Lead Operator
Broomfield, US
What it's about
Partner's Group is hiring an AI Transformation Management Office (TMO) Lead to program-manage the firm's portfolio company AI efforts. This role is the connective tissue that keeps the whole program on track, coordinated, and delivering measurable value by partnering with many internal and external stakeholders.
This is a program-leadership role, but a technical one — the person must be able to engage credibly on solution architecture at a high level, pressure-test feasibility, and challenge delivery plans, not merely track them. Crucially, the right candidate has personally been close to real AI implementations in prior roles.
Where the Solution Architect owns deep design authority and the Vertical Leads own sector value, the TMO Lead owns execution across the whole portfolio — making sure initiatives are prioritized, sequenced, staffed, governed, and landed.
Mission
Program-manage AI initiatives across the portfolio— providing the single source of truth on status, dependencies, risk, resourcing, and value — and bring enough technical and architectural judgment to keep initiatives feasible, well-sequenced, and on track from concept to realized value.
Key Responsibilities
1. Program-manage the AI agenda
- Maintain a single, portfolio-wide view of every AI initiative across all portfolio companies: scope, status, owner, timeline, dependencies, risks, and value-at-stake.
- Run the governance cadence — stage-gates, steering reviews, prioritization, and resource-allocation decisions — in partnership with the CAIO and Vertical Leads.
- Manage cross-initiative dependencies, sequencing, and bottlenecks across companies and partners.
- Drive initiatives through a consistent delivery lifecycle from intake and prioritization through design, build, deployment, and value realization.
- Surface risks and blockers early and drive them to resolution; keep the program honest about what is on track versus at risk.
2. Bring high-level technical and architecture judgment
- Engage credibly with the AI Solution Architect, portfolio-company technical teams, and implementation partners on solution design at a high level — enough to assess feasibility, scope, effort, and risk, and to challenge weak plans.
- Translate between business objectives and technical delivery: ensure initiatives are scoped against sound architecture and realistic timelines, not optimistic assumptions.
- Spot when a proposed approach is over-engineered, under-scoped, or architecturally unsound, and escalate to the Solution Architect appropriately.
- Recognize reuse opportunities — where a solution built for one company can be redeployed elsewhere — and route them into the shared-pattern library.
3. Orchestrate partners and resources
- Coordinate the ecosystem of external implementation partners, vendors, and internal teams across concurrent initiatives — managing scope, timelines, and handoffs.
- Track partner delivery against milestones and acceptance criteria (set by the Solution Architect), and manage escalations.
- Allocate and balance scarce resources (talent, partner capacity, budget) across competing initiatives in line with firm priorities.
4. Own value realization and reporting
- Define and run the measurement discipline that ties every initiative to financial and operational outcomes; track value captured versus planned.
- Produce clear, decision-useful reporting for the CAIO, firm leadership, and the Investment Committee on portfolio AI progress, value, risks, and pipeline.
- Identify initiatives that are underperforming and drive decisions to fix, re-scope, or stop them.
5. Build the transformation operating model
- Establish and continuously improve the TMO's tools, templates, intake process, and delivery playbook so the program scales as the portfolio grows.
- Capture lessons across initiatives and feed them back into prioritization, standards, and partner management.
- Support diligence and onboarding of new acquisitions into the AI program, ensuring each new company plugs into the established operating model quickly.
What This Role Is and Is Not
- Is: portfolio-wide program leadership, governance and cadence owner, cross-initiative coordinator, technically credible challenger of feasibility and design, value-realization tracker.
- Is not: a hands-on software engineer or the deep design authority (that is the Solution Architect), nor the owner of sector value theses (that is the Vertical Leads). The TMO Lead makes the whole program run.
Required
- 10+ years in program/transformation leadership, with experience program-managing large, complex, multi-workstream digital transformation or AI programs across organizations.
- Direct, hands-on involvement in actual AI/ML implementations in prior roles — the candidate has been in the room delivering real AI solutions, not only managing schedules; sufficient technical depth to engage on architecture at a high level and judge feasibility.
- Demonstrated ability to drive delivery and coordinate partners across businesses and teams you do not directly control.
- Strong grasp of modern AI systems (LLMs, agents, data/integration, evaluation) at a level that supports credible technical judgment.
- Commercial and financial fluency; able to tie initiatives to value and to communicate with PE leadership and an Investment Committee.
- Exceptional organization, communication, and stakeholder-management skills; calm under competing priorities.
- Willingness to travel and operate across many portfolio companies.
Preferred
- Prior experience in private equity, portfolio operations, or a multi-company / management-consulting environment.
- Experience standing up and scaling a transformation or program-management office.
- Exposure across multiple industries and AI use-case types.
Partners Group is a global financial institution that retains the culture, pace and agility of a start-up. As a growing firm, we are committed to attracting, developing and retaining the very best talent, by offering a workplace where results are truly recognized and rewarded. We offer a fantastic opportunity for you to grow:
- Competitive compensation with performance-based bonuses along with daily lunch allowance
- Comprehensive career development through challenging opportunities, hands-on training, dedicated mentorship programs, and our PG Academy learning platform for continuous growth
- Global professional environment with international exposure, collaborative culture, and opportunities to learn the business from industry leaders and seasoned professionals
- Premium facilities including state-of-the-art building, diverse on-site dining options, and complimentary gym access with fitness classes
- Community engagement through office events, team activities, and volunteer opportunities to connect with local communities
- Sabbatical program — one month off after every five years of service to recharge and explore
- Partners Group compensation has a long-term outlook and philosophy, and our total compensation emphasizes performance based long term incentives. Base pay range for this role is $275,000 - $300,000, and a performance-based bonus are additional parts of the total compensation package
www.partnersgroup.com
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