Technical Project Manager - Agentic AI Project [INTERIM]

Job description

Our client, a major Dutch retail organisation, is going all in on agentic AI. The board has commissioned a strategic programme to build an enterprise agentic platform that will run AI agents across core commercial decisions - pricing, promotions, assortment, presentation, negotiation, and sourcing. Building a single agent is straightforward; running agents reliably at enterprise scale is not. The second problem - the governance, guardrails, monitoring, validation, versioning, context management, and operational scaffolding needed to keep agents safe and consistent in production - is what this platform is being built to solve.

The work is being delivered in co-creation with a tier-1 global strategy consultancy, which brings frameworks, tooling, and an existing platform foundation. You sit on the client side as the Technical Project Manager driving execution. You act on behalf of the client - they are in the driver's seat, and you are the person making sure it stays that way. You operate inside a multi-PM governance structure alongside a Business Change Manager and an Overall Programme Manager, working with delivery teams from both organisations. Programme kickoff is the 1st of June, and the six-month target is an initial version of the platform live and running with the first agentic use cases in production.

Responsibilities

• Run end-to-end project management on the client side of the programme, from kickoff through to a live platform with first use cases at the six-month mark.
• Manage dependencies across multiple delivery teams - client-side teams and the consultancy's teams - and coordinate the interactions with adjacent departments needed to get the programme up and running quickly.
• Keep the client in the driver's seat. The consulting partner brings genuine expertise and assets, but their agenda is not always the client's agenda. Recognise it, name it, and address it directly when delivery drifts.
• When delivery teams flag that a technical decision is going the wrong way, escalate it cleanly and find a way to resolve it with the consulting partner.
• Bring proper project rigor on top of agile delivery cadence: structured status reporting, risk identification, mitigation planning, and stakeholder communication up to executive level.
• Provide clear visibility to senior IT sponsors throughout the engagement.

Job requirements

• Senior project management experience delivering complex programmes inside large, multi-layered organisations - complex from both a technical and an organisational/political angle.
• A track record of delivering IT projects and, specifically, software development projects. This is non-negotiable.
• Technical affinity strong enough to hold your own in architecture and platform conversations and to recognise when delivery decisions are off. A formal engineering background is not required.
• Recent, hands-on experience setting up or rolling out AI and LLM-based capabilities at enterprise scale.
• Comfortable challenging senior consultants when their direction is wrong - directly, with substance, and without breaking the relationship.
• Agile mindset combined with classical PM rigor: status, risks, mitigations, executive-grade reporting.
• Highly self-sufficient. No hand-holding required. You understand the mission, you act on it, you flag what you need.
• Authorised to work in the EU and Netherlands-based - the role is hybrid with a fair amount of in-person time required.

The following are a plus:

• Retail or grocery sector experience.
• Experience delivering programmes alongside tier-1 strategy consultancies.
• A prior background in software engineering or architecture.

Why this role

Agentic AI in production at enterprise scale is one of the most consequential technical bets large organisations are making right now - and very few are committing to it with this level of seriousness: a board mandate, joint delivery with a tier-1 consultancy, multiple teams on each side, and a six-month target to a live platform. As the Technical Project Manager you are the person keeping it on the rails. The scope is real, the visibility to executive sponsors is direct, and the impact lands inside half a year.