Program Manager, Enterprise AI Literacy & Enablement

About the role

Applied Materials is the world's largest supplier of semiconductor manufacturing equipment — and how quickly our workforce harnesses AI directly shapes our ability to innovate, execute, and compete. This role sits on the team responsible for driving enterprise‑wide AI adoption and culture‑building: turning strategic intent into measurable workforce capability. You will design and run the programs that move Applied Materials employees from AI‑curious to AI‑proficient, and you will do so at the pace and scale a global technology manufacturer demands. This is not a training‑catalog role; it is an enterprise change initiative that you will own.

Responsibilities

• Own the enterprise AI literacy roadmap. Define the multi‑year curriculum strategy—segmented by role, function, and proficiency tier—and translate it into a concrete quarterly execution plan with named milestones and owners.
• Drive measurable capability gains. Instrument every program initiative against a KPI framework that tracks usage and adoption rate, proficiency level by employee tier, time‑saved and productivity impact, and confidence/sentiment scores—then report findings to senior leadership on a regular cadence.
• Design and deliver leader‑facing workshops. Build and facilitate hands‑on sessions for people managers and executives on Applied’s AI tool stack, including Microsoft Copilot—equipping leaders to model new working behaviors and set expectations for their teams.
• Build and activate an AI Champion Network. Recruit, onboard, and hold accountable a distributed community of AI ambassadors across business units; provide them with enablement resources, feedback loops, and executive air cover so they can accelerate adoption where you cannot be present.
• Lead change management, not just communications. Proactively map adoption barriers—cultural, technical, and structural—develop mitigation strategies, and work with managers to shift behaviors before resistance becomes inertia.
• Partner on responsible‑AI governance. Collaborate with Legal, Security, Compliance, and Data Governance stakeholders to ensure every program initiative remains aligned with Applied’s responsible‑AI principles and regulatory requirements.
• Align and influence cross‑functional stakeholders. Navigate a matrixed organization to secure buy‑in, resources, and sponsorship from business unit leaders and senior executives—without direct authority over any of them.
• Tie learning outcomes to business performance. Frame every program deliverable in terms of productivity improvement, operational efficiency, or competitive advantage—not only employee satisfaction or participation counts.
• Iterate rapidly. Collect participant feedback, benchmark against industry peers, and refine program design continuously—treating each cohort as a data point, not a finish line.

Requirements

• Running complex programs at enterprise scale: led large, cross‑functional initiatives at companies with 5,000+ employees, managing scope, stakeholders, timelines, and competing priorities without losing momentum.
• Influencing without authority: build trust and alignment with senior leaders and functional partners through credibility and clarity, and present to executives regularly.
• Reading the organization: discern unwritten culture, political dynamics, and decision‑making patterns through observation.
• Anticipating second‑order effects: map downstream risks, stakeholder implications, and KPI impacts before making recommendations.
• Translating strategy into structured execution: comfortable writing program charters and running weekly status meetings to ensure strategy lands in practice.
• Facilitating executive workshops with confidence: design and lead two‑hour sessions for skeptical senior leaders, adapting on the fly as needed.
• Sustaining energy and credibility across a long initiative: keep stakeholders engaged, communicate wins clearly, and retool programs when progress stalls.

Preferred Qualifications

• 5+ years of program or change management experience inside a large, complex enterprise; experience in a technology, semiconductor, or advanced manufacturing environment is a plus.
• Demonstrated experience designing and facilitating executive‑level learning experiences—preferably including AI or digital transformation content.
• Hands‑on familiarity with enterprise AI tools such as Microsoft Copilot, GitHub Copilot, or equivalent productivity AI platforms; experience training others to use them is strongly preferred.
• Exposure to responsible‑AI or AI governance frameworks—including working with Legal, Compliance, or Data Governance teams to evaluate and mitigate AI‑related risks.
• Experience building or scaling an ambassador, champion, or peer‑network program across multiple business units.

Additional Information

• Salary: $96,000.00 – $132,000.00
• Location: Austin, TX
• Travel: Up to 20% of the time
• Relocation eligible: Yes
• Time type: Full time
• Employee type: Assignee / Regular
• Compensation may include bonus and stock award program; salary range reflects target total cash (base salary plus target bonus at 100% goal achievement).