Information Technology Program Manager

OBJECTIVES OF THIS ROLE

The primary objective of an
IT Program Manager
is to strategically coordinate and oversee a collection of interrelated IT projects (a "program") to achieve a defined, overarching business objective and realize organizational benefits that would not be possible through managing the projects individually; this involves ensuring all projects are aligned with the organization's strategic goals, managing cross-project/subproject dependencies, providing high-level governance, optimizing shared resources, and actively realizing the expected financial or operational value for executive stakeholders

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

Leadership and Governance:

• Strategic Alignment: Define and champion the overall program vision, scope, and objectives, ensuring they are directly aligned with the organization's overarching IT and business strategy (e.g., a Digital Transformation roadmap, Carve-out Activities).
• Program Governance: Establish the framework, policies, and standards for the entire program, including centralized decision-making processes, review gates, and reporting structures.
• Interdependency Management: Identify, track, and manage complex dependencies and potential conflicts between the various projects within the program to ensure they integrate seamlessly to deliver the final product or capability.

Financial Management:

• Financial Control: Develop, own, and manage the overall program budget across all underlying projects, tracking costs, forecasts, and expenditures to ensure the program remains financially viable.

Stakeholder and Risk Management:

• Executive Stakeholder Management: Serve as the primary point of contact for executive sponsors and senior leadership, providing high-level status reporting, managing expectations, and securing ongoing buy-in and funding.
• Program-Level Risk Management: Proactively identify, analyze, and mitigate risks and issues that threaten the entire program's success, which often involves resolving complex cross-project issues that project managers cannot resolve.
• Interdependency Management: Identify, manage, and resolve conflicts, overlaps, and dependencies between the various projects within the program to ensure coordinated delivery.
• Communication: Oversee a comprehensive communication plan, tailoring messages about program health, decisions, and impacts to various audiences, from project teams to the Executive stakeholders. Manage communications for the full lifecycle, from strategic intent to user readiness and cutover schedules, ensuring executive, project, and operational teams are informed and aligned.

Oversight and Resource Coordination

• Resource Optimization: Manage and optimize the allocation of shared resources (personnel, capital, infrastructure) across all projects in the program to maximize efficiency and prioritize high-value work.
• Oversight of Project Managers: Provide direction, coaching, and mentorship to the individual Project Managers who are responsible for the day-to-day execution of the underlying projects.
• Change Management: Manage organizational change impacts caused by the program, ensuring the business is prepared to adopt the new IT capabilities and realize the benefits.

Readiness and Adoption

• Service Acceptance: Establish and enforce the Service Acceptance Criteria (SAC) for all program deliverables. Must formally accept products/services into the operational environment only when all criteria are met.
• Operational Readiness Assurance: Ensure the receiving operational environment is ready, covering the "4 Ps": People (trained), Processes (updated), Products/Technology (stable/supported), and Partners (vendor contracts/SLAs finalized).
• Knowledge Management/Transfer: Mandate and confirm the capture, verification, and transfer of all critical support knowledge, including configuration management information, support models, and knowledge base articles.

Qualifications and Experience:

• Bachelor's degree in computer science, Information Technology, Business Administration (with Tech focus), Engineering or relevant field; a master's degree such as MBA or a Master's in a technical field is preferred
• A total experience of 10+ years of progressive experience in IT;
• Minimum of 7 years experience in project management managing multiple, large, complex projects simultaneously focused on technology-related projects
• Certification/s related to Project Management is highly valued: PgMP, PMP, MSP, CSM, SAFe, ITIL
• Deep expertise in scaling project management across a portfolio: Agile/Scrum, Waterfall, Hybrid, Lean. Must understand how to apply and tailor these at a program level
• Ability to connect technology programs to overall business strategy (Vision-to-Execution).
• Strong working knowledge of the specific technologies involved (e.g., Cloud, Infrastructure, Cybersecurity, Software Development Lifecycle-SDLC).
• Establishing program governance structures, defining KPIs/metrics, and producing transparent, concise status reports for executive stakeholders.
• Advanced skills in identifying program-level risks (beyond single-project risks), assessing their impact, and implementing comprehensive mitigation strategies.
• Exceptional written and verbal communication