Lead AI Delivery Manager — Federal
DataRobot
Washington, DC, US - Remote
Full-Time
Competitive
HybridManager
Job Description:
DataRobot delivers AI that maximizes impact and minimizes business risk. Our platform and applications integrate into core business processes so teams can develop, deliver, and govern AI at scale. DataRobot empowers practitioners to deliver predictive and generative AI, and enables leaders to secure their AI assets. Organizations worldwide rely on DataRobot for AI that makes sense for their business — today and in the future.
As a Lead AI Delivery Manager on the DataRobot Federal Professional Services team, you are the primary owner of client engagement, technical delivery, and long-term relationship health across a portfolio of federal government customers. You are a trusted advisor who bridges the gap between what our customers need and what DataRobot can deliver — guiding agencies through complex AI adoption journeys with the credibility of a seasoned consultant and the accountability of a program manager.
You will own the full customer lifecycle for your assigned accounts: from early engagement and solution scoping, through delivery execution and stakeholder alignment, to expansion and renewal. You will be the face of DataRobot to the customer — building executive relationships, managing delivery risk, and ensuring that commitments made in the sales cycle are met with rigor and professionalism in the field.
While you will bring sufficient technical depth to credibly engage with government IT teams, architects, and data teams, your primary value is not as a hands-on engineer. It is as a strategic delivery leader who can orchestrate the right internal and partner resources, navigate federal procurement and compliance requirements, and translate complex AI capabilities into clear, mission-relevant value for senior government stakeholders.
Please note: You must be a U.S. Citizen with an active U.S. DoD TS/SCI security clearance to be eligible for this role. CI Poly is strongly preferred. If you do not meet these criteria, you will not be considered for the position.
What Does It Take?:
The right candidate brings a blend of consulting instincts, delivery discipline, and relationship-building skills, backed by sufficient technical fluency to navigate federal AI/ML environments credibly. Specifically:
Own the customer relationship end-to-end — serving as the primary point of contact and trusted advisor for executive, program, and technical stakeholders across your account portfolio.
Lead technical project delivery with rigor — develop and manage detailed project plans, track milestones, surface and mitigate risks, and hold both internal teams and customer counterparts accountable to agreed commitments.
Translate customer mission needs into DataRobot solutions — conducting discovery, identifying use cases with the highest ROI, and structuring engagements that deliver measurable outcomes.
Drive account growth and retention — identify expansion opportunities, support renewal conversations, and partner with Sales to build a compelling business case for continued and expanded investment in DataRobot.
Lead compliance with security requirements including ATO processes and IL5, IL6 and TS authorization timelines.
Navigate federal procurement including agency-specific acquisition vehicles (e.g., JWCC, Tradewinds, GSA Schedule, OTA).
Provide consultative architecture guidance — engaging federal IT and data teams on integration patterns, platform deployment approaches, and data pipeline design, while knowing when to bring in deeper technical specialists.
Serve as the voice of the customer internally — synthesizing field learnings and customer feedback to inform Product, Engineering, and Sales priorities for the Federal market.
Support pre-sales activities — participating in customer discovery, scoping professional services engagements, contributing to proposals, and presenting at executive briefings.
Mentor and coordinate partner delivery resources — overseeing subcontractors and SI partners engaged on customer programs, ensuring quality and consistency of delivery.
Is This You?:
Consulting & Advisory Excellence:
Client Engagement Leadership: 7+ years of professional services, management consulting, or technical advisory experience in federal or defense markets. You have a proven track record leading complex, multi-stakeholder engagements from discovery through delivery, and have served as the primary relationship owner for government program offices at the GS-15 / SES / O-6 level and above.
Solution Architecture & Scoping: Demonstrated ability to translate ambiguous agency requirements into concrete, scoped engagements with clear deliverables, timelines, and success criteria. You are comfortable leading whiteboard sessions, facilitating working groups, and producing professional SOWs and technical proposals.
Executive Communication: Outstanding written and oral communication skills. You can command a room of senior government officials, distill complex AI concepts for non-technical audiences, and produce polished executive briefings, status reports, and program reviews.
Technical Project Management:
Delivery Ownership: PMP, PMI-ACP, CSM, ICAgile, or equivalent experience managing technology delivery programs in federal environments. You build and maintain detailed project plans, run structured status cadences, and proactively surface risks before they become escalations.
Multi-Workstream Coordination: Experience managing concurrent delivery tracks involving internal DataRobot teams, government IT staff, systems integrators, and subcontractors. You understand how to allocate resources, sequence dependencies, and keep programs on schedule when priorities shift.
Risk & Issue Management: You maintain a living risk register, distinguish between issues that need immediate escalation and those that can be managed in-stream, and communicate status to leadership with clarity and appropriate urgency.
Federal Program Familiarity: Comfortable operating within federal program management frameworks including Agile/SAFe and CDRL deliverable structures. Experience with contract vehicles such as JWCC, GSA Schedule, and OTA is a plus.
Customer Relationship Management:
Account Health Ownership: You monitor leading indicators of account health (usage, satisfaction, engagement breadth) and intervene proactively when risk signals emerge. You know the difference between a customer who is satisfied and one who is at risk, and you act on that distinction long before renewal conversations begin.
Expansion & Retention Mindset: You consistently identify new use cases, stakeholders, and funding streams that could deepen DataRobot’s footprint within existing accounts. You proactively surface opportunities to introduce agentic AI solutions — orchestrating multi-step, mission-aligned workflows that move customers beyond standalone predictions and toward measurable operational impact. You partner closely with your Sales counterpart to convert delivery success into commercial momentum.
Stakeholder Mapping & Navigation: You maintain a detailed understanding of the decision-making landscape within your accounts — who the champions are, who the skeptics are, and how to build coalitions across program offices, budget holders, and CIO organizations.
Technical Fluency (Federal AI/ML Context):
AI/ML Methodology, Lifecycle, and Platform Knowledge: Working familiarity with AI/ML methodologies, lifecycle, and platforms, MLOps concepts, and the infrastructure considerations for deploying AI in federal environments. You don’t need to write the code, but you need to credibly engage with the team that does.
Python Knowledge: Working knowledge of Python sufficient to engage in meaningful reviews of developer code
Federal Security & Compliance: Working knowledge of the ATO lifecycle, Risk Management Framework (RMF), FedRAMP authorization processes, and \IL5/IL6 deployment requirements for classified networks. You can speak to these frameworks fluently in customer conversations and know when to bring in deeper security expertise.
Cloud & Integration Awareness: Sufficient familiarity with cloud platforms (AWS GovCloud, Azure Government) and common federal data architectures to guide scoping conversations and identify integration complexity early.
Agentic AI Delivery: Demonstrated experience scoping and delivering agentic AI solutions in production — including multi-step agent workflows, tool-calling integrations, and human-in-the-loop oversight — ideally for federal or other regulated customers.
Education, Clearance & Logistics:
Education: Bachelor’s in Computer Science, Engineering, Business, or a related field; advanced degree or MBA a plus.
Clearance: Active TS/SCI clearance required; CI Poly strongly preferred.
Citizenship: Must be a U.S. citizen.
Travel: Willingness to be on-site at client facilities (DC metro area) up to 90% during active delivery phases, with approximately 15% regional travel for executive engagements, program reviews, and conferences.
Bonus Points:
PMP, PMI-ACP, CSM, or SAFe certification.
Prior experience as a management or technical consultant at a firm with a federal practice (e.g., Booz Allen, Deloitte Federal, Accenture Federal, SAIC, Leidos).
Demonstrated experience growing federal accounts year-over-year through proactive land-and-expand strategies.
Familiarity with DataRobot or comparable enterprise AI/ML/data platforms (H2O, SAS Viya, Dataiku, Palantir, Databricks).
Experience working within or alongside NGA program offices.
AWS Certified Solutions Architect or similar cloud certification.
Citizenship and Clearance Requirements:
Must be a U.S. citizen.
Must have an active TS/SCI clearance.
CI Poly clearance preferred.
The talent and dedication of our employees are at the core of DataRobot’s journey to be an iconic company. We strive to attract and retain the best talent by providing competitive pay and benefits with our employees’ well-being at the core. Here’s what your benefits package may include depending on your location and local legal requirements: Medical, Dental & Vision Insurance, Flexible Time Off Program, Paid Holidays, Paid Parental Leave, Global Employee Assistance Program (EAP) and more!
DataRobot Operating Principles:
All DataRobot hires are required to complete a background check prior to starting employment, which includes identity verification, criminal history check, employment verification and education verification. Additionally, all DataRobot employees must be available to attend in-person company trainings and meetings.
Research shows that many women only apply to jobs when they meet 100% of the qualifications while many men apply to jobs when they meet 60%. At DataRobot we encourage ALL candidates, especially women, people of color, LGBTQ+ identifying people, differently abled, and other people from marginalized groups to apply to our jobs, even if you do not check every box. We’d love to have a conversation with you and see if you might be a great fit.
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