Senior Associate, AI Strategy & Operations- Lisbon

We’re Entain. Our vision is to be the world leader in sports betting and gaming entertainment by creating the most exciting and trusted experience for our customers, revolutionizing the gambling space as we go. We're home to a global family of more than 25 well-known brands, and with a focus on sustainability and growth, we will transform our sector for our players, for ourselves and for the industry.

Data intelligence and AI plays a transformational role in how we create value today and how we shape our future. We have a bold ambition to be a world-class data and AI driven business for our customers across all our regions and business functions.

This is a high-impact strategic operations role within our ASE Data & AI function, offering a clear trajectory toward Strategic Delivery Leadership. You will anchor the regional PMO function, orchestrating high-profile AI transformations across our entire ASE region, encompassing the Americas (Canada, Latam) and Southern Europe (France, Greece, Spain, Italy, Portugal, and Georgia). Alongside managing portfolio execution, you will streamline enterprise operations—from vendor lifecycle management and enterprise access architecture to facilitating strategic planning events. By leveraging your strategic and operational background and actively using AI to hyper-automate your workflows, you'll drive seamless execution, accelerate time-to-value, and support regional growth.

Key Responsibilities

• Anchor the Strategic Delivery & PMO function for high-impact AI transformations across the ASE region, leveraging AI tools to hyper-scale portfolio tracking.
• Act as a bridge across business, technology, and data, driving alignment and prioritization of key initiatives.
• Facilitate executive forums, rituals, and training programs to drive leadership alignment and engagement on the AI agenda.
• Execute operational readiness assessments and rigorous risk mitigation strategies to ensure the uncompromising quality and scalability of AI deliverables.Orchestrate vendor lifecycle management, ensuring frictionless integration, strategic alignment, and rigorous compliance for external partners.
• Streamline critical operational infrastructure,  owning the end-to-end delivery of critical initiatives
• Architect and facilitate high-impact operational cadences—from quarterly strategic reviews to AI capability-building sessions and team-wide training sessions.
• Design and deploy scalable operational frameworks that accelerate the adoption of AI solutions across our Americas and Southern Europe markets.
• Drive regional portfolio governance, proactively neutralizing execution risks and orchestrating release roadmaps to maximize time-to-market.
• Pioneer your own productivity by aggressively deploying GenAI tools to automate routine administrative tasks and elevate your strategic output.
• Partner closely with engineering, data scientists and business leadership to eliminate friction points, forging a clear pathway toward a Strategic Program Manager role.

Essential:

• Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration, Management, Economics, or a related field, or equivalent practical experience
• Proven background in consulting, strategic operations, or program orchestration, with exceptional frameworks for managing complexity
•  Strong leadership and people management skills, with the ability to engage, motivate, and develop high-performing teams
• Comfortable operating in highly multicultural environments, collaborating effectively across geographies and functions
• Exceptional stakeholder management skills, with the ability to influence without authority in complex organizations
• Highly hands-on, with a proactive mindset and strong ownership of delivery
• Demonstrated ability to deploy AI tools (e.g., ChatGPT, Claude) to drastically accelerate personal output and automate administrative workflows
• Track record of driving cross-functional transformations and aligning technical execution with strategic goals across international markets
• Strong capability in process engineering, mapping complex workflows, and standardizing enterprise operating procedures
• Elite problem-solving capabilities, structured thinking, and a meticulous, zero-defect approach to execution

Desired:

• Expertise in strategic vendor management, from initial capability assessment and onboarding to relationship stewardship
• Experience curating team culture and orchestrating high-value strategic planning events or executive quarterly business reviews
• Competence in business intelligence and executive reporting using tools such as PowerBI, Tableau, or advanced Excel
• Fluency in modern enterprise collaboration and portfolio management ecosystems (e.g., Confluence, Jira, Asana, Notion)
• Experience architecting PMO frameworks or driving technology scaling within highly matrixed, global enterprise landscapes
• Familiarity with the AI product lifecycle, bridging the gap from initial strategic ideation through development and enterprise rollout
• Understanding of AI value realization, including translating model outputs into measurable business KPIs and operational metrics
• Familiarity with GenAI paradigms, encompassing prompt engineering, workflow automation, and enterprise LLM capabilities

We’re looking for someone who is:

• Passionate about driving transformation through AI and emerging technologies, with a strong curiosity and eagerness to continuously learn and apply new solutions in practice
• Navigates operational ambiguity and complex enterprise challenges with strategic frameworks and relentless execution
• Translates complex regional project roadmaps into compelling strategic narratives for diverse technical and executive stakeholders
• Acts as an automation evangelist, utilizing bleeding-edge AI to continuously optimize administrative and PMO functions
• Exhibits extreme ownership, seamlessly balancing high-visibility strategic transformations with essential day-to-day operational excellence
• Balances rigorous delivery methodologies with agile, pragmatic execution to accelerate urgent business outcomes
• Forges powerful alliances across multidisciplinary, multi-national units, acting as a force multiplier for engineering and business teams
• Passion for modern AI/ML business applications and transforming legacy operational models into intelligent, automated workflows
• Operates at the forefront of AI advancements, continuously injecting new learnings to drive operational leverage and business value
• Demonstrates exceptional cultural fluency and adaptability when driving change across diverse regional markets and shifting requirements

Benefits:

Health Insurance – Insurance provider: Lusitânia (AdvanceCare)
Hybrid Work Model – 2 days per week in the office and 3 days working from home
Group Annual Bonus
Birthday Off – Employees get their birthday off if it falls on a scheduled workday. However, no compensation day is given if the birthday falls on a non-working day.
Access to LinkedIn Learning
Protocols/Partnerships with External Providers (Check the attachment)
Referral Program (Check the attachment)
Unmind Hub – A platform to help you understand and improve your mental health and well-being.
Fresh Fruit and Coffee (among other perks)