continuous improvement and collaboration.

Key responsibilities

Strategy and thought partnership

• Partner with GDI Leads to understand and align with their objectives and vision, providing effective thought-partnership
• Collaborate with leadership to refine strategy, representing and communicating it effectively across the team and organization.
• Set team-wide tools, processes and norms, and enforce those to enable the team to run effectively
• Translate evolving strategies into a prioritized portfolio of work, providing oversight and insights to inform leadership decisions.
• Partner with pillar  leads to focus their programs into a balanced portfolio that delivers regular results
• Drive far-reaching buy-in for GDI strategy and impact by enabling effective Leadership and team engagement across internal and external programs and events. 

Management, delivery and leadership

• Manage the full portfolio of initiatives, empowering the GDI PgM team, and ensuring alignment with organizational mission and impact.
• Deliver scoped, complex cross-functional programs of work when required
• Lead and role model end-to-end program planning and delivery of key priorities when needed, utilizing appropriate program management  methodologies and tools.
• Lead and manage a team of Program Managers to deliver against a range of objectives & priorities, providing leadership, advice, coaching, and guidance on projects and programs
• Drive engagement across the team by building relationships, sharing constructive feedback and challenging established ways of thinking
• Ensure and proactively shape culture to ensure best practices in program management across the team: tracking progress, managing risks, communicating effectively, regular retrospectives, etc
• Coach teams through fostering collaboration, driving engagement, and providing clear communication in pursuit of clearly defined goals.

In order to set you up for success as a Senior Program Manager at Google DeepMind, we look for the following skills and experience:

• Experience working with senior leadership, confidently communicating challenges and risks while proposing new solutions.
• A track record of leading and delivering complex projects and programs in an ambiguous environment involving AI 
• Extensive expertise in portfolio and program management, with a proven ability to navigate ambiguity and adapt to change.
• Proven ability to navigate fast-paced, ever-evolving environments, demonstrating resourcefulness and creativity in solving complex challenges and implementing scalable solutions. 
• Demonstrated ability to improve processes, workflows, and governance models to enhance efficiency with cross-functional teams.
• Excellent communication and relationship-building skills, with the ability to influence outcomes.
• Ability to effectively cultivate a collaborative environment, leveraging the expertise of others and empowering & motivating team members to overcome challenges and find solutions
• Proactive learner with a curious attitude and a passion for advancing AI and social impact.
• Favours pragmatism over perfection, anticipating both challenges to and opportunities for impact across your focus areas.

Note: In the event your application is successful and an offer of employment is made to you, any offer of employment will be conditional on the results of a background check, performed by a third party acting on our behalf. For more information on how we handle your data, please see our Applicant and Candidate Privacy Policy.

At Google DeepMind, we value diversity of experience, knowledge, backgrounds and perspectives and harness these qualities to create extraordinary impact. We are committed to equal employment opportunity regardless of sex, race, religion or belief, ethnic or national origin, disability, age, citizenship, marital, domestic or civil partnership status, sexual orientation, gender identity, pregnancy, or related condition (including breastfeeding) or any other basis as protected by applicable law. If you have a disability or additional need that requires accommodation, please do not hesitate to let us know.