Staff Program Manager, Program Operations

San Diego, CA

About the Role

We are seeking a Staff Program Manager to join the Portfolio & Program Management Office  within the Delivery Enablement & Adoption team.

This role is focused on transforming how programs are executed across Product & Technology by modernizing the systems, tools, governance models, workflows, and operating mechanisms that enable successful delivery at scale. The Staff Program Manager will lead initiatives that simplify execution, reduce operational friction, improve visibility, strengthen accountability, and increase organizational effectiveness through automation, AI-enabled workflows, and scalable delivery practices.

Unlike traditional program management roles, the primary responsibility of this position is not ownership of a single product or technology program. Instead, this role is responsible for improving the delivery ecosystem that supports programs across the organization.

The ideal candidate brings extensive program management experience and has personally led complex, cross-functional initiatives. This experience enables them to identify inefficiencies, design practical solutions, influence delivery teams, and build scalable mechanisms that improve execution across multiple organizations. 

Key Responsibilities

Delivery Transformation, Tool Strategy & Operational Excellence

Lead initiatives that modernize how programs are planned, governed, measured, and delivered across Product & Technology.

•     Develop and execute a pragmatic delivery tooling strategy that prioritizes business outcomes, operational efficiency, and adoption over introducing new tools.
•       Evaluate existing program, portfolio, workflow, and collaboration tools to identify opportunities for consolidation, standardization, and improved utilization.
•       Drive tool rationalization efforts that reduce complexity, improve consistency, and establish scalable delivery practices across teams and organizations.
•       Partner with stakeholders to define delivery standards, governance models, and best practices that maximize value from existing investments while minimizing organizational change management overhead.
•       Create and scale repeatable delivery frameworks, playbooks, and operating mechanisms that improve execution effectiveness and organizational maturity.
•       Identify opportunities to simplify processes, reduce friction, and improve delivery predictability across the organization.

Workflow Automation & Intelligent Delivery Systems

•       Design and implement workflow management solutions that reduce manual coordination, increase accountability, and improve execution efficiency.
•       Replace manual collection activities with automated workflows, notifications, approvals, and action tracking mechanisms.
•       Leverage AI, automation, and intelligent workflow technologies to streamline planning, reporting, risk management, dependency tracking, and stakeholder communications.
•       Establish scalable delivery systems that embed accountability into workflows, enabling teams to focus on decision-making and value creation rather than administrative overhead.
•       Evaluate emerging AI and Agentic AI capabilities and identify practical applications that improve delivery effectiveness, operational efficiency, and organizational scalability.

Data Governance, Portfolio Insights & Decision Support

• Define delivery data standards, taxonomies, and governance models that improve consistency, quality, and usability of program and portfolio data.
• Establish common data structures and reporting practices that reduce manual information requests and increase self-service visibility for stakeholders.
• Partner closely with Portfolio Management and other stakeholder groups to ensure delivery systems provide the insights, reporting, and data needed to support planning, prioritization, and decision-making.
• Improve visibility into program health, dependencies, risks, capacity, and value realization through scalable reporting and analytics solutions.
• Use data-driven insights to identify opportunities for continuous improvement and operational optimization.

Organizational Enablement & Adoption

• Lead adoption strategies for new tools, workflows, governance models, and delivery practices.
• Drive organizational alignment around standardized ways of working that improve efficiency and reduce unnecessary variation across programs.
• Create enablement materials, training programs, and communities of practice that increase program management maturity across Product & Technology.
• Influence leaders and stakeholders at all levels to embrace operational improvements that strengthen execution and organizational effectiveness.
• Serve as a trusted advisor to leaders on delivery excellence, operational maturity, workflow optimization, and AI-enabled ways of working.

Qualifications Required

• 10+ years of program management experience leading large, complex, cross-functional initiatives.
• Proven experience improving program execution through process optimization, operating model design, governance, tooling, workflow automation, or PMO transformation.
• Demonstrated ability to evaluate business problems and implement pragmatic solutions that balance organizational adoption, operational efficiency, and business value.
• Strong understanding of program governance, portfolio management, delivery methodologies, and organizational change management.
• Experience establishing delivery metrics, KPIs, reporting frameworks, and data governance practices.
• Exceptional stakeholder management, facilitation, communication, and influence skills.

Preferred

• Experience driving tool rationalization, workflow automation, enterprise platform adoption, or delivery excellence initiatives.
• Hands-on experience with delivery and workflow management platforms such as Jira, Jira Align, Asana, Monday.com, Airtable, ServiceNow, Power Platform, or similar tools.
• Experience using Generative AI tools such as ChatGPT, Copilot, Gemini, Claude, or equivalent enterprise AI platforms.
• Understanding of Agentic AI concepts, workflow orchestration, intelligent automation, and AI-assisted decision support systems.
• Experience building scalable operating models, governance frameworks, or PMO capabilities within technology organizations.