Program Manager - Enterprise IT

Position Description

The Program Manager will lead the successful delivery of large, high-risk, mission-critical, and complex strategic enterprise programs consisting of multiple related projects. This position is responsible for producing long-term organizational improvements while managing program scope, schedules, activities, resources, budgets, risks, quality, and stakeholder expectations throughout the complete delivery lifecycle.

The ideal candidate is an experienced, hands-on program leader who can coordinate multiple business and technology initiatives within a global manufacturing environment. This individual will lead cross-functional teams, manage vendors, advise project managers, oversee program financials, and ensure projects collectively achieve the program’s strategic objectives.

The Program Manager will also support the continued development and adoption of Project Management Office methodologies, standards, procedures, processes, and tools.

Responsibilities

• Lead multiple interrelated projects within large, complex, and strategically important enterprise programs.
• Plan, direct, facilitate, and coordinate program activities and resources to achieve business objectives on time, within budget, and at the required level of quality.
• Manage program scope, schedules, budgets, dependencies, deliverables, risks, issues, resources, and success criteria.
• Ensure individual projects remain aligned with the program’s overall strategic objectives and anticipated organizational benefits.
• Identify and coordinate the business, IT, technical, and vendor resources required to build high-performing program teams.
• Develop and maintain integrated program plans, project schedules, work breakdown structures, estimates, resource plans, milestones, and dependency maps.
• Establish strong relationships with business stakeholders and ensure program activities support organizational goals.
• Facilitate and document program charters, business requirements, approvals, governance materials, and other program-specific documentation.
• Coordinate program reviews and obtain required stakeholder and executive approvals.
• Develop the overall testing strategy and oversee integration testing, user acceptance testing, defect resolution, and implementation readiness.
• Identify, document, escalate, and manage complex program risks and issues through closure.
• Analyze complex situations and data to determine appropriate solutions and achieve the best possible program outcomes.
• Maintain program-level risk, issue, action, dependency, and decision logs.
• Oversee vendor relationships, procurement activities, proposals, and requests for proposals associated with assigned programs.
• Develop and execute effective organizational and technical change-management plans.
• Lead program-status meetings with business, IT, project-management, vendor, and executive stakeholders.
• Prepare and deliver program-status reports, financial updates, risk assessments, and executive presentations.
• Track, manage, and forecast program financials to ensure costs are properly controlled, accounted for, and communicated.
• Serve as a mentor, advisor, escalation point, and decision-maker for project managers assigned to the program.
• Establish accountability across project teams and support project managers in resolving delivery challenges.
• Capture lessons learned and maintain program documentation for use on future enterprise initiatives.
• Contribute to the development and continuous improvement of PMO standards, processes, procedures, templates, and tools.
• Promote consistent adoption of established project and program management methodologies.

Required Skills/Experience

• Five to nine years of project management, program management, or related professional experience.
• Progressive experience in project-management and leadership positions within a large or comparably complex organization.
• Demonstrated experience managing projects or programs valued at $2 million or more.
• Successful history of delivering multiple large-scale implementation projects on time and within budget.
• Experience managing programs consisting of multiple projects, workstreams, teams, and dependencies.
• Demonstrated ability to lead cross-functional business and IT teams using a formal project-management methodology.
• Full software development lifecycle experience, including multiple end-to-end technology implementations.
• Experience developing integrated program plans, schedules, budgets, resource plans, estimates, dependencies, and status reports.
• Experience managing program risks, issues, changes, testing activities, and implementation readiness.
• Strong project and program financial-management experience, including budgeting, cost tracking, and forecasting.
• Experience managing vendors, procurement activities, proposals, and requests for proposals.
• Knowledge of project-management standards and practices established by the Project Management Institute.
• Familiarity with organizational change-management principles and practices.
• Thorough understanding of enterprise business systems and processes.
• Proficiency with Microsoft Project and other relevant project-management and productivity applications.
• Excellent written, verbal, facilitation, listening, and presentation skills.
• Professional fluency in reading, writing, and speaking English.

Preferred Skills/Experience

• Program-management experience within a global manufacturing organization.
• Experience leading global programs involving stakeholders across multiple countries, business units, or functional areas.
• Experience managing a portfolio of large-scale enterprise technology implementations.
• Experience with project-management platforms such as Clarity, Open Workbench, or comparable tools.
• Experience overseeing integration testing, user acceptance testing, and enterprise-system implementations.
• Experience establishing or improving PMO governance, methodologies, standards, processes, and tools.
• Experience mentoring, advising, and providing delivery oversight to project managers.
• Fluency in a second language relevant to global program assignments.
• PMP, PgMP, or an equivalent project or program management certification.
• Master’s degree in a relevant discipline.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in information systems, engineering, computer science, business, or a related discipline.
• Strong organizational skills with exceptional attention to detail and follow-through.
• Ability to prioritize competing demands and oversee multiple projects and workstreams simultaneously.
• Ability to lead through influence and motivate team members without direct reporting authority.
• Strong independent decision-making, critical-thinking, and problem-resolution abilities.
• Ability to evaluate complex situations involving numerous technical, financial, and organizational factors.
• Ability to build consensus, resolve conflicts, and maintain productive relationships with executives, stakeholders, vendors, project managers, and team members.
• Demonstrated sense of urgency, initiative, accountability, and ownership of program outcomes.
• Ability to communicate complex technical and business concepts clearly to nontechnical stakeholders.
• Ability to tailor written and verbal communication for project teams, business leaders, and executive audiences.
• Commitment to ethical conduct, continuous improvement, collaboration, inclusion, and diversity.