Project Manager - Autonomous Inspection Program (6 months contract)

Industry: Rail Transportation / Mobility Solutions

Duration: 6 months contract

Work location: Kallang

About the Job

The Autonomous Inspection Program (AIR) replaces manual train inspection routines with an automated, data-driven process across APAC depots — improving traceability, reducing missed defects, and creating a trusted digital record of asset condition. It is a change and adoption program. Success means depot teams working the new way every day, clean data flowing into enterprise systems, and leadership having reliable visibility on cost, schedule, and value.

You own the PM and act as the connective tissue between operations, engineering, IT, finance, procurement, suppliers, and the customer. You turn ambiguous scope into structured workstreams, support the governance that makes decisions happen, and drive the behavioural change that makes the solution stick on the floor.

• Workstreams — Build and run the program PM: integrated plan, milestones, owners, critical path, dependencies. Coordinate parallel workstreams (operations readiness, technical integration, data & IT, supplier delivery, safety/compliance, training) and chair a lean, decision-focused program rhythm with clear RACI.
• Stage-gate governance — Define entry/exit criteria, assemble evidence packs, challenge readiness before submission, and track post-gate commitments to closure.
• Budget monitoring — monitor a multi-year, multi-hundred-k€ budget: forecast, commitments, actuals, variance, re-forecast. Keep a simple, reliable dashboard; flag overruns early with options. Partner with finance and procurement on POs, supplier invoicing, and capitalisation — and challenge the figures. 
• Resources & capacity — Model needs across internal teams and suppliers, sequence work to real availability, and anticipate bottlenecks (specialist engineering, depot access windows, customer availability).
• Change management & adoption — support the creation of the adoption plan: stakeholder mapping, impact analysis, training, SOPs and work instructions, floor champions, adoption KPIs. Measure after go-live and course-correct — hand-over is not the finish line
• Transformation roadmap & process optimisation — Take the program from pilots to a repeatable regional rollout model; define the target operating model; support the map and redesign of inspection and maintenance processes and quantify the operational gain.
• Technical ↔ business bridge — Translate operational needs into functional requirements and technical constraints into business trade-offs. Map solutions and suppliers against requirements, cost, risk, and time-to-value. Own the requirement backlog and arbitrate scope without owning the engineering. 
• Systems & data integration — Support the integration with enterprise platforms (asset management, quality, maintenance, reporting) with IT;
• Reporting & data analysis — Build the reporting layer for cost, schedule, deployment, data quality, and adoption, turning raw data into decisions and recommendations.
• AI enablement — support the deployment of practical AI use cases (automated reporting, documentation and translation, inspection data analysis); coach internal and supplier teams and build the templates and prompts that scale good practice.
• Cross-cultural & supplier management — Interface between APAC teams and China suppliers and engineering partners; tailor communication for depot teams, finance, suppliers, and executives; manage supplier deliverables, contracts, quality commitments, and escalations.
• Risk & dependency management — Maintain the register with owners, mitigations, and triggers; escalate with proposed options.

Requirements

• 6+ years as a Program / Project Manager or PMO lead on complex industrial, digital, or transformation programs, including multi-country delivery.
• Proven enterprise digital transformation and change adoption: a new way of working taken from concept to daily use, not just to go-live.
• Budget ownership: forecasting, variance control, supplier cost management.
• Experience running stage-gate governance and steering committees with senior stakeholders.
• Comfortable bridging technical and business topics (automation, data, IT integration, AI) without owning the engineering.
• Cross-cultural experience delivering projects across Asia, including significant exposure to the China market. Demonstrated ability to communicate effectively and engage stakeholders across diverse linguistic and cultural environments.
• Practical AI enablement experience with modern AI tooling, including training others.
• Thrives in ambiguity: turns unclear scope into clear workstreams, owners, and dates.
• Nice to have: rail, transport, manufacturing or other asset-heavy industry; supply chain / operations / industrial process improvement; standing up a PMO from scratch; vendor ecosystem management including contract and IP discussions.
• Location: Singapore; hybrid, with APAC travel (Thailand, China, Australia, etc).

Ramos May Anne De Mesa - [email protected]

Personnel Reg No: R1110127

Manpower Staffing Services (S) Pte Ltd

EA Licence No: 02C342