Manager, Program Management

Wal-Mart•Bentonville, AR

39d•Onsite

About The Position

Role summary: The (USA) Manager, Program Management leads the coordination and execution of complex programs by collaborating with cross-functional teams and key stakeholders to meet business objectives. This role emphasizes accountability, continuous improvement, and effective communication to drive results and resolve critical issues. By leveraging data-driven insights and strategic assessments, this position supports organizational goals and promotes a culture of integrity, collaboration, and operational excellence across programs. About the team: The Release Management team at Walmart Data Ventures ensures the smooth delivery of high-quality product releases across key data platforms. They oversee the Product Development Lifecycle, driving governance, operational excellence, and cadence across multiple initiatives. The team leads modernization efforts through automation, AI, and scalable frameworks, aligning closely with strategic planning and customer-facing documentation. Collaborating cross-functionally, they build strong relationships and maintain accountability to meet business goals. This team fosters continuous improvement and innovation, supporting Walmart's commitment to delivering value and excellence in release management and execution.

Requirements

Proven expertise in project and program management, including prioritizing critical issues and delivering complex initiatives.
Ability to build and maintain effective relationships with cross-functional teams and key stakeholders.
Excellent communication skills to manage expectations and present performance reports to senior leadership.
Commitment to accountability, ethics, and integrity aligned with company values and policies.
Analytical skills to assess program feasibility, conduct gap analyses, and recommend process improvements.
Adaptability and a continuous learning mindset to drive innovation and operational excellence.
Hands-on experience with Release Management in CI/CD ecosystems (pipeline orchestration, approvals, automated testing, and governance).
Working knowledge of SAFe/Agile frameworks and Release Train practices, including PI planning and cross-team dependency management.
Familiarity with modern DevOps/Release toolchains (e.g., GitHub/GitLab, Jenkins, Argo CD/Spinnaker, Jira/ServiceNow, feature flagging) and cloud-native deployment patterns.
Proven ability to use operational metrics (e.g., DORA) to guide decisions, reduce risk, and improve release velocity and quality.
Bachelor's degree in Business, Human Resources, or related field and 2 years' experience in project management, compliance, operations management or related area OR 4 years' experience in project management, compliance, operations management, or related area.

Nice To Haves

Leading a cross-functional team
Retail Link
Working with profit and loss responsibilities.

Responsibilities

Coordinate and oversee release activities by developing and maintaining relationships with key stakeholders to support business objectives.
Lead cross-functional teams to implement release plans, manage expectations, and ensure timely delivery of milestones and high-level deliverables.
Monitor release performance by analyzing key indicators, conducting root cause analysis, and recommending process improvements.
Prepare and present regular performance reports to senior leadership, ensuring alignment with company policies and ethical standards.
Foster accountability and continuous learning to drive release success and operational excellence.
Own the end-to-end Release Management lifecycle (planning → readiness → deployment → post-release), establishing and maintaining release calendars, go/no-go criteria, and stakeholder communications.
Drive CI/CD best practices across environments (dev/test/stage/prod), partnering with Engineering to optimize pipelines (e.g., GitHub Actions/GitLab CI/Jenkins) and artifact management (e.g., Artifactory).
Implement and manage deployment strategies (blue/green, canary, phased rollouts) with clear rollback procedures and change/incident management alignment.
Facilitate Agile Release Train (ART) ceremonies (PI planning, system demos, inspect & adapt), ensuring cross-team synchronization, dependency mapping, and risk/impediment tracking.
Define and track release health using DORA and operational metrics (deployment frequency, change failure rate, MTTR, lead time) and drive continuous improvement backlogs.
Coordinate environment readiness (data, configurations, feature flags), compliance controls, and audit documentation for regulated releases.
Standardize release notes, runbooks, and post-release reviews (PIRs), translating technical details into business-impact narratives for senior leadership.