AI Programme Manager

Department: Project Services & Change
Team: Project Services & Change
Location: London with hybrid working 
Position type: Contractor (umbrella – inside IR35) until 31st December 2026 

What the hiring manager says

“This is an exciting opportunity to join our agile, fast-paced, and versatile team of project professionals and drive programme delivery across the GSMA’s AI activities connecting innovation, research, and operational excellence. You will play a pivotal role in orchestrating horizontal execution across a number of cross-organisational AI activities, ensuring the delivery of tangible impact to our members and the wider telecom ecosystem.”
Anna Campbell Head of Project Services & Change

About the Team

The Project Services & Change Team in the GSMA provides project and programme management capabilities to deliver change initiatives across the mobile industry. Working in close partnership with subject matter experts within the GSMA and from across the mobile industry, the Project Services team manages a wide range of projects and programmes in all areas of the organisation, including Technology, Product Development, Marketing and Events, as well as internal facing projects in IT, Finance and HR.

As part of the project delivery, the Project Services team also provides change expertise to GSMA projects to guide the implementation of change initiatives within the organisation. 

Project Services & Change is the delivery engine for projects and programmes across the GSMA. As well as delivering to agreed cost, quality and timelines, the team maintains a strong focus on delivering benefits to our colleagues, our members and to the mobile industry.

About the Role

As the AI Programme Manager, you will oversee and manage strategic AI initiatives and accelerate collaboration across internal teams and external partners, ensuring GSMA remains at the forefront of AI innovation in telecom. You will coordinate delivery across multiple GSMA departments and external partners, maintaining alignment, visibility, and control across the programme. This role requires strong stakeholder leadership, exceptional communication skills, and the ability to remove barriers to deliver impactful outcomes.

This role requires strong programme management fundamentals, cross-functional collaboration, and the ability to work with senior stakeholders across the GSMA and external partners.

Key responsibilities:

•    Programme Planning and Management
o    Support the definition of the structure and plan the programme approach, with consideration for dependencies and constraints
o    Develop, maintain, and track integrated programme plans including clear objective, milestones and deliverables, ensuring alignment with strategic objectives
o    Identify delivery challenges early and implement solutions to maintain momentum
o    Proactively identify and mitigate risks associated with the programme, ensuring that potential issues are addressed promptly
o    Ensure the delivery of products or services from projects is to the appropriate level of quality, on time and within budget, in accordance with the programme plan
o    Ensure allocation of resources and skills within the programme's individual projects to meet programme priorities.
•    Governance and Communication
o    Establish and maintain programme governance frameworks
o    Design communication plans that keep stakeholders informed and engaged throughout the programme, ensuring that messages are consistent, transparent, and tailored to a variety of multi-level stakeholders
o    Prepare, plan and lead internal and external stakeholder meetings, ensuring decisions and actions are documented and followed up
o    Deliver clear, compelling updates and insights to diverse audiences, including executives and technical teams
o    Prepare high-quality presentations, reports, and briefing materials that influence decision-making
o    Ensure programme benefits are tracked and managed as per the programme sponsor requirement.
•    Stakeholder Management
o    Drive member collaboration and outcomes from GSMA’s AI programs
o    Develop and execute stakeholder management plans
o    Work closely with GSMA business leads, technical experts, and external partners to ensure aligned delivery
o    Facilitate collaboration and communication between teams within the AI portfolio and other GSMA departments

About You

This is a hands-on role with successful candidates required to be self-motivated and able to work effectively, with limited supervision.   
•    You are an experienced Programme or Senior Project Manager who thrives when leading multi-stakeholder programs in complex environments.
•    You are comfortable managing complexity across teams, aligning delivery frameworks, and enabling senior stakeholders to make informed decisions
•    You have strong interpersonal and communication skills with the ability to build consensus.
•    Demonstrated ability to navigate ambiguity and deliver results under pressure
•    Independent worker with high accountability and member first mindset
•    You have experience in balancing different priorities and finding consensus
•    You have the ability to create a sense of community amongst the projects and project teams
•    You have experience of working in an international and cross-cultural environment
•    You do not need to be a domain expert in AI, but you should be comfortable engaging with technology teams and understanding how to translate complex information into clear delivery plans.

Contract type

Short term Contractor

Worker type

Contingent Worker

What We Offer

Working at the GSMA offers you unparalleled access to the mobile industry. We offer a chance to truly shape the direction of mobile, whatever your role. By joining the GSMA, you will be exposed to a fast-paced rapidly evolving environment, working on global solutions, genuinely fascinating and industry-changing projects and a stimulating and dynamic environment designed to enable you to flourish.

In addition to architect-designed offices and competitive compensation, our benefits include fantastic learning & development opportunities, generous holiday allowances, four additional days off for professional development and many others.

To learn more about the GSMA, visit our career site, our LinkedIn page and our Twitter page.

Being You at the GSMA

We care deeply about diversity, equity and inclusivity and aspire to be the best at it. Your well-being and work/life balance is important, so flexi-time and remote working is available to all staff. We're keen to ensure everyone is equal, represented and connected so we particularly encourage applications from all demographics. The sucess of the GSMA year on year will continue to be contributed by people from all walks of life.

GSMA Values

Our values not only drive our culture – they shape how we work and interact inside and outside our global organisation.

Passionately driven

We approach everything we do with unparalleled capability, tenacity and commitment, knowing that the challenging scale, pace and complexity of our work is what leads to its world-changing impact.

Insightful leaders

We continually develop and engage our expertise, insight and creativity so that we’re always ready to respond to the changing landscape with authority, agility and nuance.

Stronger together

We lean on each other so the industry can lean on us, embracing our diversity by actively seeking out perspectives and skill sets beyond our own, fuelling each other’s successes and constantly asking how we can help.

Underpinning our values is our collective mindset to show up purposefully as good human beings every day, in every situation. When we’re at our best – we are collaborative, considerate and compassionate to others, and we create a safe space for one another to thrive, assuming positive intent in our colleagues. And if we aren’t at our best and the pressure is on – we feel free to be ourselves but still remain curious, lean into the tough stuff and we are always respectful to others and accountable for the part we play.