Senior IT Program Manager

Description

The company is a European digital services firm with more than 56,000 colleagues in 30 countries.

This senior role makes you the single executive accountable for a flagship European Commission programme covering Dataspace and Artificial Intelligence. You answer for scope, schedule, budget, quality, risk and stakeholder satisfaction across a multi-partner consortium building digital infrastructure for Europe.

You will work where technology policy meets large public-sector delivery. You need strong EU institutional knowledge, real technical credibility in Dataspace and AI, and the ability to lead difficult negotiations with senior Commission staff and administrations in 27 Member States.

Responsibilities

• Set up and chair the Programme Governance Board so it stays aligned with Commission priorities and contract terms.
• Own the integrated programme master plan and manage dependencies across every workstream and partner.
• Run the programme from start to handover into live operation, with a budget baseline above €100M.
• Apply EU programme management frameworks such as PM² and Agile-at-scale methods where they fit.
• Hold the risk register, issue log and escalation process, and act early on threats to delivery.
• Lead operational governance of the consortium of four partner organisations, including subcontractor oversight and contract compliance.
• Chair Consortium Management Committees, Technical Steering Committees and Joint Programme Boards.
• Track partner performance and KPIs, and enforce SLAs and prime contract obligations.
• Settle disputes between partners over resources, conflicts and scope boundaries, firmly and tactfully.
• Build a collaborative consortium culture focused on shared programme goals.
• Serve as the main contact and relationship owner for European Commission DG counterparts.
• Build trusted advisory relationships with Commission sponsors, IT Steering Committees and senior EC management.
• Work with stakeholders in 27 Member States, coordinating national rollouts and managing expectations at country level.
• Represent the programme at senior review meetings, governance forums and political briefings.
• Handle EU institutional politics, procurement rules and EU financial regulations with care.
• Oversee technical delivery of Dataspace architecture components.
• Steer AI workstreams to comply with the EU AI Act and align with the AI Office and Commission AI strategy.
• Make sure solutions are interoperable, meet standards such as EUCS, ETSI, W3C and ISO, and satisfy EU security requirements.
• Work with enterprise architects, data engineers, developers, testers and AI specialists to confirm technical direction and manage delivery risk.
• Manage the full budget above €100M, covering baseline, forecast, earned value management and variance reporting.
• Oversee procurement under EU Financial Regulations and applicable framework contracts.
• Prepare and defend financial reports, Monthly Progress Reports and Quarterly Management Reviews for the Commission.
• Keep programme spending auditable to EC Internal Audit Service standards.
• Put the Quality Management Plan in place and maintain it to ISO 9001 and EC quality standards.
• Ensure compliance with GDPR, NIS2, the EU AI Act and Commission security policies (ITSM, ISMS).
• Produce executive dashboards, milestone reports and presentations for senior EC stakeholders.
• Capture lessons learned, drive continuous improvement and transfer knowledge across the programme lifecycle.

Requirements

• At least 15 years in IT programme or project management, including at least 8 years in senior or lead programme or director roles.
• A record of delivering EU Commission IT programmes at scale, with budgets of €50M or more, ideally for DGs such as DIGIT, TAXUD or CONNECT, or equivalent.
• Experience leading a multi-partner consortium as prime contractor in EU public procurement.
• Solid working knowledge of EU procurement frameworks, framework contracts and EU Financial Regulations.
• Hands-on use of PM² or an equivalent EU methodology, including its governance, reporting and documentation standards.
• Experience working with national administrations and government stakeholders across several Member States.
• Significant technical exposure to Dataspace architectures, AI delivery, or both, in a public sector or regulated environment.
• A Master's degree or equivalent in Computer Science, Information Systems, Engineering, Public Administration or a related field.
• PgMP (PMI), MSP (AXELOS) or PM² Advanced certification required.
• Highly desirable: direct experience on EU Dataspace programmes such as GAIA-X, IDSA-aligned, European Health Data Space, Mobility Data Space or similar.
• Highly desirable: knowledge of EU AI initiatives, including AI Act implementation, the European AI Office and AI regulatory compliance frameworks.
• Highly desirable: familiarity with EC digital infrastructure programmes such as CEF Digital, the Digital Europe Programme (DEP) or Horizon Europe ICT projects.
• Highly desirable: experience with EC interoperability frameworks (EIF) and the ISA²/Interoperable Europe Act.
• Highly desirable: understanding of EUCS cloud sovereignty requirements and European cloud initiatives.
• Desirable: PMP, PRINCE2 Practitioner, ITIL 4 Foundation, Scrum@Scale or SAFe certification.
• An advantage: EU institutional training or EPSO-related qualifications.

Benefits

• A pivotal role in shaping Europe's digital infrastructure over the coming decade.
• Direct work with senior people at the European Commission and EU Member State governments.
• Leading one of the most complex and high-profile EU IT programmes now underway.
• Executive pay benchmarked against the senior IT programme management market in Brussels.
• Working alongside a skilled consortium team with deep EU institutional and technical expertise.
• Ongoing professional development and access to leading EU digital policy forums and conferences.