Senior Project Manager (AI Hackathon Event)
NTT DATA Europe & Latam, Serbia
NTT DATA is a global IT services and consulting company.
Responsibilities:
•Build, own, and maintain the Global AI Hackathon master plan, including milestones, critical path, dependencies, owners, and deadlines;
•Drive execution across the complete lifecycle: preparation, launch, competition, regional phases, global final, awards, and closure;
•Establish project governance, RACI, reporting cadence, decision mechanisms, and escalation paths;
•Coordinate multiple parallel workstreams and ensure cross-team dependencies are actively managed;
•Drive actions through completion and proactively intervene when delivery is at risk;
•Act as the central project coordination interface across Global NTT DATA, regions, business units, practices, and functions;
•Work directly with senior and executive management, providing concise status, risks, decisions required, and recommendations;
•Coordinate leadership, regional leads, jury members, trainers, communications teams, support teams, and other stakeholders;
•Ensure executive meetings and events are fully prepared with validated materials, agendas, responsibilities, and follow-up actions;
•Coordinate external agencies, event suppliers, communication partners, and other third parties;
•Define clear deliverables, timelines, dependencies, and approval requirements;
•Monitor supplier readiness and proactively address delivery risks;
•Ensure external deliverables meet NTT DATA requirements and quality expectations;
•Coordinate operational readiness across the complete lifecycle: Launch & Registration → Training & Participant Support → Project Submissions → Jury & Evaluations → Regional Phases → Global Final → Awards Ceremony → Post-event Follow-up;
•Maintain the master schedule, RAID log, action tracker, and decision log;
•Establish quality gates and readiness checks for critical events and communications;
•Organize dry runs and contingency planning for high-profile activities;
•Validate critical information before release;
•Identify risks early and escalate with clear impact assessment and proposed resolution;
Requirements:
•BSc/MSc in Computer Science or related field;
•5+ years of relevant Project Management experience, preferably within complex international or enterprise initiatives;
•Demonstrated ownership of high-visibility projects with fixed deadlines;
•Experience working directly with senior management and executive stakeholders;
•Strong global stakeholder-management and influencing skills;
•Proven ability to coordinate multiple parallel workstreams and dependencies;
•Strong risk management, problem-solving, and escalation capabilities;
•Experience managing external suppliers/agencies or complex third-party dependencies;
•Excellent organizational skills and exceptional attention to detail;
•Ability to operate effectively under pressure and manage last-minute changes;
•Fluent professional English – mandatory, with excellent written and verbal communication skills;
•Strong Microsoft 365 skills, particularly Teams, PowerPoint, Excel, and SharePoint.
Working conditions:
•Spanish language skills are highly appreciated, given the global and multicultural stakeholder environment;
•Experience with global transformation or innovation programs is nice to have;
•Corporate events, global conferences, or hackathons experience is nice to have;
•AI / GenAI transformation initiatives experience is nice to have;
•Executive-level event organization experience is nice to have;
•Internal communications and employee-engagement programs experience is nice to have;
•Technical AI development expertise is not required, but a good understanding of AI/GenAI and interest in AI-driven transformation are expected.
