Sr. Principal, AI Delivery Lead, Tech Program Manager
Northern Trust · Chicago, IL ·
- Seniority
- Principal
- Category
- Project management
- Experience
- 5+ years
Northern Trust · Chicago, IL ·
About Northern Trust:
Northern Trust, a Fortune 500 company, is a globally recognized, award-winning financial institution that has been in continuous operation since 1889.
Northern Trust is proud to provide innovative financial services and guidance to the world’s most successful individuals, families, and institutions by remaining true to our enduring principles of service, expertise, and integrity. With more than 130 years of financial experience and over 22,000 partners, we serve the world’s most sophisticated clients using leading technology and exceptional service.
Northern Trust seeks a Cybersecurity AI Delivery Lead to drive execution of strategic cybersecurity projects and programs that enable secure adoption and operation of Artificial Intelligence (AI) including agentic AI systems and Large Language Models (LLMs.) The Delivery Lead ensures AI solutions are designed and implemented with appropriate identity controls for both human and non-human/agent identities, robust data protection and privacy controls for prompts and training data, and operational monitoring and response controls for AI-enabled services and workloads.
Program Delivery:
Lead global, cross-functional teams consisting of security engineers, platform engineers, data/ML engineers, product owners, and consultants to drive successful execution of strategic cybersecurity and AI security projects and programs.
Partner with business and technology stakeholders to define expected benefits, risk-reduction outcomes, and measurable control objectives for AI-enabled capabilities; ensure successful achievement through project completion.
Plan and execute delivery of AI-related IAM controls (e.g., workload identities, managed identities/service principals, least privilege, approval workflows, secrets/key management) to govern access by AI services and autonomous agents.
Plan and execute delivery of AI-related data protection controls (e.g., data classification, DLP, encryption/key management, retention, masking/tokenization, prompt/response handling, embedding and vector store protections) aligned to enterprise privacy and regulatory requirements.
Plan and execute delivery of AI-related security operations controls (e.g., logging/telemetry for AI requests, abuse monitoring, anomaly detection, SIEM/SOAR integrations, incident response playbooks, red teaming, and continuous validation).
Identify, assess, and manage project risks, issues, and dependencies to ensure successful project completion. This includes AI-specific threats such as prompt injection, sensitive information disclosure, excessive agency, insecure output handling, and model theft.
Develop integrated project schedules including effort estimates and task sequencing; ensure projects are optimally coordinated across product teams, control owners, and platform teams for efficient delivery.
Lead resolution of conflicts and escalations in support of project or program delivery.
Create and submit weekly project/program status reports that are accurate, timely, and comply with team guidelines; provide clear, executive-ready risk and decision narratives.
Establish and maintain a project artifact repository; review deliverables to ensure quality and adherence to internal software delivery methodology as well as AI lifecycle governance.
Communication and Stakeholder Management:
Develop project charters; develop and execute project communication plans.
Facilitate engagement with cross-impacted technology and business stakeholders.
Translate complex AI/LLM and agentic-system concepts (architecture, data flows, model behavior, controls) into clear, actionable plans and decisions for stakeholders.
Identify and execute approaches to resolve complex problems through critical thinking, structured analysis, and fact-based recommendations.
Change / Risk Management:
Define and document project scope and ensure scope alignment to project objectives and goals.
Perform and follow project change control procedures for scope, resources, and financials where required.
Ensure adherence to technology Change Management requirements and procedures for system implementations and AI model/service releases.
Drive AI security and risk activities across the delivery lifecycle including AI threat modeling, control design reviews, testing/evaluation, and go-live readiness assessments.
Financial Management
Oversee financial management and performance for projects including:
developing and/or managing project-specific capital and expense budgets including all financial form submissions required by internal finance teams
preparing and submitting timely monthly forecasts (i.e., Clarity PPM)
proactively analyzing and managing monthly budget variance
optimizing spending on assigned projects
participation in annual budget planning
Staff Management
Identify project resource needs and work with leadership to ensure staffing requirements are met.
Manage project resources to deliver tasks, optimize resource utilization, and resolve conflicts.
Provide constructive performance feedback regarding staff performance to leadership and line managers.
Foster a supportive project delivery environment that encourages participation, teamwork, and collaboration.
A successful candidate for the role will have at least 10 years of overall experience including in the Financial Services industry, with at least 5 years’ experience leading and managing high-visibility technology projects that involve Artificial Intelligence. Additionally, the candidate will possess:
Strong executive presence and communication skills with experience leading high-visibility initiatives in a fast-paced program environment.
Cybersecurity Project Management Experience – leading and driving execution of cybersecurity projects related to Identity & Access Management (e.g., PAM, IGA, IAA), Data Protection, Security Operations, Attack Surface Management, or adjacent control domains.
AI Delivery & Security Experience including delivering AI/ML or GenAI capabilities (including LLM and agentic AI solutions) in regulated environments, with demonstrated expertise in securing AI services, data pipelines, and AI-enabled applications.
Agentic AI & LLM Technical Fluency, including working knowledge of LLM application patterns (e.g., tool/function calling, orchestration, vector/embedding stores), agent frameworks, and common failure modes (hallucinations, prompt injection, excessive agency).
AI-Related IAM Controls – experience designing/implementing identity and access controls for AI services and agents (e.g., workload identities, managed identities/service principals, OAuth/OIDC flows, RBAC/ABAC, privileged access workflows, secrets and API key management, approval, and just-in-time access).
AI-Related Data Protection Controls – experience implementing data governance and protection controls for training/grounding data and user prompts/responses (e.g., classification, DLP, encryption/CMK, tokenization/masking, retention, secure data sharing, access logging, and data residency considerations).
AI Security Operations Controls – experience operationalizing monitoring and response for AI services (e.g., audit and diagnostic logging, telemetry for model endpoints, abuse monitoring, anomaly detection, SOC runbooks, incident response for data leakage or model misuse).
Framework & Threat Modeling Knowledge – familiarity with AI governance and security frameworks (e.g., NIST AI RMF, ISO/IEC 42001) and AI threat catalogs (e.g., OWASP Top 10 for LLM Applications, MITRE ATLAS) and ability to translate them into delivery requirements, controls, and measurable outcomes.
Organizational Savvy – experience working within a matrixed organization to drive delivery of complex projects involving multiple disciplines.
Critical Thinking Skills – ability to oversee ambiguous or complex issues including identifying creative resolution paths and gaining alignment and support from leadership and stakeholders to bring to resolution.
Superior Communication Skills – ability to translate complex work into digestible terms; able to articulate ideas and information verbally and in writing for varying audiences, including senior executives.
Initiative – evidence of taking initiative at suggesting improvements and anticipating the needs of leadership, program stakeholders, and team members.
Organizational Skills – able to manage multiple simultaneous work deliverables and prioritize them accordingly.
Delivery Mindset – has a delivery mindset with a bias for action, curiosity to learn, challenge, and enhance processes.
Expert Analytical Skills – able to assemble data, analyze patterns and trends, and draw conclusions and recommendations; rely on data to guide decisions.
Financial Management Experience – managing project budgets between $250K to $3M comprised of internal and external labor.
Knowledge of and experience working in software delivery lifecycle methodologies (e.g., Agile/Scrum, Waterfall, etc.) and AI lifecycle controls (e.g., model release governance, testing/validation evidence).
Experience in demand & capacity management.
Proficiency with: Project planning tools such as MS Project, Azure DevOps (or similar), Clarity PPM, Microsoft Office 365 (Excel, Word, PowerPoint), MS Teams
A College or University degree; MBA or relevant advanced degree a plus.
Current PMP certification is strongly preferred but not required.
Security certifications (e.g., CISSP, CISM) and/or AI/Cloud certifications (e.g., Azure, AWS) a plus.
Applicants must be authorized to work in the U.S. without the need for employment-based visa sponsorship now or in the future. Northern Trust will not sponsor applicants for U.S. work visa status for this opportunity (no sponsorship is available for H-1B, L-1, TN, O-1, E-3, H-1B1, F-1, J-1, OPT, CPT or any other employment-based visa)
Salary Range:
$137,400 - 240,400 USDSalary range is a good faith estimate of base pay. Northern Trust provides a comprehensive benefits package including retirement benefits (401k and pension), health and welfare benefits (medical, dental, vision, spending accounts and disability), paid time off, parental and caregiver leave, life & accident insurance, and other voluntary and well-being benefits. Northern Trust also provides a discretionary bonus program that may include an equity component.
Working with Us:
As a Northern Trust partner, greater achievements await. You will be part of a flexible and collaborative work culture in an organization where financial strength and stability is an asset that emboldens us to explore new ideas.
Movement within the organization is encouraged, senior leaders are accessible, and you can take pride in working for a company committed to assisting the communities we serve! Join a workplace with a greater purpose.
We’d love to learn more about how your interests and experience could be a fit with one of the world’s most admired and sustainable companies! Build your career with us and apply today. #MadeForGreater
Reasonable accommodation
Northern Trust is committed to working with and providing reasonable accommodations to individuals with disabilities. If you need a reasonable accommodation for any part of the employment process, please email our HR Service Center at [email protected].
We hope you’re excited about the role and the opportunity to work with us. We value an inclusive workplace and understand flexibility means different things to different people.
Apply today and talk to us about your flexible working requirements and together we can achieve greater.