Principal Program Manager
Overview
The Principal Program Manager leads the largest and most material enterprise‑scale, cross‑functional programs that are highly visible and critical to company performance. This role owns end‑to‑end program strategy, execution, and outcomes across multiple portfolios and workstreams—operating with significant autonomy in complex, fast‑paced, distributed environments.
As a principal‑level individual contributor, this role is distinguished by scope, influence, and ambiguity. The Principal Program Manager partners closely with executive and senior leadership to drive alignment, manage financials and risk, and ensure delivery of mission‑critical initiatives. Success in this role requires exceptional program leadership, executive communication, and the ability to influence without authority across global teams. The most critical responsibility for this role is turning program obstacles into solutions and accelerators.
Duties & Responsibilities
- Own delivery of our most complex, enterprise‑level programs and special initiatives concurrently. Also, our largest and most significant programs
- Ensure program success is defined and understood. Laser focused on driving the program to success
- Develop and maintain integrated program plans across portfolios, Agile Release Trains, teams, and functions
- Drive clarity around objectives, milestones, dependencies, and outcomes across ambiguous problem spaces
- Track and report progress against strategic plans, milestones, and feature/epic delivery
- Manage program financials including spend vs. plan, forecasting, and vendor invoice reconciliation
- Track headcount against plan, supporting resource ramp‑up and ramp‑down decisions
- Ensure timely onboarding and offboarding of program resources
- Partner with functional leaders to monitor capacity, utilization, and team performance
- Proactively identify, assess, and manage risks, issues, and cross‑program dependencies
- Drive resolution through influence, escalation, and structured governance forums
- Apply expert change‑management practices to ensure sustained adoption and delivery continuity
- Prepare and deliver concise, executive‑ready program and portfolio updates
- Facilitate recurring governance forums, including steering committees and portfolio reviews
- Translate complex delivery data into clear insights, risks, and recommendations for senior leadership
- Create professional decks, reports, and dashboards tailored to executive and board audiences
- Model and reinforce Agile principles including transparency, accountability, prioritization, and continuous improvement
- Collaborate across Scrum Teams, Agile Release Trains, and non‑Agile business functions
- Identify opportunities to improve delivery effectiveness, tooling, and operating cadence
- Build trust and credibility across departments and leadership levels
- Influence outcomes without direct authority across Engineering, Product, Finance, Innovation, and Operations
- Step into hands‑on execution when needed to remove blockers and ensure program success
Skills Required
- 20+ years of experience in program and/or project management
- Demonstrated success leading enterprise‑scale, cross‑functional initiatives with executive visibility
- Ability to find problems and obstacles and quickly turn them into solutions
- Expert knowledge of risk management, dependency management, and organizational change
- Strong leadership presence with the ability to influence at all levels of the organization
- Exceptional written and verbal communication skills, including executive presentations
- Ability to manage multiple priorities, navigate ambiguity, and maintain delivery discipline
Preferred Skills & Experience
- Experience working with distributed and global teams
- Agile, Scrum, SAFe, KANBAN, or equivalent Agile delivery or leadership certifications
- AI tooling in a product and engineering setting
- Personal AI productivity tools
- Experience with program and portfolio tools such as:
- Azure DevOps
- Aha!
- Confluence
- Microsoft Teams
- Gantt charts, Excel, and reporting tools