Insight Data & AI Technical Portfolio Manager

BDO International Limited; United Kingdom; On-site; GBP 70,000 - 90,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading global professional services firm in the United Kingdom is seeking an experienced Insights Data & AI Technical Portfolio Manager. This role focuses on managing a portfolio of AI and data-driven projects to enhance client service. The ideal candidate has over 8 years of experience in technical project management and strong leadership skills. Competitive compensation and opportunities for international travel are offered.

Benefits

Competitive salary

International travel opportunities

Qualifications

• 8+ years of experience in technical project, portfolio, or delivery management.
• Strong experience in demand management and resource planning.
• Excellent written and verbal English communication skills.

Responsibilities

• Identify and manage relationships with key stakeholders.
• Lead demand management and capacity planning for AI & Data projects.
• Develop and maintain a multi-year roadmap with technical alignment.

Skills

Project management

Technical leadership

Stakeholder management

AI and Data oversight

Education

Bachelor's degree in Business, Information Technology, or Computer Science

Tools

Cloud-native solutions

Generative AI applications

Job description

BDO is the leading mid-tier professional services provider globally. In 2024, we recorded global revenues of over US$15 billion across our core service lines - Audit & Assurance, Tax, Advisory, and Business Services & Outsourcing. With a worldwide community of over 119k professionals operating in 166 countries and territories, we’re dedicated to helping our clients navigate complex financial and strategic challenges, aligned to our core purpose: People helping people.

More information about BDO can be found on www.bdo.global.

Position: Insights Data & AI Technical Portfolio Manager

Catalyst is a strategic initiative led by BDO’s Audit & Assurance team to revolutionize the organization’s audit technology and methodology. Its mission is to build trust in the business economy while making audits easier, more engaging, and more meaningful for auditors. Catalyst aims to elevate quality and efficiency by introducing consistent service delivery and a cutting-edge, unified digital ecosystem across BDO’s global network.

The Insights Data & AI Technical Portfolio Manager (TPM) is central to managing a portfolio of AI & data-driven projects that enhance client service, operational efficiency, and regulatory compliance. You will work closely with senior stakeholders, technical teams, and client-facing professionals to ensure our AI & data capabilities support our evolving business needs.

Responsibilities

• Identify, foster, harness and ensure relationship management with key Catalyst Business Stakeholders including Senior Leaders, to establish and maintain ongoing Account Management. Define initiatives aligned to customer-centricity and value-focused to drive strategic goals.
• Oversee the strategic alignment of Data & AI delivery within the broader roadmap, prioritising initiatives to maximise business value and meet client objectives.
• Own and manage the delivery components of the Data & AI roadmap, collaborating with Product Owners, Project Managers, and other Catalyst stakeholders to ensure timely and effective execution.
• Maintain a comprehensive view of all active and upcoming Data & AI initiatives, ensuring alignment with budget, scope, and strategic data governance, quality, and lineage practices across all initiatives.
• Support compliance with industry regulations (e.g., GDPR, UK SOX, FRC standards) and internal risk frameworks.
• Promote responsible AI practices and model transparency in client-facing and internal tools and priorities.

Technical & AI Oversight

• Provide technical leadership to the AI & Data Insight teams.
• Collaborate with data scientists and engineers to develop secure, scalable, and ethical AI solutions (e.g., for audit automation, risk analytics, or client insights).
• Evaluate and implement modern data platforms and AI tools, including cloud-native solutions and generative AI applications.

Demand Management and Capacity Planning

• Lead the demand management process, ensuring new and existing initiative requests are assessed, prioritised, and resourced in collaboration with Catalyst leadership and sponsors.
• Assess existing initiatives and incoming requests and scope them according to technical feasibility, business impact, and available capacity.
• Collaborate with the Catalyst PMO function to optimise resource allocation, reduce bottlenecks, and balance Data & AI capacity across concurrent projects.

Pre-Project Support and Proposal Development

• Collaborate with the PMO and Catalyst business teams to support firm engagements, acting as a Data & AI subject matter expert during proposal development.
• Develop and review statements of work (SoWs), project plans, and Data & AI solutions, ensuring accurate scope definition, effort estimates, and delivery timelines.

Business Engagement and Stakeholder Management

• Act as the primary Data & AI business liaison for Catalyst, ensuring effective communication of project status, risks, and key milestones.
• Lead meetings and Data & AI working groups, ensuring clarity on technical scope, delivery timelines, and client inputs.
• Build strong, trusted relationships with key stakeholders, ensuring a high level of satisfaction in Data & AI workstreams.

Collaboration and Delivery Management

• Partner with Project Managers and Catalyst Delivery Team to oversee end-to-end delivery of Data & AI projects, ensuring effective execution and on-time delivery.
• Provide governance, support, and guidance to technical teams and PMO to ensure successful technical delivery and management in line with best practices.
• Facilitate cross-functional collaboration between Catalyst teams to resolve delivery roadblocks.
• Ensure Data & AI technical deliverables meet quality standards and align with business objectives, addressing issues as they arise.

Risk Management and Issue Resolution

• Identify and mitigate portfolio-wide risks, escalating critical issues to senior leadership when necessary. Report on progress and risks weekly through various channels.
• Support Project Managers in identifying and managing delivery risks, coordinating cross-functional solutions as required.
• Conduct post-mortems and lessons-learned sessions after key project milestones, driving continuous improvement across the portfolio.

Roadmap Development and Continuous Improvement

• Develop and maintain a multi-year roadmap with the business, ensuring technical alignment with both business strategy and priorities.
• Lead continuous improvement initiatives to optimise Data & AI delivery, and increase the quality of outcomes.

Estimating, Budget Submissions, and Financial Oversight

• Develop, validate, and manage cost estimates, financial forecasts, and budget submissions for Data & AI projects, ensuring financial transparency and accountability.
• Support the development of pricing models and ensure that all financial aspects are properly captured in project proposals, including resource costs, hardware/software expenses, and vendor engagements.
• Track actual costs against forecasted budgets, identifying variances, risks and taking corrective action as required.

General Duties

• Execute tasks as directed by the Head of Strategic Programmes, Audit; and Catalyst programme Data and Technology Workstream Lead or the Catalyst leadership team.

Qualifications and Experience

• A minimum of a Bachelor’s degree in Business, Information Technology, Computer Science, or a related field. A
• Relevant certifications in PMP, PRINCE2, SAFe, Agile are highly desirable.
• 8+ years’ of experience in technical project, portfolio, or delivery management, with a focus on business-facing roles and technical solution delivery.
• Demonstrated experience in demand management, budget development, and resource planning.
• Strong experience supporting pre-project efforts and leading the development of technical proposals, scoping, and statement of work (SoW) documents.
• A technical background is not essential but desirable. As a minimum, this role requires a good understanding of technical concepts to be able to lead the initiatives.
• Experience in working with multiple third-party vendors and partners to deliver complex products and engagements.
• Team building and pragmatic problem-solving skills with local, international, and multicultural staff.
• Ability to understand the holistic business needs of the organisation and apply this understanding to the management of the programme.
• Ability to multitask, balancing priorities among competing needs whilst ensuring the required detail and quality is achieved, providing the highest level of value to BDO.
• Strong interpersonal, collaboration and business relationship skills
• Excellent written and verbal English communication skills
• Able to work under pressure and meet deadlines, and able to adopt flexible working practices as require from time to time.
• Able to manage sensitive and confidential information.
• Able and willing to travel internationally when required.
• Able and willing to work US time zone for meetings when required.

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Seniority level

• Mid-Senior level

Employment type

• Full-time

Job function

• Information Technology and Project Management
• Industries: Accounting and Business Consulting and Services

Note: This description has been reformatted for clarity and to remove non-relevant boilerplate while preserving the essential responsibilities and qualifications of the role.