Robots & Pencils has been engaged by a major online university to stand up an integrated AI Pod - an embedded, cross-functional delivery team building and deploying AI-enabled systems across institutional workflows. This is a high-visibility, high-velocity engagement with a client that is serious about AI transformation and committed to moving fast.
The pod operates as both a delivery unit and a reference model. The practices, sprint rhythms, and operating patterns established here become the blueprint the university replicates as it scales AI across the institution.
We are looking for an experienced Delivery Lead to keep the pod focused, moving, and accountable. This person owns the delivery operating model - sprint cadence, dependency management, risk identification, and stakeholder communication. You will work across both the R&P team and client-side counterparts, maintaining momentum through ambiguity, surfacing blockers before they become problems, and ensuring the pod delivers against priorities week over week.
The right person for this role is not a project manager who tracks status. They are a delivery operator who understands AI product development, knows how to run a high-performing pod, and can hold a team accountable while maintaining strong client relationships at the operational level.
This is not a coordination role. It is an execution and accountability role in a fast-moving, high-stakes client engagement.
Required Skills & Experience - 10+ years in software development or technical delivery
- Proven success delivering complex projects in agile environments, meeting demanding timelines and quality expectations
- Comfort working alongside engineering teams building agentic systems
- Strong familiarity with tools such as: Jira/Confluence/Microsoft Office/Google/Lucid
- Ability to leverage delivery metrics and performance data to inform strategies and optimize outcomes
- Exceptional interpersonal and stakeholder management skills; confident managing executive-level relationships and escalations
- PMP, Scrum Master, or other relevant technical/project management certifications are highly desirable
- In-depth knowledge of AI tools such as Claude and use in day-to-day work for increased efficiency
- Experience working with education or higher education environments, or leading complex discovery and operational documentation engagements, is a strong plus
