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Key Responsibilities and Required Skills for Director of Program Management

💰 $ - $

Program ManagementLeadershipOperationsPMO

🎯 Role Definition

The Director of Program Management leads strategic program portfolios that deliver cross-functional business outcomes. This senior leader defines program strategy, governs delivery practices, prioritizes investments, and builds high-performing program teams to execute multi-year roadmaps. The role requires deep expertise in program lifecycle management, stakeholder engagement, financial stewardship, and organizational change to ensure programs achieve scope, schedule, quality, and measurable business impact.

📈 Career Progression

Typical Career Path

Entry Point From:

  • Senior Program Manager or Group Program Manager with cross-functional delivery experience
  • PMO Lead or Head of Project Management at a business unit level
  • Product Operations or Technical Program Manager with portfolio oversight

Advancement To:

  • Vice President, Program Management / Head of Program Management
  • Head of Delivery or Head of Product Operations
  • Chief Operating Officer or Head of Strategic Programs

Lateral Moves:

  • Director of Product Management
  • Head of Operations or VP of Customer Operations

Core Responsibilities

Primary Functions

  • Develop and own the strategic program portfolio plan, aligning programs and initiatives to corporate strategy, business objectives, OKRs, and long-term roadmaps to maximize ROI and accelerate time-to-value.
  • Lead program planning and lifecycle management for complex, multi-workstream initiatives across product, engineering, marketing, and operations to ensure coordinated delivery and dependency management.
  • Establish and scale a Program Management Office (PMO) with standardized frameworks, governance, reporting, tools, and templates to improve predictability and transparency across programs.
  • Define program KPIs and success criteria, implement rigorous tracking and lifecycle metrics, and deliver clear executive program dashboards and monthly business reviews to senior leadership.
  • Drive cross-functional stakeholder alignment through regular executive communications, program steering committees, clear RACI assignment, and escalation management to mitigate risks and resolve critical issues.
  • Build, coach, and mentor a team of program managers and program leads, setting clear performance expectations, career development plans, and recruiting for scaled delivery capability.
  • Lead resource planning and capacity management across the program portfolio — forecast demand, optimize allocation, and partner with HR and business leaders on hiring and contractor strategies.
  • Own program financial management including budgeting, cost forecasting, benefits realization, P&L impact assessment, and vendor/contract spend oversight to maintain program health.
  • Architect program roadmaps and release plans, sequencing deliverables, managing cross-team dependencies, and ensuring on-time delivery of milestones and business outcomes.
  • Implement risk management and mitigation strategies across programs — identify systemic risks, quantify impact, maintain risk registers, and present mitigation plans to executives.
  • Drive continuous improvement of delivery processes (Agile, hybrid, or waterfall as appropriate), including sprint cadence, PI planning, retrospective actions, and cross-team optimization.
  • Sponsor change management activities required for program adoption — stakeholder readiness, communications strategy, training plans, and post-launch adoption tracking.
  • Partner closely with Product Management and Engineering leadership to translate strategic priorities into executable programs and prioritized backlogs that balance speed and technical debt.
  • Negotiate and manage vendor relationships and third-party integrations, including SOWs, SLAs, delivery outcomes, and vendor performance reviews.
  • Oversee cross-functional program governance — create steering committee materials, manage approvals, and institutionalize decision-making frameworks to accelerate program execution.
  • Lead large-scale program launches and go-to-market coordination with Marketing, Sales, Legal, and Customer Success to ensure operational readiness and measurable launch success.
  • Drive data-driven decisions by partnering with analytics teams to ensure tracking instrumentation, reporting, and experimental design support program hypotheses and measure impact.
  • Resolve complex, high-impact program impediments by coordinating cross-organizational teams, facilitating conflict resolution, and applying stakeholder influence to regain momentum.
  • Champion regulatory, security, and compliance requirements in program planning and delivery, partnering with legal and security teams to embed controls and audits where required.
  • Communicate program status, trade-offs, and recommendations clearly to C-suite and the Board — crafting concise narratives, risk assessments, and alternative scenarios to enable informed decisions.
  • Standardize and codify program operating models, playbooks, and best practices to reduce delivery variance and accelerate onboarding of new program leads.
  • Lead post-implementation reviews and benefits-realization assessments to capture learnings, quantify business impact, and recalibrate future program investment priorities.
  • Advocate for and implement tooling upgrades (e.g., Jira, Confluence, MS Project, Workday, PowerBI) to increase automation, improve program telemetry, and reduce manual reporting overhead.

Secondary Functions

  • Support ad-hoc data requests and exploratory data analysis.
  • Contribute to the organization's data strategy and roadmap.
  • Collaborate with business units to translate data needs into engineering requirements.
  • Participate in sprint planning and agile ceremonies within the data engineering team.
  • Partner with HR on leadership development programs and succession planning for the program organization.
  • Represent the organization at industry forums, conferences, and customer advisory boards to share best practices and gather market insights.
  • Facilitate cross-functional workshops to align on program scope, assumptions, and success metrics.

Required Skills & Competencies

Hard Skills (Technical)

  • Program and portfolio management frameworks (PMO operations, stage-gate, portfolio optimization)
  • Agile methodologies (Scrum, Kanban, SAFe/PI planning) and hybrid delivery approaches
  • Roadmap development, release planning, and milestone scheduling at scale
  • Financial management: budgeting, forecasting, benefits realization, and P&L literacy
  • Risk management, dependency mapping, and mitigation planning
  • Stakeholder management and executive-level communication, including running steering committees
  • Tools: Jira, Confluence, MS Project, Asana, Smartsheet, Monday.com (or similar PM tooling)
  • Data-driven reporting and dashboards (Power BI, Tableau, Looker) and KPI design
  • Contract and vendor management, SOWs, SLAs, and procurement processes
  • Change management practices and adoption measurement
  • Basic technical fluency (APIs, integrations, cloud concepts) to partner effectively with engineering
  • Process design and continuous improvement methodologies (Lean, Six Sigma basics)
  • Legal, compliance, and security awareness as applied to program delivery

Soft Skills

  • Strategic thinking with the ability to translate high-level goals into executable programs
  • Strong influencing and negotiation skills across senior stakeholders and matrixed teams
  • Exceptional written and verbal communication for executive audiences
  • Leadership and people development orientation — coaching, delegation, and empowerment
  • Decision-making under ambiguity and the ability to prioritize trade-offs effectively
  • Conflict resolution and facilitation skills for cross-functional collaboration
  • Customer-centric mindset with a focus on measurable outcomes and user impact
  • Resilience and adaptability in rapidly changing environments
  • Strong attention to detail while maintaining a view of the big picture
  • High integrity and accountability, especially in financial and governance matters

Education & Experience

Educational Background

Minimum Education:

  • Bachelor's degree in Business, Engineering, Computer Science, Information Systems, or related field.

Preferred Education:

  • Master's degree (MBA, MSE) or advanced degree in a relevant discipline and/or PMP, PgMP, or Agile certifications (CSM, SAFe Program Consultant).

Relevant Fields of Study:

  • Business Administration
  • Engineering (Software, Systems, or Industrial)
  • Computer Science / Information Systems
  • Project Management / Operations

Experience Requirements

Typical Experience Range: 10–15+ years of program or project management experience with at least 5+ years leading managers or a program portfolio.

Preferred:

  • Proven track record delivering enterprise-scale, cross-functional programs (consumer or B2B SaaS, platform, infrastructure).
  • Experience building and scaling PMOs, standardizing delivery processes, and managing program financials.
  • Demonstrated success communicating with and influencing C-level executives and cross-functional stakeholders.
  • Experience with Agile transformations, vendor management, and leading change initiatives across multiple geographies.
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