Manager, Project/Program Management (Individual Contributor) – CAI Inventory Solutions PMO

Cox Enterprises • Atlanta, GA

1d • $101,500 - $169,100 • Hybrid

About The Position

The Strategic Program Manager is a skilled delivery practitioner who independently executes complex, cross-functional strategic programs with a high degree of autonomy and ownership. This role is the backbone of the PMO's day-to-day execution capability — managing programs from initiation through close with discipline, rigor, and strategic awareness. As an individual contributor, the Strategic PM brings deep program management craft, sound judgment, and strong stakeholder communication to every program they own. They proactively identify risks, navigate organizational complexity, and translate program status into clear narratives that enable faster decisions. They are expected to apply AI-powered practices to their work, contribute to the evolution of PMO standards, and model the delivery behaviors the team aspires to. This role operates across a matrixed environment in close partnership with product, engineering, and business stakeholders — and is expected to influence without authority at the Director and VP level.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in a related discipline and 6 years or more experience in a related field. The right candidate could also have a different combination, such as a master’s degree and 4 years or more experience; a Ph.D. and up to 1 year of experience; or 10 years or more experience in a related field.
• 6+ years of progressive program or project management experience, including independent ownership and successful delivery of complex, cross-functional programs with multiple workstreams.
• Demonstrated experience managing programs with diverse stakeholder groups and budget accountability.
• Proven ability to lead cross-functional initiatives, influence without direct authority, and drive outcomes across a matrixed environment.
• Strong executive communication skills, including the ability to synthesize complex program status into concise, decision-ready insights for Director and VP-level audiences.
• Strong analytical skills, with the ability to use data to track, measure, and drive program outcomes with credibility.
• Experience leveraging modern program delivery and collaboration tools (e.g., Smartsheet, Microsoft 365, Teams, Jira or equivalent).
• Fluency in Agile, hybrid, and traditional delivery methodologies, with the ability to apply the appropriate approach based on program needs.
• Demonstrated interest in leveraging emerging technologies, including AI productivity tools, to improve delivery effectiveness.

Nice To Haves

• Experience in the automotive, technology, or digital marketplace industry.
• Familiarity with portfolio-level delivery tools and PMO operating models.
• PMP and/or PgMP certification.
• Understanding of product development lifecycle, engineering delivery patterns, and/or inspection and vehicle services operations.

Responsibilities

• Independently manages complex, cross-functional projects and spanning multiple business or technical domains, owning the full lifecycle from initiation through delivery and close.
• Works on projects / programs that have strategic importance to the business, ensuring alignment to Manheim’s overall strategy.
• Translates ambiguous strategies into actionable project plans.
• Translates program objectives into integrated plans, schedules, and delivery milestones; identifies dependencies, critical path, and resource needs.
• Produces and maintains high-quality program artifacts including charters, risk and issue logs, communication plans, dependency maps, and status reports calibrated to stakeholder audience.
• Manages scope, change control, and budget tracking; escalates proactively when constraints threaten delivery outcomes.
• Plays a consultative role with business partners and stakeholders to define the right approach, process, and tools for program success.
• Coordinates and leverages shared resources across concurrent workstreams or programs within their portfolio.
• Defines and implements PM standards and processes for the programs they manage; contributes to broader PMO playbooks, templates, and delivery frameworks.
• Leads structured retrospectives on programs they manage; surfaces learnings that inform continuous improvement and PMO capability-building.
• Manages third-party vendor engagements related to program delivery when applicable.
• Communicates program status, risks, issues, and decisions clearly and proactively to all stakeholders; calibrates message and medium to the audience.
• Produces high-quality program narratives for program sponsors and cross-functional leaders — translating execution detail into business-relevant insights that enable faster decisions.
• Establishes and maintains productive working partnerships with business owners, product leads, and technology teams.
• Identifies and escalates risks and issues with a clear point of view on mitigation; does not wait to be asked.
• Facilitates effective working sessions and decision forums at the program level, including steering and status meetings.
• Actively communicates program milestones and wins to maintain stakeholder engagement, team momentum, and PMO visibility.
• Demonstrates political acumen and interpersonal awareness; exercises sound judgment in how and when to surface issues across organizational levels.
• Actively uses AI productivity tools to improve program delivery velocity; applies AI assistance to meeting synthesis, status reporting, risk identification, and documentation quality.
• Pilots emerging AI tools on live programs with a critical evaluation lens; produces structured assessments of productivity impact, accuracy risk, and appropriate use boundaries before recommending adoption to the broader team.
• Contributes to team AI fluency by sharing effective practices with peers and supporting PMO norms for responsible and transparent AI use.
• Partners with the Senior Portfolio / Program Manager to shape PMO-wide norms for responsible, transparent, and governed AI use; flags gaps or inconsistencies in current practice.
• Maintains full alignment with Cox Automotive AI policy in all AI-assisted work; ensures program artifacts produced with AI assistance are reviewed, owned, and accountable to the PM — not treated as authoritative outputs.
• Comes to conversations with a point of view. Prepares recommendations before meetings, not just status updates, so stakeholders can make decisions rather than gather information.
• Asks "why" before diving into "how."
• Before building a plan, takes time to understand the business problem being solved, what success looks like, and whether the proposed approach is the right one.
• Reads the room beyond what is on the agenda. Pays attention to organizational dynamics, competing priorities, and stakeholder relationships that affect program delivery, and factors those into how they communicate and escalate.
• Reduces the decision load for senior stakeholders. When escalating an issue, arrives with a clear framing, a recommended path forward, and the context needed to decide quickly, not a list of open questions.
• Builds a reputation for being someone who will flag a problem early, give an honest read on program health, and follow through without needing to be chased.
• Partners with Change Enablement to assess organizational readiness, identify adoption risks, and integrate change management milestones into program delivery plans.
• Accountable for ensuring programs land with sustainable behavioral change, not just on-time delivery.
• Capable of independently handling basic Change Enablement for low complexity projects / programs, including basic impact assessments and drafting comms.
• Contributes to the definition and consistent application of PMO standards, templates, and delivery practices across programs and teams.
• Identifies improvement opportunities in PM methodology, processes, and tooling; brings forward grounded, actionable recommendations to the Senior Manager.
• Supports the Senior Manager in maintaining a high-performing PMO by modeling delivery standards and contributing to team capability and culture.
• Monitors program management trends and best practices; applies relevant advances to their own programs and shares knowledge across the team.

Benefits

• The Company offers eligible employees the flexibility to take as much vacation with pay as they deem consistent with their duties, the company’s needs, and its obligations; seven paid holidays throughout the calendar year; and up to 160 hours of paid wellness annually for their own wellness or that of family members.
• Employees are also eligible for additional paid time off in the form of bereavement leave, time off to vote, jury duty leave, volunteer time off, military leave, and parental leave.
• health care insurance (medical, dental, vision)
• retirement planning (401(k))
• paid days off (sick leave, parental leave, flexible vacation/wellness days, and/or PTO).

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Manager