Director, Program Execution & Excellence - Virtual

Alight•Virtual, TX

4d•$220,000 - $260,000•Remote

About The Position

The Director, Program Execution Excellence is responsible for building and leading the Technology organization’s program and project execution capability. The role ensures approved technology-enabled work has the right execution leadership, is staffed according to complexity and risk, and is managed through consistent lifecycle, governance and execution standards. This leader owns both the execution practitioner organization and the execution-management system: developing and deploying Program Managers, Technical Program Managers and Project Managers; establishing common expectations for planning, governance, risk, budget and delivery accountability; and continuously improving how Technology plans and executes work.

Requirements

12+ years of progressive experience in program management, project management, technology delivery, transformation execution or related disciplines, including significant people leadership.
Demonstrated experience leading complex cross-functional technology programs and managing a scaled PgM/TPM/PM organization or execution capability.
Proven knowledge of program/project governance, integrated planning, financial management, risk/dependency management and executive escalation.
Experience establishing or improving SDLC/lifecycle, PMO or execution-management standards across a large Technology organization.

Responsibilities

Lead the Program Management/Technical Program Management/Project Management capability responsible for integrated execution of technology-enabled programs, projects and technical initiatives.
Ensure complex programs have accountable end-to-end execution leadership across Product, Technology, Delivery, business and functional teams.
Set expectations for integrated plans, critical paths, milestones, dependencies, RAID, decisions, budgets/forecasts, governance and outcome accountability.
Intervene on off-track work, challenge weak execution plans and escalate systemic constraints that jeopardize commitments.
Maintain clear distinctions between Product, Engineering and execution-management accountabilities so work is not duplicated or left ownerless.
Build, lead and develop a high-performing bench of PgM, TPM and PM talent with clear role standards, career expectations and performance measures.
Deploy practitioners based on work complexity, cross-functional integration, technical coordination and delivery risk rather than initiative count alone.
Establish assignment, rebalancing and capacity-management practices so execution talent is concentrated on the work that requires dedicated support.
Continuously calibrate practitioner spans and skill mix as portfolio demand and execution models evolve.
Establish Technology-wide standards for how programs and projects are planned, governed, reported and managed, including clear roles, planning and estimation expectations, requirement management artifacts, execution health measures and escalation practices.
Drive adoption, training and continuous improvement across evolving PLDC, SDLC and AI-DLC practices while maintaining clear boundaries with Engineering-owned technical methodologies.
Standardize initiative reporting across Technology, including common status definitions, health indicators, executive reporting expectations, cadence and escalation thresholds.
Establish common governance, RAID, decision-management and status/health standards that improve predictability, transparency and accountability.
Conduct execution-health assessments, identify recurring failure patterns and translate lessons learned into improved standards and practices.
Partner with Product, Engineering, Delivery and other functions to ensure execution standards work effectively within the broader operating model.
Establish consistent governance expectations for material technology change, including decision forums, escalation paths and readiness evidence.
Ensure material client, operational or organizational readiness dependencies are visible in integrated plans and are owned by the appropriate functional teams.
Provide leadership with clear execution-health and capacity insights, including where intervention or additional leadership is required.