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Key Responsibilities and Required Skills for Operations Program Manager

💰 $ - $

🎯 Role Definition

This role requires an experienced Operations Program Manager to lead complex, cross-functional operational initiatives that improve efficiency, scale processes, and deliver measurable business outcomes. This role owns end-to-end program delivery—defining scope, tracking milestones, managing risks, and driving stakeholder alignment across Product, Engineering, Finance, Legal, Customer Success and other business teams. The ideal candidate combines strong program management discipline (Agile and waterfall), operational excellence (Lean/Six Sigma), and analytics-driven decision making to translate strategy into repeatable, automated operations at scale.

Keywords: Operations Program Manager, program management, operational excellence, process improvement, cross-functional leadership, stakeholder management, KPIs, Agile, Lean, Six Sigma, vendor management, analytics.

📈 Career Progression

Typical Career Path

Entry Point From:

  • Operations Analyst / Business Operations Analyst
  • Project Manager / Technical Program Manager (individual contributor)
  • Process Improvement Specialist / Continuous Improvement Analyst

Advancement To:

  • Senior Program Manager / Principal Program Manager
  • Director of Operations Programs / Director of Program Management
  • Head of Business Operations / VP of Operations

Lateral Moves:

  • Product Operations Manager
  • Customer Success Operations Lead
  • Program Management Office (PMO) Lead

Core Responsibilities

Primary Functions

  • Own the full program lifecycle for strategic operational initiatives, from initial scoping and business case development through delivery, stabilization, and handover to operations; deliver on time, on scope, and on budget.
  • Build and maintain comprehensive program plans with clear milestones, resource allocations, dependencies, and critical path tracking to ensure predictable delivery across multiple workstreams.
  • Design and maintain executive-level dashboards and program KPIs (e.g., cycle time, cost per transaction, SLA attainment), producing weekly and monthly status updates and action-oriented exec summaries for stakeholders.
  • Lead cross-functional workstreams and forums (steering committees, design sessions, retrospective reviews) to align Product, Engineering, Finance, Legal, Security, Customer Support, and GTM teams on priorities and decisions.
  • Identify, evaluate and mitigate program risks using risk registers and contingency plans; escalate high-impact issues and shepherd executive decisions to unblock delivery.
  • Drive operational process redesign and automation opportunities using Lean, Six Sigma, DMAIC, or equivalent methodologies to increase throughput, reduce error rates, and lower operating costs.
  • Translate strategic business objectives into measurable operational requirements, acceptance criteria, and technical/infrastructure deliverables in collaboration with engineering and data teams.
  • Facilitate go/no-go readiness reviews and lead launch planning, coordinating go-to-market readiness, communications, training, and post-launch support to minimize customer impact.
  • Define and operationalize SLAs/OLAs, measure performance against targets, and implement corrective action plans to sustain operational reliability at scale.
  • Manage program budgets, financial forecasting, vendor contracts, and procurement processes to ensure cost control and contract compliance throughout program execution.
  • Lead root cause analyses (5 Whys, fishbone diagrams) for customer-impacting incidents and drive remediation plans that include prevention controls and monitoring.
  • Create clear RACI matrices, decision logs, scope change processes, and governance frameworks to accelerate decision-making and maintain program clarity.
  • Partner with Data Engineering and Analytics to define instrumentation, reporting requirements, and data pipelines; use data to quantify program value and business impact.
  • Evaluate and oversee third-party vendors, partners, and service providers; negotiate SLAs, manage vendor performance, and coordinate remediation where required.
  • Implement capacity planning and workforce optimization programs, aligning staffing models with demand forecasts and cost targets.
  • Champion continuous improvement by defining KPIs, running pilot experiments, measuring outcomes, and scaling proven process or tooling changes.
  • Conduct stakeholder interviews, requirements workshops, and value mapping sessions to ensure solutions meet business needs and generate measurable ROI.
  • Coordinate global and cross-border operational rollouts, standardize processes, and address localization, compliance, and regulatory requirements.
  • Own incident escalation for high-severity operational outages, orchestrate cross-team remediation, customer communications, and after-action reviews.
  • Mentor and develop junior program managers and operations staff, establishing program playbooks, templates, and best practices to elevate team capability.
  • Establish and maintain program documentation, knowledge base articles, runbooks, and training materials to enable operational continuity and handoffs.
  • Drive cost optimization initiatives including process consolidation, automation, and elimination of non-value-added activities to improve operating margins.

(Above responsibilities are representative of senior Operations Program Manager roles across technology, fintech, e-commerce, and logistics organizations and emphasize delivery, process, analytics, and cross-functional leadership.)

Secondary Functions

  • Support ad-hoc data requests and exploratory data analysis to validate hypotheses and measure program impact.
  • Contribute to the organization's data strategy and roadmap by surfacing operational analytics needs and instrumentation gaps.
  • Collaborate with business units to translate data needs into engineering requirements and prioritize analytics backlogs.
  • Participate in sprint planning and agile ceremonies within the data engineering team to ensure timely delivery of dashboards and reports.
  • Maintain and curate a centralized program knowledge repository including playbooks, templates, and post-mortem artifacts.
  • Assist in vendor onboarding, risk assessments, and contract review processes to ensure operational readiness and compliance.
  • Run stakeholder readiness and training sessions prior to large process changes or tool migrations to drive adoption.
  • Prepare materials and present program updates at quarterly business reviews (QBRs) and company-wide town halls.
  • Support audit activities by assembling evidence, process maps, and control matrices related to operational programs.
  • Help design and measure adoption incentives, feedback loops, and continuous improvement scorecards to sustain behavior change.

Required Skills & Competencies

Hard Skills (Technical)

  • Program Management: program planning, elaboration of business cases, milestones, dependencies, and governance frameworks; experience with PMO practices.
  • Agile & Scrum: running sprints, backlog grooming, OKRs, iterative delivery, and working with engineering/product teams.
  • Process Improvement: Lean, Six Sigma, DMAIC, Kaizen or equivalent methodologies with proven process redesign and automation experience.
  • Data & Analytics: proficient with SQL, data querying, and working with analytics tools to build dashboards and measure operational metrics.
  • Reporting & Visualization: experience with Looker, Tableau, Power BI, or similar tools to produce executive-ready dashboards.
  • Tools & Platforms: proficiency with Jira, Confluence, Asana, MS Project, Smartsheet, or equivalent program tracking tools.
  • Financial Acumen: program budgeting, cost modeling, ROI analysis, vendor financial management and procurement processes.
  • Vendor & Contract Management: RFP/RFI coordination, SLA negotiation, vendor scorecards and performance management.
  • Risk & Compliance: risk registers, internal controls, audit readiness, and regulatory compliance management.
  • Automation & Systems Integration: experience evaluating automation opportunities, working with RPA, APIs, or integration platforms to reduce manual toil.
  • Metrics & KPI Design: ability to define meaningful SLAs, OLAs, leading and lagging indicators to monitor program health.
  • Technical Literacy: comfortable translating technical tradeoffs, engineering constraints, and system dependencies into business terms.

Soft Skills

  • Influential Communication: clear written and verbal communication; ability to craft executive summaries and tell the story behind the data.
  • Cross-functional Leadership: ability to lead teams without direct authority and influence stakeholders at all levels.
  • Strategic & Analytical Thinking: decompose ambiguous problems into measurable outcomes and data-driven decisions.
  • Problem Solving: strong root-cause analysis, structured decision-making, and bias for action.
  • Stakeholder Management: build trust with senior leaders, articulate trade-offs, and align diverse stakeholders to a common plan.
  • Facilitation & Conflict Resolution: run effective meetings, workshops, and keep teams focused on outcomes while resolving conflicts.
  • Adaptability & Resilience: manage competing priorities and shifting business requirements in high-velocity environments.
  • Coaching & Mentorship: develop team capability through feedback, training, and scalable playbooks.
  • Time Management & Prioritization: juggle multiple programs with competing deadlines and maintain high attention to detail.
  • Customer Focus: always consider customer impact and incorporate feedback loops into operational improvements.

Education & Experience

Educational Background

Minimum Education:

  • Bachelor's degree in Business Administration, Operations Management, Industrial Engineering, Computer Science, Finance, or a related discipline.

Preferred Education:

  • Master's degree (MBA, MS in Operations Research, or related) or advanced certifications (PMP, PgMP, Lean Six Sigma Black/Green Belt, Scrum Master).

Relevant Fields of Study:

  • Business Administration
  • Industrial/Systems Engineering
  • Operations Research / Supply Chain Management
  • Computer Science / Information Systems
  • Finance / Economics

Experience Requirements

Typical Experience Range: 5–10+ years in operations, program management, or business operations roles; at least 3 years leading cross-functional programs or large-scale projects.

Preferred: 7+ years of progressive experience with demonstrable success delivering multi-stakeholder programs in fast-growing technology, fintech, e-commerce, logistics, or global services environments. Experience with global rollouts, vendor management, and measurable process improvement metrics expected.

If you want, I can tailor this to a specific industry (e.g., SaaS, fintech, e-commerce) or seniority level (Manager vs. Senior Manager vs. Director) and provide example interview questions, success metrics, or a 30/60/90-day plan.

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