Lead IT Program Manager

Description

The Corporate IT team sits within Global Technology Solutions (GTS) and provides technology systems, administration and support to staff worldwide. Its aim is a solid technology base that lets people do their best work, using automation and AI to solve problems and to scale with a fast-changing business.

Corporate IT is made up of IT Support (SearchBar), IT Systems, IT Network and IT Strategy & Operations. The team uses modern DevOps methods, is moving toward configuration as code and infrastructure as code, and automates wherever it can.

IT Strategy & Operations builds and improves the work management systems, leads organizational change, runs cross-functional programs, and links Corporate IT initiatives to the GTS vision. It works closely with every Corporate IT team, Information Security and the wider company.

The Lead IT Program Manager is the operational core of Corporate IT and reports to the Director of Corporate IT. You will work with IT leaders, Engineering, Security, Finance, Procurement, Legal and Business Operations, and you are expected to use AI as a default part of your daily work.

Responsibilities

• Lead the largest cross-functional programs across IT Support, IT Systems and IT Network from start to finish: define scope, plan, coordinate the teams involved, track progress, and adjust schedules and resourcing to hit business goals.
• Work with IT Systems on programs built on DevOps practices such as infrastructure as code and automation, understanding them well enough to plan realistically, spot risks and explain the work to leadership.
• Analyze risks, prepare contingency plans, and raise critical issues early so leaders can make timely priority and trade-off decisions.
• Set success measures for each program and report on adoption, delivery and business impact.
• Run vendor evaluations and selections: gather requirements, run RFI and RFP processes, set scoring criteria, organize demos and proofs of concept, and recommend whether to build or buy.
• Manage program budgets and contingencies with Procurement, Accounting, Security and Legal.
• Work with the Director of Corporate IT to set quarterly OKRs for Corporate IT that line up with GTS and company goals.
• Run the quarterly OKR cycle: draft objectives with team leads, align on them, hold regular check-ins, score results and hold retrospectives.
• Report OKR progress to Corporate IT and GTS leadership, flagging what is on track, what is at risk and what needs a decision.
• Support strategic planning, including roadmaps, annual and quarterly planning cycles, and communications to leaders and across functions.
• With IT leadership, shape the backlog through project selection, intake, prioritization and a steady pipeline of future work.
• Build and grow the project portfolio structure in Linear so every project connects to an OKR or a strategic opportunity.
• Plan capacity across Corporate IT and review trends across projects, linking the work back to goals.
• Define and align Agile practices across Corporate IT for planning, sprint and Kanban cadences, estimation, backlog refinement, retrospectives and definition of done.
• Coach teams and leads on Agile principles, adapting practices to the type of work each team does (project, operations or support) instead of forcing one model.
• Help move the company from Jira to Linear, and set up and improve workflows, views and metrics such as velocity, cycle time and throughput so leaders and teams see the same reliable picture.
• Take process improvements from idea to adoption, including documentation, change management and measuring results.
• Use AI every day to run programs: draft plans and status reports, summarize meetings and decisions, analyze portfolio and OKR data, and flag risks sooner.
• Build AI-assisted and automated workflows for program operations, such as automated status reports, backlog cleanup, intake triage and OKR tracking, to cut manual work.
• Drive AI adoption across Corporate IT processes by finding high-value use cases, piloting them with teams and sharing playbooks on what works.
• Use AI responsibly, with attention to privacy, security and human review of outputs.

Requirements

• 6+ years of experience in program or project management, operational leadership or strategic consulting, ideally in IT, infrastructure or other technical settings.
• Hands-on experience putting Agile practices such as Scrum and Kanban into place and coaching them across several teams, with the judgment to adapt them to different kinds of work.
• Experience setting up, running and reporting on OKRs or a similar goal-setting framework with senior leaders.
• A record of improving processes: finding inefficiencies, redesigning workflows and getting them adopted.
• Experience scoping, planning and delivering large technical programs across several teams, including programs with budgets over $1M and close work with finance and procurement.
• Working knowledge of DevOps and CI/CD concepts, such as infrastructure as code and automated deployments, and how they affect planning and delivery. Hands-on experience is not required.
• Experience running vendor evaluations and RFP processes, including managing contracts and vendor performance.
• You use AI tools such as LLM assistants, AI search and agents daily, and can give concrete examples of how they changed your planning, communication and delivery.
• Experience building AI-assisted workflows or automations, such as prompts, agents or low-code automation, to remove manual work for yourself and your teams.
• An excellent communicator who balances persuasion with active listening and adjusts messages for audiences from engineers to executives.
• Comfortable with ambiguity: you can lead cross-functional work with loosely defined plans and goals, change priorities, and bring others along.
• Strong hands-on experience with a modern Agile work management tool such as Linear or Jira. Linear experience is a plus.
• PMP, Agile (PMI-ACP, CSM, SAFe) or Lean/process improvement certification.
• Experience with enterprise SaaS platforms such as Okta, Slack, Workday or Jamf, network programs, or security and compliance programs.
• Familiarity with low-code automation or workflow tools.
• Experience mentoring or informally leading other project managers.

Conditions

Base pay for US locations is $132,000 - $198,000 USD, reflecting the minimum and maximum target salary across all US locations. Final pay depends on job-related skills, experience, education or training, and work location, and your recruiter can share the range for your preferred location.

The role may require up to 10% travel for purposes such as new hire onboarding, client or partner work where applicable, team meetings and industry events. Travel is arranged in advance.

The company is an equal opportunity employer that does not discriminate on the basis of race, ethnicity, citizenship, national origin, color, religion, age, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, disability, veteran status, marital status, criminal record, genetics, retaliation or any other protected characteristic, and it is unlawful in Massachusetts to require or give a lie detector test as a condition of employment.

Accommodations are available as needed.

Benefits

• Total compensation may include the annual cash bonus plan, equity, sign-on payments, and health, welfare and wellbeing benefits, depending on eligibility.
• Variable compensation (OTE) applies to sales and customer success roles.