Principal Program Manager, IT Transformation

PURPOSE

Leads complex, enterprise-wide strategic programs and transformation initiatives critical to achieving corporate objectives. Partners with executive and senior leadership to translate strategic priorities into executable roadmaps, align cross-functional teams, accelerate decision-making, and drive realization of intended business outcomes. The Principal Program Manager operates across business, technology, deployment, change management, and support organizations, driving integrated execution and accountability across teams without direct authority.

ESSENTIAL DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

Scope of role: Leads enterprise strategic programs and cross-functional initiatives from strategy through execution, operational readiness, adoption, and value realization. Serves as a trusted advisor to IT Delivery Leadership and brings structure, transparency, and forward momentum to complex transformation priorities. Delivery and Execution

Establish integrated delivery strategies, governance, milestones, and operating rhythms for complex enterprise transformation initiatives. Drive execution across multiple concurrent business and technology workstreams, ensuring dependencies, risks, decisions, and commitments are actively managed. Maintain an integrated view of program critical path, organizational readiness, major dependencies, and barriers to successful delivery. Hold workstream leaders accountable for commitments and proactively drive corrective action when execution is at risk. Anticipate delivery challenges and resolve issues before they require executive escalation.

Strategic Planning and Alignment

Partner with executive and senior leadership to translate strategic objectives into actionable roadmaps, priorities, investment decisions, and measurable outcomes. Facilitate alignment across business, technology, deployment, change management, support functions, and external partners. Identify and resolve organizational friction, competing priorities, and cross-functional dependencies that impede execution. Connect program priorities and investments to enterprise strategy and expected business value.

Executive Leadership and Decision Support

Provide concise analysis, recommendations, scenarios, and briefing materials that enable timely executive decisions. Maintain visibility into significant program decisions, unresolved issues, dependencies, and required executive actions. Frame complex issues into clear decisions, options, trade-offs, recommendations, and consequences. Drive strategic decisions to conclusion and ensure resulting actions and commitments are executed. Escalate issues requiring executive intervention while driving program-level resolution at the appropriate organizational level.

Leadership Team Coordination

Establish mechanisms that maintain alignment across solution delivery leadership, business stakeholders, functional towers, and supporting teams. Ensure strategic priorities, decisions, risks, dependencies, and commitments remain visible across leadership and delivery organizations. Facilitate cross-functional leadership discussions needed to resolve competing priorities and execution barriers. Drive follow-through on commitments resulting from Solution Leadership and Executive Leadership decisions.

Executive and Strategic Communications

Develop executive-level communications that clearly articulate program progress, accomplishments, risks, decisions, business impacts, and strategic direction. Translate complex technology and transformation topics into clear business implications and executive-level narratives. Partner with organizational change management and communications teams to maintain consistent messaging across stakeholder groups. Ensure reporting emphasizes outcomes, decisions, emerging risks, and required actions rather than activity reporting alone.

Strategic Initiatives and Transformation

Lead strategic initiatives and special projects on behalf of IT Delivery Leadership. Drive initiatives spanning multiple programs, functional towers, delivery workstreams, or organizational boundaries. Assess organizational effectiveness, transformation readiness, adoption, operating-model effectiveness, and value realization. Develop business cases, investment recommendations, transformation roadmaps, and materials for executive strategy discussions. Identify opportunities to improve delivery processes, governance, organizational structures, technology practices, and ways of working.

Value Realization and Business Outcomes

Establish measurable outcomes and success criteria for strategic programs and initiatives. Connect program milestones and technology deliverables to business outcomes, adoption, operational readiness, and expected value. Identify when delivery activity or technical completion is not translating into intended business results. Partner with business and technology leaders to develop corrective actions when expected outcomes are at risk.

Risk, Dependency, and Issue Management

Proactively identify systemic risks, cross-program dependencies, critical decisions, and organizational constraints. Drive ownership and resolution of risks and issues rather than relying primarily on escalation. Ensure material risks include clear ownership, mitigation actions, decision points, and business implications. Provide leadership with early visibility into emerging risks and potential impacts to strategic outcomes.

SUPERVISORY RESPONSIBILITIES

To perform this job successfully, an individual must be able to perform each essential duty satisfactorily. The requirements listed below are representative of the knowledge, skill, and/or ability required.

Bachelor's degree or equivalent combination of education, experience, and relevant certifications. Typically 10+ years of progressively responsible experience in program leadership, transformation, strategy, consulting, technology delivery, business operations, or related disciplines. Demonstrated experience leading large-scale enterprise transformation or technology programs with more than eight concurrent workstreams. Demonstrated experience supporting and interacting with C-suite, EVP, SVP, or major transformation leaders. Demonstrated success operating in complex, matrixed organizations and driving accountability without direct authority. Experience translating complex issues into executive decisions, recommendations, and actionable follow-through. Experience managing cross-functional dependencies, risks, priorities, and organizational challenges from strategy through value realization.

MINIMUM REQUIREMENTS

To perform this job successfully, an individual must be able to perform each essential duty satisfactorily. The requirements listed below are representative of the knowledge, skill, and/or ability required.

Bachelor's degree or equivalent combination of education, experience, and relevant certifications. Typically 10+ years of progressively responsible experience in program leadership, transformation, strategy, consulting, technology delivery, business operations, or related disciplines. Demonstrated experience leading large-scale enterprise transformation or technology programs with more than eight concurrent workstreams. Demonstrated experience supporting and interacting with C-suite, EVP, SVP, or major transformation leaders. Demonstrated success operating in complex, matrixed organizations and driving accountability without direct authority. Experience translating complex issues into executive decisions, recommendations, and actionable follow-through. Experience managing cross-functional dependencies, risks, priorities, and organizational challenges from strategy through value realization.

COMPETENCIES

Strategic Thinking

Cross-Functional Leadership

Enterprise Planning

Influence Without Authority

Portfolio and Program Management

Risk and Dependency Management

Transformation Leadership

Financial Acumen

Business Process Improvement

Value Realization

Organizational Change Management

Resource Planning

Executive Communication

Vendor and Partner Management

Executive Decision Support

Complex Problem Solving

Stakeholder Management

Technology and Data Fluency

CRITICAL SUCCESS FACTORS

Creates alignment among senior leaders with competing priorities. Accelerates executive decision-making by turning complexity into clear choices, recommendations, and implications. Drives accountability without direct authority. Anticipates risks, dependencies, and organizational barriers before they become executive escalations. Converts strategy into execution through clear ownership, milestones, decisions, and measurable outcomes. Maintains credibility and trust with senior leaders while constructively challenging weak assumptions or execution plans. Communicates complex business and technology topics simply and effectively. Operates effectively in ambiguity and brings structure to problems without clearly defined ownership or solutions. Focuses leadership attention on decisions, outcomes, and forward-looking risks rather than activity. Strengthens the organization by improving governance, processes, operating models, and ways of working.

WORK ENVIRONMENT / PHYSICAL ACTIVITY

The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

Subject to both typical office environment and outside locations with temperature and weather variations. Must be able to lift and carry up to 25 pounds frequently and on occasion up to 80 pounds.

Originally posted on Himalayas